Obviously, it is awkward for the NHL and its players to find a way to join the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests before and during their games. It is an almost completely white league, with a majority of players not even from this country, and even those who come from a generally wealthy environment where these problems never touch them. It’s a sport and culture riddled with racism at all levels on both sides of the border, although that’s probably an even better reason for top players to denounce and change that. The NHL could show that these problems, these protests, and the need to keep fighting apply to everyone.
This is also the NHL, a league that would fight to manage alcohol in a brewery.
So it’s not a big surprise that on their return to the ice, the NHL players completely trashed whatever they were trying to say. Unless they tried to say the exact opposite that all the other athletes in the world have been saying. What we can’t rule out, because this is hockey, after all.
Perhaps Canadian players don’t feel it is their place to kneel during the American anthem. Hockey players are most likely petrified or dismissive of kneeling. While white athletes who kneel during the anthem can be interpreted as, and often are, interpretive, at least they show solidarity with the entire movement. It is the absolute minimum, or so you would have thought.
The Flyers and Penguins gave us a group of white men standing in a row.
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The idea was to show “solidarity”. Solidarity for what, exactly?
Not that I expect the majority of the NHL to define or even be able to spell optics, but a group of white men standing in a line showing solidarity sends … well, the wrong message. It will be the same when the Bruins lock arms before his preseason game tomorrow against the Blue Jackets. A group of white men showing unity together. What does that make you think of? Couldn’t they get a statue of Columbus to put behind them? Although this is hockey, you would see this type of formation in front of a statue of Bobby Hull, which is just hardly a better person than Columbus and must also be dumped in the highest river of high banks.
Unity, that’s the word the Bruins focused on, and the Flyers and Pens were trying to prove. “Unit.” Unity is not really what the rest of us are looking for. It is an ingredient for what we seek. Unity to understand and rebel against racism against blacks, seen by the police and society in general. The goal is not to be together. Being together is one of the first steps on the road to real change.
This was a mere wave of joining all the other sports, with an optics that makes it seem like the NHL is in direct opposition (and there certainly are NHL players who are, are not there). Tuukka Rask?) Clearly, these players did not want to be seen completely ignoring the rest of the world, although this is how the world of hockey generally prefers it, and they did as few as possible. And it probably made things worse. How very hockey.
There are more than a handful of NHL players who responded to the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests and riots with surprising and sincere feelings, such as Tyler Seguin, Blake Wheelerand Jonathan Toews. It’s a shame they couldn’t bring this kind of excitement to when they really were on stage. Yes, hockey fans are probably the most blind and vicious when it comes to this. Which makes it more important for players to come up with something better than this, and demonstrate that there will be no safe haven for the “All Lives Matter” crowd in sports.
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