Will the NHL boycott games? Should it?

[Zamboniman]

With the NBA on the precipice of the second complete shutdown of the season due to the ongoing issue surrounding racism in the United States, and several postponed MLB games and even MLS games, is the NHL next?


Will players decide they should take a stand too? How much heat will they take if they end up being the only major league sport that doesn't?


Is Gary Bettman going to sleep a wink tonight?

[Weitz]

It’s a curious case. If you don’t play does anyone care what you say? Do you have a platform? Is boycotting going to change anything quicker?

[calgaryred]

Doubt it happens if 60 percent of the league were African American, it happens. I can see the league will honor BLM, as they did already, but I really doubt it the players will postpone.

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[1qqaaz]

Based on Bill Daly's statements, it sounds like the NHL is just deferring to the players.

On the one hand, it's understandable that people are sick of politics in sports. This is understandable. People often go to sports to get away from this type of stuff.
On other other hand, the athletes, as role-models, are in a position in which they can do something about these valid issues. Ignorance isn't the answer.

[Yoho]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1298819406546444291

[codynw]

Originally Posted by Zamboniman

Will players decide they should take a stand too? How much heat will they take if they end up being the only major league sport that doesn't?

If the only reason they "take a stand" is so they don't take any heat for being the only league that didn't, then why bother? League is mostly white Canadians, I don't really expect them to stop playing. If they do, and it comes across as genuine, good for them. If it feels like a forced PR move then I'd rather they just do nothing. And at this point, I think if they do boycott, it'll be extremely hard not to just see it as a lame PR attempt.

[TheScorpion]

I think their gesture before the Boston/Tampa game was a cringeworthy half-measure. That "moment" of silence lasted about a second.

[troutman]

Hrudey is getting some heat on Twitter for suggesting the NHL take a break to reflect.

[dino7c]

The NHL is playing hockey games only in Canada...I don't think shutting down would be very effective, maybe if the Canucks win the next one they should though

[Manhattanboy]

I will be in the minority here but I do not support these kinds of boycotts.

[troutman]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1298815261378781190

[Flash Walken]

Yes they should so no they won't.

[Patek23]

I just don’t see what the effect really is. Even with the NBA. The people who are racist already aren’t watching your sport. The only people your disappointing is your fans. I always respect people standing up for things they really believe in. But I just don’t see what the end game or desired effect is here. I can appreciate the NBA players feeling like they just need to do something though but I fail to see any improvements that will come from this.

[nfotiu]

I think the NHL players absolutely should. It rubs me the wrong way when they defer to a couple Black ex and current NHL players to speak for them. A lot of the stories about what Black hockey players have gone through are eye opening and heart-breaking, but they don't really represent the life and death struggles Black Americans face and it really shouldn't be up to the few Black hockey players to take a side on this.

It's time for all of them, including the stars to show support to fellow NBA/NFL/MLB/MLS athletes, and if the NHL ends up the only league playing tomorrow, then shame on them.

[Weitz]

Does not playing actually drive any conversation? Or do fans just do something else and go about their lives?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Go for it if they think either it’ll help bring more attention to the issue.

Unlike the NBA I don’t see many guys saying this cause affects them personally and expressing a desire to boycott.

[ComixZone]

Anson Carter nails it, in my eyes.

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by troutman

Hrudey is getting some heat on Twitter for suggesting the NHL take a break to reflect.

He is? Everything I've seen has been praising him. But I suppose some on the right might have a problem with what he said.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by troutman

https://twitter.com/user/status/1298815261378781190

I get this is an emotional issue but it’s a bad look for her to cry foul before anything even happens. Was she expecting the NHL to preemptively shut the playoffs down before this was even an option? Because they’ve literally had like 4 hours to consider this. Hardly enough time to start calling them hypocrites.

[flylock shox]

This is such an unusual situation. I'm not sure how I feel about it - even in the NBA context.



On the one hand, you've got a bunch of guys whose jobs grant them access to a huge stage on which to raise their voices with respect to civil rights and political issues, perhaps best exemplified recently by Colin Kaepernick and the BLM T-shirts that have become so common at games. These gestures use the stage that's been granted to increase awareness of the issue, but the show itself - which has nothing to do with the issues that are targeted by these actions - goes on. This makes sense to me: attention is drawn to the issue, the show goes on, everyone gets paid.



On the other, the guys who've been granted this huge stage by virtue of the jobs they hold elect not to do their jobs in order to raise awareness of civil rights or political issues, notwithstanding that their jobs have nothing to do with the issues themselves, and their complaints are not with their employers, league, fans, etc. This makes less sense to me: attention is drawn to the issue, the guys get paid, but the show doesn't go on and the other parties in the league (like the owners) don't get paid even though they didn't have anything to do with the issues being complained of.



Translating it to a smaller stage, if someone showed up to an office job wearing a BLM T-shirt but did their job in the usual way, that seems okay. But it would be weird if they just decided not to show up to work at all as a matter of protest, notwithstanding the fact their employer had nothing to do with the issues in question and the action wasn't designed to have their employer change anything.


I guess it may be more effective in that it's more disruptive, but it also seems limited: will every league suspend its games every time something like this makes the news?