This past weekend, the entire New York Rangers team took a page out of Ivan Provorov’s playbook and opted not to wear pride-themed warmups before their Friday night matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Rangers were hosting their seventh annual pride night and were planning on taking the ice with rainbow-colored jerseys and using sticks with rainbow tape on the blades. However, the Blueshirts took the ice before their 4-1 win wearing their Reverse Retro Liberty jerseys and with no rainbows on their sticks.
One last time. 🗽 pic.twitter.com/IDGP8e7Ha6
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 27, 2023
NYC Pride co-chair André Thomas was still present for the ceremonial puck drop and the Rangers’ Twitter was chock full with pride-themed pictures and graphics, but no one has made a statement as to why the Rangers didn’t wear the jerseys, and one player said he was surprised when he went to his locker and found a standard game jersey.
Predictably, the outrage mob on the interwebs screamed their normal hate about the Rangers not being inclusive, not valuing diversity, and all the other nonsensical talking points you’d expect after a situation like this.
However, the Rangers organization seemed to offer support for its players, saying they respected the right of everyone to voice their beliefs.
Just got this statement from the #NYR pic.twitter.com/U9Iy4EE6Vk
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) January 28, 2023
This is a far more supportive and mature reaction than the one the Philadelphia Flyers had when Provorov decided to not wear his jersey.
While the reasons for this turn of events remains unclear, the fact this happened so soon after the Provorov situation makes it seem like the Rangers got the courage to voice their beliefs after what the Flyers defenseman said.
It will be interesting to see if more NHL teams and players take a similar stance on this issue in the future. Should this trend continue, it will be a welcome sign.
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