The NHL has taken the bold step backwards of banning pride themed tape being used by players during the season. CBC notes,“The updated guidance reaffirms on-ice player uniforms and gear for warmup and official team practices cannot be altered to reflect theme nights, including Pride, Hockey Fights Cancer or military appreciation celebrations. Players can voluntarily participate in themed celebrations off the ice.” This follows a decision to have players stop wearing themed jerseys, including pride jerseys, which was announced earlier this year.
This comes after controversy was stirred up last season when several players refused to wear pride themed warm-up jerseys due to religious beliefs / personal reasons *cough* Russians *cough* and a Mennonite *cough* which ended up generating a significant amount of debate amongst hockey fans.
In the past, several players have used pride tape on their hockey sticks during warm-ups, have spoken positively about pride themed jerseys, and have openly shown their support for the LGBTQ+ community:
[Some NHL figures supporting pride]
Luke Prokop came out in 2021 – he’s the very first player under contract with an NHL team to do so and remains the only one.
Former NHLer JT Brown, who continues to actively support pride on his insta – photo credit: Jeff Wheeler for the Star Tribune
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LUV pic.twitter.com/x42VSYVUoH— Gritty (@GrittyNHL) June 9, 2022
The NHL has been trying for years to present hockey as a welcoming sport and to promote the idea of inclusivity, even launching a “Hockey is for Everyone” campaign to try and encourage diversity and acceptance in a predominantly straight, white, male league. However, it has continuously faced some pretty massive scandals proving that the culture has yet to really change.
Most fans seem rightfully pissed off about the league’s recent ban – including those on the subreddits r/hockey and r/nhl (with some even calling out players giving statements that seem to express disappointment in the ban but that ultimately amount to saying basically nothing on the issue) – and have stated the obvious that this sends a message that is harmful to both players and fans. Some are wondering what would happen if any of the players decided to just defy the ban altogether.
Sources: CityNews YouTube / CBC News / Instagram Prokop / Instagram 2 / Capitals YouTube / Sportsnet YouTube / StarTribune / Twitter 1 / Reddit 1
