Forgive the melodrama, but the ongoing Stanley Cup semifinals are a battle for hockey’s soul.

Two of the teams have major talent. They play the game the right way, as I’ve heard it said.

Their opponents are of lesser (but still considerable) talent. They do everything possible to slow the game down, especially when they lead.

It’s system vs. skill. It’s efficiency vs. entertainment.

The officials are laissez-faire, and feel the rules are merely suggestions that fluctuate according to clock, score and situation.

It all adds up to hockey that is undeniably tense but unfortunately boring. Play this way during the regular season, and even fewer people watch.

It’s part of hockey’s never-ending battle to make grit equal with ability, to make tenacity equivalent to talent. That fight is aided and abetted by thinking that playoff hockey should be contested differently. The referees shouldn’t decide it.

Of course, by calling so little, that’s exactly what the referees do.

The New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens can’t be blamed for forcing games to be contested in quicksand. The Islanders’ Barry Trotz might be the NHL’s best coach, not least because his players are straitjacketed automatons. #FreeMathewBarzal

Perhaps the goal isn’t to interest and draw spectators. Maybe the NHL just wants to forever maintain its traditional, antiquated approach.

But the NHL’s regular-season TV ratings were the worst in the history of its 15-year tenure with NBC and its affiliates. That may explain why it’s the NHL’s last year with NBC.

The playoff numbers have yet to play out. But here’s a sample from June 15: The NBA playoff game between Brooklyn and Milwaukee drew 4.58 million TV viewers. The NHL playoff game between Tampa Bay and the Islanders got 1.32 million viewers.

That’s understandable, even considering the big margin: The NBA is more popular than the NHL.

But the soccer game between France and Germany in the European Championships drew 1.39 million sets of eyes, and it was played in the afternoon.

The NHL refuses to understand that sports need to be tempered to the casual fan. (The NFL seems the only league that gets that. It always errs on the side of excitement.)

No matter what hockey is, hardcore hockey fans will watch. But the casual fans want more goals and excitement. Not clogging lanes, blocking shots and skating backwards. Casual fans don’t care about nuances or traditions. They want shots, goals, red lights and sirens.

Perhaps that battle has already been fought and lost. Maybe the American public has already made up its mind about hockey. The NHL definitely doesn’t care.

The NHL is a copycat league. Reducing games to sludge is the most affordable and immediate way to compete, so things figure to go further in that direction. The Penguins’ back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and ’17 got the league trending toward speed, but those days are over.

So, where does that leave the Penguins?

Pittsburgh fans expect an entertaining brand of hockey, having witnessed it nearly non-stop since Mario Lemieux arrived in 1984. But they expect to win, too.

GM Ron Hextall and president of hockey operations Brian Burke are adept at assembling any type of team. Burke has always leaned toward big and tough, but has made it clear since arriving in Pittsburgh that management doesn’t intend to tamper with the Penguins’ DNA.

When I was a kid, lesser teams didn’t trap it up. They just played hockey. Tactics weren’t as prevalent.

The Penguins were one of those lesser teams in the ‘70s. An unscientific approach led to some lopsided beatings by the likes of Boston and Montreal when those franchises had dynasties.

But occasionally, you’d get that glimmer of hope.

I vaguely remembered an inspirational tie at Montreal and looked it up: The Penguins knotted the Canadiens 1-1 at the Forum on Oct. 31, 1973.

“Penguins Flying High After Tie With Canadiens.” That was the headline in the Pittsburgh Press. The deadlock left the Penguins three points out of first in the West Division.

The Penguins missed the playoffs. So, maybe it wasn’t better then.

But it sure seemed like it. Teams didn’t admit their inferiority nearly as readily.

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