NHL Team Ditches Pride-Themed Jerseys, Fears For Russian Players’ Safety

The Chicago Blackhawks won’t wear pride-themed to to the Sunday warm-up games, according to company resources told The Athletic.

The stated objective was to guarantee the safety of several individuals who have close ties to Russia, but the decision was made by team executives in the” front office” rather than the players themselves, according to a report released by the store on Wednesday.

According to sources cited by @ MarkLazerus, the Blackhawks will become the third NHL team to refuse to wear Pride jerseys during Pride Night due to security concerns for their three players of Russian ancestry. http :// // t. co / ZiQRhPjTUm

The Athletic(@ TheAthletic ) March 22, 2023

A new constitution that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed in December outlaws all” LGBTQ misinformation” and forbids Russian citizens from promoting or disseminating information about sexuality, whether it be on television, in books, advertising, online, or in public. It strengthens a former law that forbade expressing or showing LGBTQ behavior in front of kids.

The standard penalty for those found to have broken this act is a good, but Blackhawks organization officials decided to forgo the Pride-themed attire in order to be on the safe side. Defenseman Nikita Zaitsev was born in Moscow, but keeper Anton Khudobin( a Kazakh ) and further Philip Kurashev, a Swissman, both have ties to Russia directly or have relatives who now reside there.

The Chicago Gay Hockey Association called the choice” disappointing” in a statement, but it added that it would continue to work to get hockey” more diverse.”

The # Blackhawks’ decision to not wear Pride warmup jerseys for Sunday’s game against Vancouver is the subject of a statement from the Chicago Gay Hockey Association: pic. JrGJ2SnRXC on Twitter

— March 23, 2023, Evan F. Moore(@ evanFmoore )

Outsports panned the decision as a copout and “another black eye for NHL PRIDE nights,” quoting several who had tweeted about the fact that the Blackhawks had displayed Ukraine’s flag during a game just one year earlier.

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The Ukraine support was adequate, but the # PrideNight bridge went too far, right? said one post. ” Yea, I’m not buying this form( sic) the Blackhawks. If the Russian players are tanking, just scratch them.

The Philadelphia Flyers, Minnesota Wild, and the New York Rangers are a few additional teams that intend to do away with the Pride-themed uniforms.

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