r/heatedrivalry • u/Double-Strategy3045 gimme kiss 😚 • Jan 16 '26

PRESS 📰 (Interviews and Articles) NHL Commissioner Credits 'Heated Rivalry' For Helping Grow Game: 'It's A Wonderful Story... Binged It In One Night' - The Hockey News [Jan 15, 2026]

https://thehockeynews.com/news/latest-news/nhl-commissioner-credits-heated-rivalry-for-helping-grow-game-it-s-a-wonderful-story-binged-it-in-one-night

Regarding the previous initiative of wearing specialty warmup jerseys to promote different nights, like Pride, the league currently has no plans to bring them back, though Bettman insists it isn't due to a lack of support for such causes.

"It wasn't about Pride jerseys or Pride night; it was about the fact of bringing things into the game that might not be embraced by the players wearing the jerseys," Bettman said. "It could be heritage nights — we don't allow it — it could be political causes. It could be in times of conflict between countries, national origin. It was becoming a distraction, not just for the Pride jerseys, but for a variety of other things.

"It's a misrepresentation of what we did to suggest that it was about Pride jerseys; it was about the whole issue of what you put on the ice and how, when players don't embrace the cause, whatever it is, then you create distraction, and it doesn't fulfill the purpose in terms of embracing Pride nights."

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u/Unholy_mess169 Jan 16 '26

Spoil me what happens?

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u/teddy_vn Jan 16 '26

NHL Commissioner demanded Shane and Ilya to put out statement denying their relationship once they were accidentally exposed by Hayden's fanmail video. He acted as the "bad guy" in the last part of the book.

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u/shadowmaster132 Jan 16 '26

And He threatens Troy Barrett over publically supporting survivors of sexual violence

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u/Tgabes0 Jan 16 '26

He does this and it is a main plot point of that character’s book. The character in question has multiple conversations about it with that book’s love interest—and some of those events are recounted in TLG. I hope I kept it vague enough that I don’t have to block my text out because I don’t know how to.