Wearing Pride jerseys in NHL pre-game warm-ups, as well as any special jerseys of any kind, will no longer be allowed, according to NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman..Bettman made the announcement in a Thursday interview with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, saying the decision was made following a NHL Board of Governors meeting and is a clear response to multiple players refusing to wear their teams’ Pride jerseys last season, reports Daily Hive..“I’ve suggested that it would be appropriate for clubs not to change their jerseys in warmups because it’s become a distraction and taking away from the fact that all of our clubs, in some form or another, host nights in honour of various groups or causes,” said Bettman..“We’d rather they continue to get the appropriate attention that they deserve and not be a distraction.”.“All of the efforts and emphasis on the importance of these various causes have been undermined by the distraction, in terms of which teams, which players.” .“This way, we’re keeping the focus on the game and on these specialty nights, we’re going to be focused on the cause.”.Earlier this year, players began refusing to wear the Pride pre-game warm-up jerseys, with Ivan Provorov of the Philadelphia Flyers being the first to decline to wear the jersey, sitting out the pre-game warmup in January, but playing the full game for the Flyers that night..“The Vancouver Canucks went ahead with wearing their Pride jersey in March, but star forward Andrei Kuzmenko didn’t put it on, reports the Daily Hive. “Denis Gurianov made a similar decision when the Montreal Canadiens wore their Pride jersey in April.”.Russian players, including Provorov, Kuzmenko, Gurianov and others declined to wear the pre-game jerseys due to Russia’s anti-gay laws and potential repercussions to family members..Other players, such as James Reimer, as well as Eric and Marc Staal, cited religious concerns for their refusal to wear the jersey..The NHL governors deemed teams will still be allowed to celebrate Pride and other causes, and they’ll be allowed to create special jerseys that can be worn by players off the ice, but not on the ice for warmup, reports Daily Hive..“Thirty-two of our clubs did Pride Nights, some do Heritage Nights, everybody does Hockey Fights Cancer. Some do military nights,” said Bettman..“All of those nights will continue. The only issue will be, or the only difference will be, we’re not going to change jerseys for warmup because that’s just become more of a distraction from really the essence of what the purpose of these nights are.”
