Former leaf criticizes how Pride night has been handled this season
Each NHL team has held a Pride night for years now, however, this season has been very controversial for the event. Certain teams have withdrawn from Pride night festivities such as not wearing Pride themed warm-up jerseys while other teams have had players deciding not to wear the jersey or other gear in support of the event. Ivan Provorov was the first player to decline to participate in the annual tradition with the Flyers citing his beliefs, with a handful of players following suit such as Eric and Marc Staal, James Riemer. The latest player to decline to take part is Leafs goalie Ilya Samsonov, for reasons relating to new laws in Russia and wanting to protect the family he has back home.
Former Leaf Tyson Barrie, now with Nashville, spoke out about the importance of Pride night celebrations ahead of Nashville's own Pride night and how disappointed he is in how things have been handled this season regarding the event. "It's something that's really close to my heart. I've got family members and best friends in the community and there's a little bit of frustration on my end with what's transpired this year."
Unfortunately, the decisions of players and teams to not participate has overshadowed the point of Pride events, which are primarily just to show that everyone is welcome in hockey.
With how things have gone this season regarding Pride events, I would expect the NHL and NHLPA to have discussions in the off-season about the participation and non-participation of teams and players down the road and how best to handle situations so that the focus is no longer on those not participating, but the event itself.
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