[News] Fleury defies NHL by wearing special mask for Wild's Native American Heritage night

[Barnet Flame]

Originally Posted by Bonded

Lol
Board of governors
https://records.nhl.com/organization/board-of-governors
Leadership team
https://records.nhl.com/organization/nhl-offices

Pretty diverse bunch, if you ask me.

Some are wearing glasses.

[Dion]

[Locke]

And good for him. I mean...its a nice looking lid.

I'd tell him to wear it.

[Freddy]

This is one of the nicest masks worn in recent years and how anybody could be offended by it blows my mind. The backstory and day he wore it only builds stronger culture within his community and hockey.
The controversy almost feels contrived for more media coverage.

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by Freddy

This is one of the nicest masks worn in recent years and how anybody could be offended by it blows my mind. The backstory and day he wore it only builds stronger culture within his community and hockey.
The controversy almost feels contrived for more media coverage.

So silly, yet the Blackhawks jersey is fine. Idiotic blanket rules.

[Icantwhisper]

It has nothing to do with this mask or this cause, the rule is there to prevent players from supporting anything they want to. 99.9% of the time it’s going to be a great cause, but it just takes one guy to put something extremely controversial on there equipment and it’s a big problem. NHL would have to make a judgement call on every cause and instead chose to have zero opinions on anything.

[Icantwhisper]

Originally Posted by Freddy

This is one of the nicest masks worn in recent years and how anybody could be offended by it blows my mind. The backstory and day he wore it only builds stronger culture within his community and hockey.
The controversy almost feels contrived for more media coverage.

Pretty much this

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

Didn’t see the character limit. Title updated to reflect the latest news of him with wearing it anyways.

All good. Did not think it was intentional.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Icantwhisper

It has nothing to do with this mask or this cause, the rule is there to prevent players from supporting anything they want to. 99.9% of the time it’s going to be a great cause, but it just takes one guy to put something extremely controversial on there equipment and it’s a big problem. NHL would have to make a judgement call on every cause and instead chose to have zero opinions on anything.

I don’t know why people can’t seem to understand this. A policy where players can promote whatever political causes they like on their equipment would set the league up for a ####storm of controversy. What happens when a player wants to put an NRA sticker on their helmet? Or a pro-life slogan? And the NHL understandably doesn’t want to take on the role of vetting every possible cause under the sun and taking positions on them.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I don’t know why people can’t seem to understand this. A policy where players can promote whatever political causes they like on their equipment would set the league up for a ####storm of controversy. What happens when a player wants to put an NRA sticker on their helmet? Or a pro-life slogan? And the NHL understandably doesn’t want to take on the role of vetting every possible cause under the sun and taking positions on them.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Let 'em.

Let 'em fill up their Tacks.

Go for it.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I don’t know why people can’t seem to understand this. A policy where players can promote whatever political causes they like on their equipment would set the league up for a ####storm of controversy. What happens when a player wants to put an NRA sticker on their helmet? Or a pro-life slogan? And the NHL understandably doesn’t want to take on the role of vetting every possible cause under the sun and taking positions on them.

we are not talking about promoting whatever cause they like, we are talking about the cause the NHL team is celebrating that very night. Comparing that to NRA stickers or pro-life slogans makes no sense at all.

[Reggie Dunlop]

[Zamboniman]

Easy solution: Mandate that goalies can no longer wear masks/helmets. Back to pre-Plante era baby!!

[MoneyGuy]

Jacques was bad-ass.

[timun]

Unpopular take: all "_____________ <Heritage/Pride/Recognition> Nights" are superficial, insincere, performative activism, designed to fool you into thinking a multi-billion-dollar sports entertainment enterprise cares for anything other than hoovering up as much of your disposable income as possible. This is nothing but a manufactured controversy to drive "engagement".

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by timun

Unpopular take: all "_____________ <Heritage/Pride/Recognition> Nights" are superficial, insincere, performative activism, designed to fool you into thinking a multi-billion-dollar sports entertainment enterprise cares for anything other than hoovering up as much of your disposable income as possible. This is nothing but a manufactured controversy to drive "engagement".

On a broader, league-focused scale I agree. It's why it's so special when individual players like Dermott or Fleury take a personal stand or extend a gesture to support these causes.

Sure, it's nothing substantially direct, but Fleury paid an indigenous artist so that he could display their art on a big stage, all in recognition for something extremely personal to him. It wouldn't be a surprise to see him auction the helmet with proceeds going to support indigenous artists or causes.

As upset as I was to see the league abandon initiatives like Pride nights, the reverb has almost made it all the more significant.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by timun

Unpopular take: all "_____________ <Heritage/Pride/Recognition> Nights" are superficial, insincere, performative activism, designed to fool you into thinking a multi-billion-dollar sports entertainment enterprise cares for anything other than hoovering up as much of your disposable income as possible. This is nothing but a manufactured controversy to drive "engagement".

The league has become so cynical that the only lens to view anything through is "how does this make them more money?" Engagement is their target, but for me it makes me even less likely to want to care about the NHL anymore.

[Huntingwhale]

As long as old fart conservative dinosaurs like Bill Daley, Gary Bettman, that Colin guy, and whatever other old-ass white guys who are in charge of the league for the past decades are around, stuff like this will never change. NHL continues to showcase the best players in the league on the ice, while showing they are complete idiots and ######bags off the ice. Screw the NHL. Garbage from top to bottom in almost everything they do.

I was hoping Fleury would do something like this to tell them to screw off and I'm glad he did. Hopefully the backlash on the league is fierce. But this is a league that allowed the Blackhawks to walk away unscathed, lets psycopaths like Mike Babcock attempt to make comebacks, and gets scared of rainbow tape but pushes military appreciation night seeminly every damn night.

Thank you for "growing" the game Gary et al, but GTFO here and pave the way for a more progressive league, please and thanks.

[Reggie Dunlop]

"Hockey is for everyone. Please don't get mad at us."

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

"Hockey is for everyone. Please don't get mad at us."

"Hockey is for everyone*"

*That looks just like us.