The NHL has issued new guidance to teams prohibiting players from participating in a number of theme nights this season, according to reports.
The updated guidance states on-ice players cannot alter their uniforms or gear to reflect theme night celebrations, including LGBTQ+ pride, military appreciation, Hockey Fights Cancer, Latino Heritage Month, and Black History Month. The ban — which includes acts such as using rainbow-colored tape on hockey sticks — extends to team games, warmups, and practices.
NHL players can, however, voluntarily participate in theme celebrations when not playing.
The NHL issued the updated guidance in a memo sent to teams ahead of Tuesday’s regular-season opening games for the 2023-24 season.
Pride Tape, a maker of rainbow-colored sports tape in support of the LGBTQ+ community, said it is “extremely disappointed by the NHL’s decision to eliminate Pride Tape from any league on-ice activities.”
“The league has used language in recent days that would prohibit the tape from any proximity to NHL hockey,” Pride Tape said in a statement. “We hope the league — and teams — will again show commitment to this important symbol of combating homophobia.”
The updated guidance comes months after the NHL in June announced teams would no longer be allowed to wear “specialty” jerseys — celebrating many of the same aforementioned theme nights — during games, warmups, or practices.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said that decision “took the distraction away” after a few of the league’s players refused to wear Pride Night jerseys last season.
“What happened last year was that the issue of who wanted to wear a particular uniform on a particular night overshadowed everything that our clubs were doing. So what we said, instead of having that distraction and having our players have to decide whether or not they wanted to do something or not do something and be singled out, we said, ‘Let’s not touch that,’” Bettman told ESPN Radio’s “UnSportsmanLike” on Tuesday.
“Anything around the game, anything off the ice, our teams and our players are continuously encouraged to give back to the communities and get involved in the causes that they find important,” he added. “But what I think we did is we took the distraction away. And so now the concentration can be on the causes that we want to highlight.”
Story by Zach Mentz, cleveland.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.
