Me too. Subban wouldn't be viewed as a problem if he were white.
I doubt that's the case when unfortunately it's often an assumption made simply because of the color of his skin. Many NHLers are black and do not get nearly the same amount of critique as Subban. If it was simply because he was black it would be the same for other guys like Simmonds, Reaves, Dumba, and etc. There have been players that have spoken about Subban and how he is in the room and for some reason that is ommitted, any other player would be hated for doing the things that he does.
Mike Ribeiro, Guillaume Latendresse and Maxime Lapierre spoke about that on their podcast a couple weeks ago, saying that when he was with the Habs Subban was basically running his little show in the room. The context of the discussion was that Ribeiro played with both Subban and Weber, and he was mentionning that he knew at the time of the trade that it would be a mistake for Nashville as Weber was very respected in the room in Nashville while Subban wasn't getting the same type of respect from his teammates in Montreal. Subban never fit in Nashville and was then traded.
Another player that spoke about this was Brandon Prust on spittin chicklets and mentionned an incident with Subban in Montreal. Subban at that point was becoming a "leader" in Montreal and the team was going on a roadtrip through Florida. Subban told his teammates that no one should go to Miami and they would have a team dinner/evening after the game which is basically team bonding. When the game finished, PK left for Miami after telling all his teammates that they needed to stay for the team bonding. Prust knew Subban was leaving regardless of what he was saying to his other teammates and took his shoes in his bag and hid them. Subban then fought Prust in the team bus a couple weeks later when they confronted because of it. Prust is an idiot, the point is that Subban being supposedly a leader on that team and asking all his teammates to be there at the team bonding and himself not being there and leaving for Miami is idiotic. If one of my teammates did that I would be furious, especially as a so called leader.
Not only that, but Subban fought with many teammates throughout his career, and not necessarily guys that were known to be assholes either. Subban fought with Plekanec, Mathieu Darche, and Loui Leblanc at the Habs practice. On a separate occasion, he fought against David Desharnais at practice.
After Subban was traded to Nashville, there as also visibly tension between Subban and Gallagher who had also already fought in practice. Gallagher mentionned that he didn't notice Subban smiling that night, but noticed the blood on his face after Gallaghers goal.
So I mean you can totally omit these things if you want, but that's not a fair assessment. It doesn't make sense to say that he's hated because he's black. Many other black players do not do these type of things and basically all of them are very well respected by all players. It seems to be a personality thing more than anything. There are plenty of hated white players as well, and it's not because of the color of their skin. Subban was probably one of the most loved Montreal Canadiens ever. Mike Hoffman is apparently a hated guy in the room as well and there are many others.
NOW, there are some racist hockey fans and players, just like there are racists in society in general. Subban is probably hated by some people because of his color, but no other black hockey player is hated even remotely close to the point that he is and there's a reason for that.
