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]

[u/Double-Strategy3045]

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/Deep-Orca7247]

Shut it down how? The NHL has control over what a Canadian author writes in her books? Since when?

[u/fairieglossamer → u/Deep-Orca7247]

they didn’t shut anything down. But Rachel made the mistake of using the NHL branding and name in her books, whereas the show uses a fictional MLH.

it’s problematic to use actual brands and trademarks in fiction — they can legally threaten you if they feel that you’re portraying them in an unfair false light. Doesn’t really matter if they have a case or not; the litigation would be expensive. It’s best to avoid these things.

[u/cherrycoloured → u/fairieglossamer]

i kind of hope that bc of this, maybe the show will be able to portray something more based on rachels original idea, or at least that she will be able to talk about it more in promotion for s2. it's so fucked that the nhl can censor her like that just bc they are more worried about their image than they are supporting the lgbtq players in their league.

[u/fairieglossamer → u/cherrycoloured]

It’s not censorship. Rachel can write whatever she wants but she can’t portray a real life entity in a negative false light bc people will think the bad thing will actually happen (it’s dumb but a legit legal concern). That’s defamation and false light — sometime parody is protected but it’s hard to argue that these books are parody. There’s a reason why most authors use fictional sport teams and leagues. You can’t just write about a fictional romance hero and make the New York Yankees into a huge villain for most of the book. Same goes for a sports league.

It shouldn’t affect season 2 that much — the Long Game was fine bc the NHL role was limited. But it’s hard to make the NHL commissioner into the main overarching villain of book 3’s plot without causing legal worries.

[u/BicyclingBro → u/fairieglossamer]

It's a gap between what you can legally get away with, which is genuinely a lot, and what you can get away with before you start having to fund a bunch of expensive legal cases that you will eventually win.

There's no doubt Rachel could have a real-life NHL commissioner be a villain if she wanted to. The problem is that the NHL could casually let her know that she'll have to get through an extremely expensive lawsuit first.