NHL community builds bridges as NHL scraps support

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/12/2023 (731 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Twenty five years ago, the NHL launched its first “Hockey is for Everyone” campaign.

With Willie O’Ree, the first Black player to play a National Hockey League game at the lead, the league’s diversity task force outlined the gameplan to use the sport to drive positive social change and foster more inclusive communities.

“We believe all hockey programs — from professionals to youth organizations — should provide a safe, positive and inclusive environment for players and families regardless of race, colour, religion, national origin, gender, disability, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status,” the NHL proclaimed in 1998.

Well, so much for 25 years.

In the span of a few short months, the NHL and its commissioner, Gary Bettman, have demonstrated hockey isn’t quite for everyone. In the process, the NHL has undermined the progress it had made.

For instance, think of a decade’s worth of NHL Pride games, which had gone a long way to deconstruct the idea hockey is meant to be played only by heterosexual, white males. When a few players refused to wear rainbow-coloured jerseys honouring Pride and LGBTTQ+ solidarity during warmups last season, the NHL’s knee-jerk response was to ban all themed jerseys for 2023-24.

This decision resulted in themed, individual franchise games, intended to build relationships with local communities, suddenly becoming gutted, weak and evidence of the kind of tepid commitments to diversity that lead to racial and gender-based discrimination in the first place.

‘Tis the NHL season, featuring the odd position of South Asian Heritage Night, First Nations Celebration Night, Gender Equity Night and even Hockey Fights Cancer or military appreciation nights with barely any involvement of the on-ice players.

The senselessness continued when the NHL announced rainbow-coloured Pride hockey tape could not be used by players for any part of their on-ice uniform.

This is the same product the league was so proud of in 2018, when it announced “more than 100 NHL players will wrap their sticks with Pride Tape (an Edmonton-based company) to raise awareness for equality, respect and inclusion.” The tape could be purchased on the league website.

The ban of Pride Tape inspired open revolt by players, who questioned the decision to media.

In defiance, Arizona Coyotes defenceman Travis Dermott used it in a game Oct. 21.

That prompted the league to reverse its decision Oct. 25, announcing on social media: “After consultation with the NHL Players’ Association and the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, players will now have the option to voluntarily represent social causes with their stick tape throughout the season.”

After a quarter-century of supposedly trying to make sure Hockey is for Everyone, what we now see is more an homage to the individual prejudices in society than anything resembling unity, diversity or inclusion.

The nonsense continued last week, as Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-André Fleury was told by NHL officials he could not wear a locally-created, Indigenous artist-designed mask to recognize the team’s Native American Heritage Night (Nov. 24).

Designed by Mdewakanton Dakota artist Cole Redhorse Taylor, the goalie mask not only honoured the earth and the flowers of the territory the Wild play in (and Fleury’s name, which means “flower”), it also featured a quote from Fleury’s father and the names of the children he shares with his wife Véronique, who is of Abenaki and Mi’kmaq descent.

Warned he and the Wild would incur a fine from league officials, Fleury skated on the ice wearing the mask during warmup, and issued a statement through his agent the NHL’s decision was “stupid.”

After the game, NHL officials refused to comment on Fleury’s actions but quietly told some reporters the goalie and team “would not likely be fined.”

That was a bit of a surprise, given the propensity of NHL decision makers to make rash decisions. It could perhaps be, though, because only a few seasons ago, Fleury also wore an Indigenous-themed mask while playing for the Chicago Blackhawks.

The difference: it represented the highly problematic, stereotypical and non-Indigenous designed logo created to honour the wartime U.S. Army’s 86th Infantry Division — nicknamed the “Blackhawk Division” after Sauk leader Black Hawk (1767-1838).

Nobody fined Fleury then either, but no one fines anyone in professional sports for misrepresenting Indigenous peoples, so I’m hardly surprised.

Not all was lost in the NHL’s xenophobia, though.

Following the Nov. 24 game, the Minnesota Wild-Prairie Island Indian Community Native American Heritage Day auction was held, selling Indigenous artist-created items such as beadwork, a themed team jersey and, of course, Fleury’s mask to raise money for the local American Indian Family Center.

With bids ending midnight Nov. 30, the auction on Fleury’s mask had closed at US$35,100.

It’s a reminder, despite a league which can’t make hockey for everyone, the players, fans, communities and local management of those teams can still create positive change.

All it takes is a faceoff with stupidity.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca