The NHL has hosted pride nights since 2013 when the Florida Panthers became the first team to host an official event to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. In recent years however, the event has become controversial as players have refused to wear jerseys and fans have accused the league of grooming their children. While the League made their stance known last season when they banned pride-related warm-up jerseys, they did still allow teams to host pride nights. While that is still technically the case, the league now appears to be doubling down on their position.
Pride tape, rainbow colored hockey tape, has long been part of NHL pride nights. Players would use the colorful tape on their sticks during warm-ups, but only if they wanted to as it was always optional. Nearly every player in the league used the tape anyways. Some even used the tape in game, although the vast majority of players switched back to the traditional white or black tape options.
It is now unclear how teams will handle their various special event nights but one thing is for sure. The league's slogan, "Hockey is for everyone," is meaningless. The slogan was already used as a punchline for many NHL-related jokes but now those jokes will only become more prevalent as this policy is a blatant contradiction of it.
