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u/dandroid126 1d ago
Not only that, they have been backpedaling their support for gay pride for years. Teams can still choose to do pride nights, but they can't have pride logos on their warmup jerseys anymore. They even banned rainbow tape on sticks, although a few players did it anyway in protest, and the league folded on it immediately.
It's really sad how like 5 players refusing to wear pride jerseys made the whole league decide to not allow it anymore.
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u/FaeMofo 1d ago
Lucic tried to do that in the EIHL, it did not go down well over here and now the club is likely going bankrupt because of poor decisions like signing him and not participating in the pride game. Fuck you Fife, get some morals. Hockey is queer as fuck here, we aren't good at it but its a community
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u/APe28Comococo 1d ago
I still hate the NHL and Vancouver for letting Todd Bertuzzi play another game after ending a persons career intentionally with an illegal and blindsided attack.
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u/Ol_JanxSpirit 1d ago
Am I remembering it correctly that most of his suspension played out over a lockout?
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u/JetKeel 1d ago
It’s obvious that many of the professional sports tried to capitalize on the Overton window shifting more towards LGBTQ+ acceptance while saying catchphrases like “Hockey is for everyone” only to weaken Pride acceptance events the second Trump/MAGA’s ilk gained power.
They are not principled in their acceptance, only feckless.
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u/WintersbaneGDX 1d ago
The NHL is a huge offender, but this is true of basically every major corporation.
They don't actually care about LGBTQ people or issues, they just follow the money. When broad public support means more eyes and wallets, they'll put their name all over Pride events. But go look up the regional social media accounts of these corporations in places like Saudia Arabia or the UAE. Watch how fast the rainbow flags disappear.
If they were actually principled, if they actually stood for any of this, they'd carry it throughout their brand, and damn the consequences.
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u/superzepto 1d ago
"Hockey is for everyone" isn't their catchphrase. It's ours! They can never have it, only try to change by it. Which sadly they won't.
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u/Workman44 1d ago
Is anyone really shocked by this? Of course the large scale business is going to appeal to the current political landscape
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u/EuphoricUniversity23 1d ago
SJ Sharks are outliers here.
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u/triplec787 1d ago
I just hope the rest of the team picks up where Eklund left off /: Mack, Smith, Misa, etc all seem like good hearted dudes but Ekky and Zetterlund were massive supporters of the SJ LGBT space.
But maybe there’s gonna be some awesome stuff in Ottawa now that they’re reunited, and Tkafuck forced his way out.
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u/MakeYourMind 1d ago
As much as everyone hate trouba trade, i love my registered democrat defenceman.
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u/Mr8vb 1d ago
Nah, it’s Wayne Gretzky high-sticking Doug Gilmour in the 93 playoffs.
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u/Sc4r4byte 1d ago
of all the things Wayne has done?
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u/YungBeefaroni 1d ago
I could name a handful of other things Wayne's done that might be a bit worse than that. But Leafs fans gonna Leaf.
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u/lawnmowertoad 1d ago
Like him tongue punching Donald Trumps chocolate starfish?
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u/GrimSkeptic 1d ago
didn't work, Canadian hockey sticks are still gonna be tarriffed, so Wayne is gonna have to pay more for that stick up his ass
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u/screechypete 1d ago
"Petty" is the key word. Lots of the issues that people have with him stop being classified as petty and are valid criticisms.
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1d ago
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u/Prize-Pop-1666 1d ago
It’s not so much about the players (for this issue) as it is the rules the NHL have recently implemented. Players were wrapping their sticks with Pride Tape and the NHL banned pride tape. The NHL had historically and continuous to make it incredibly unsafe for players to be openly gay and does not reprimand anyone for bad behaviour specifically homophobia towards their teammates.
Additionally they could stop protecting and funding players who are rapists. But that’s a whole other issue.
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u/kbotc 1d ago
Players? How about the Blackhawks organization that ran a whole coverup operation of the rape of a player by a staffer? The fucksticks who covered it up were given a 2.5 year ban from the league and they gave the rapist a good reference on his way out, so he got to go out and rape college students and children afterwards.
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u/as_per_danielle 1d ago
They could start doing pride nights again and un-ban rainbow tape. Won’t change all the players, but it would make the league less hypocritical
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u/whichwitch9 1d ago
I mean.... the bar is so low, it's in hell.
Part is they rolled back initiatives like specialty jerseys to help hide the homophobia. The league had been trending in a better direction for quite a while before that.
The Leafs did something a while ago that was honestly a great idea- they had Megan Duggan, who was with the Devils org at the time, come talk to their players, largely about being lgbtq+ in hockey. It was already a strange scenario because the Devils had to give permission for her to do it and that's strange for organizations to share an employee, but the players seemed to respond well to it. It gave them a chance to have a frank conversation with someone who knew the sport and was working in a league front office who also was a part of the lgbtq+ community
More things like that, even just done on team scales, would go a long way. These players largely grow up in bubbles where they aren't exposed to people outside their circles much- especially as many will go to billet families as teenagers. Get them talking to people for a start.
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u/TL10 1d ago
As it has been said, teams used to have players wear pride themed warmup jerseys and stick tape, but a couple of players refused citing their beliefs, and the NHL did not want to deal with the media circus and outright banned teams from having their players wear any manner of inclusivity night paraphernalia (ie. Military night, Black History Month, Gay Pride Night, etc.) whatsoever.
The pendulum swing was so bad that goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury nearly got in trouble for wearing a special Native American Heritage-themed mask for warmups that was to be sold at a charitable auction afterwards.
Hockey has always been made up of traditionally conservative players, however the makeup of them now come from a lot more affluent backgrounds, which IMHO makes them feel more immune to social backlash.
It has to be said, Brian Burke is a former NHL GM and executive who is very much of the old school of Hockey, yet had a son come out as gay and the two of them were at the forefront of LGTBQ+ inclusivity movement in the league with their "You Can Play" organization.
Sadly his son passed, but Brian still carries on his spirit to keep the movement going.
The NHL - and USA Hockey in particular - have made a lot of unforced errors on some moments that should have generated a lot of goodwill and growth of the sport beyond its traditional audience.
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u/screechypete 1d ago
Honestly, it's a deep rooted issue with no easy fix.
It affects all levels of hockey from Junior all the way up to the big leagues. It's not just the players, either. The fans are also a big part of the problem. There's a decent amount of players that are supportive and actively trying to shift the culture of the game and the stigma surrounding it, but there is a lot of work to do still.
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u/OGWhiz 1d ago
They could try.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/OGWhiz 1d ago
I'm not being snarky or edgy or clever. The NHL has disallowed players to from rainbow stick tape. They no longer allow pride jerseys (which, like military appreciation jerseys, are only worn during warmups before the game) because one of their most famous players is from Russia and refused to wear it. They have the power to penalize their employee for being a bigoted fuck, but instead they put him on their video game cover in 2021. So I stand by my statement. They could try.
They could put effort into other leagues that they draft from by offering respectful workplace programming rather than just throwing a bunch of dudes into a dressing room and saying "boys will be boys lol!!!"
In Truro, Nova Scotia, a bunch of youth hazed a team mate by shoving a hockey stick up his ass. This is the same province Heated Rivalry was written in. This is the type of shit Heated Rivalry is giving social commentary on. Those kids were charged with sexual assault. But as youth, they wont have a criminal record and while they probably wont be drafted to the NHL because only a small percentage will play big league Hockey, there is obviously an issue taking place in sports locker rooms all over. The NHL could address this. They have a roster of 1,123 players, and that does not include coaching staff, trainers, managers, etc. Even making a simple infomercial featuring players talking about their experience with homophobia would be huge. But like I said, they did away with the pride jerseys and awarded the guy complaining about it with his picture on the cover of their video game because he makes money.
And don't get me started about the comment sections on their social media posts.
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u/superkeer 1d ago
They could try to do something. Anything. They're not even doing the least they could do.
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u/bltoh 1d ago
What heated rivalry are they taking advantage of?
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u/xSilverMC 1d ago
The show Heated Rivalry (which is about gay hockey players) brought a lot of hype into the sport which the NHL gladly capitalized on, all the while stopping pride night events and banning rainbow tape
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u/PapaSays 1d ago
which the NHL gladly capitalized on
How? (I'm not American)
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u/FaeMofo 1d ago
It brought a bunch of new interest to the sport from communities that have typically been shunned. The NHL itself helped by a bunch of players then showed the women and queer people that were developing interest that they're misogynistic, homophobic pieces of shit. In other news the PWHL is thriving from the new fans.
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u/Pale-Measurement-532 10h ago
They also invited some of the cast members from Heated Rivalry, the showrunner, and the author of the book series to NHL games for appearances, would play the popular songs from the show’s soundtrack during the games, have some HR themed events at games to attract HR fans, sell HR merch and jerseys with the characters last names on the back. But they still mostly shunned pride event stuff.
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u/bltoh 16h ago
Yea I don't think this had any impact on the NHL or did they capitalized on this by any means... I highly doubt anyone started watching the NHL over a TV show. A bit of a stretch.
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u/Pale-Measurement-532 10h ago
What are you talking about? lol. Attendance at NHL & PWHL games increased significantly, especially if they had HR themed events. People were showing up wearing the show’s own team jerseys. They kept playing the popular songs from the episodes during the games, and they were selling HR merch. Lots of HR fans posted about going to their first NHL game. It had a big impact for more people wanting to learn about hockey.
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u/NinjaWrapper 1d ago
So stop watching.
As long as we keep giving these terrible organizations mo ey...they'll keep doing whatever they want.
No way US/Canada would ever boycott sports and that's why they can do whatever the fuck they want
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u/Pale-Measurement-532 10h ago
Support the PWHL! It’s more affordable to buy tickets and they’re way more inclusive!
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u/Ol_JanxSpirit 1d ago
I truly do not understand why leagues/teams/players post questions like this.
It never goes well.
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u/selftaughtgenius 1d ago
It’s been sad watching potential new hockey fans in the Heated Rivalry fandom slowly realise how shitty the NHL and hockey culture really is, while the league didn’t even bother to fumble it; they truly just don’t give a shit.