The NHL is withdrawing their decision to ban the use of Pride Tape after the NHL, NHLPA, and NHL Player Inclusion Coalition came to an agreement to lift the ban on Tuesday.
“After consultation with the NHL Players’ Association and the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, players will now have the opportunity to voluntarily represent social causes with their stick tape throughout the season,” the NHL said in a statement released on Tuesday.
This revoke of the ban could be thanks to Arizona Coyotes defenceman Travis Dermott, who proved that it only takes one person to make a difference. During the Coyotes’ game against the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday Dermott flashed glimpses of Pride Tape wrapped around the top of his stick, he figures that finding the right game plan to attack the issue with it could have a positive impact on some people who needed it.
“It’s easy to forget that it’s a battle if it’s not in front of you,” Dermott told The Athletic’s Chris Johnston.
“If you don’t see it every day, if it’s swept under the rug, if it’s just hidden from the naked eye, it’s easy to forget that there’s a group of people that don’t feel like they belong because the majority of people do feel like they belong.”
Back in June, the NHL announced they decided to remove theme nights or represent any special jerseys that marked the NHL’s support for a variety of groups. Although they received backlash on the decision they continued to disappoint the hockey community by banning the use of the iconic rainbow-coloured tape, solely based off the idea that they did not want any players to be put in a tough spot if they chose not to participate.
The lifting of the NHL’s ban is hopefully a way of moving forward in the NHL’s goals of becoming more inclusive, and Dermott emphasizes an important message.
“As athletes, we have such a great platform to spread love, and I think if we’re not spreading that love then what the hell are we doing?”
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Early season woes
We all know the struggles the Edmonton Oilers have had early on this season going 1-4-1 through the first six games of the season.
But they’re not the only ones sluggish to start the season.
On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli dove into some of those early woes.
Tyler Yaremchuk: We are going to play a little edition of rank em. We’ve identified four teams in the league that we think should be the most disappointed in their starts, and it’s the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators. I’ll let you go, Frank; rank those four.
Frank Seravalli: Yeah, when you consider the spots that these teams are in, based on Zadorov’s comments, based on Kadri’s comments before and based on the situation they’re in trying to bounce back to the top, I’ve got the Flames at the top of this list. When you start the year that publicly, which usually doesn’t happen until March or April, end of the season as you get closer to locker clean-out day, very rarely does information like this come out three weeks into the season.
I’ve got the Senators next. You can never really rely too much on the words players use, but when Claude Giroux said, “It’s not time to hit the panic button,” I thought, oh, that’s interesting. The Sens, to me, are a team to continue to monitor. I thought they looked good the first couple of games but then have struggled.
I have concerns about the Penguins. I’ve talked and was open heading into the season with them trying to assimilate Erik Karlsson, and he doesn’t have a single point on the powerplay yet; he has four points in six games to start, and I think for a team that had so many issues defending in its own end, that to me is what stands out with the Pens.
I’m less concerned for the Oilers; they hit a couple of games to start that in years past they probably would’ve won, like the home game, the game against the Canucks, the game against the Jets. They’ve had good stretches in those games, and it would look different if they were 3-3, and we wouldn’t be raising the alarms with the Oilers just yet.
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