As Twitchy reported earlier, the NHL has fallen in line with the NBA and announced they won’t be playing playoff games Thursday or Friday night out of respect for Jacob Blake.
Today the players of the NHL playoff bubble became allies.
In a time of professional opportunity, they chose to put their athletic goals aside and stand up for the greater good. pic.twitter.com/9RI0QabW4k
— Hockey Diversity Alliance (@TheOfficialHDA) August 27, 2020
Tonight, please take a moment to reflect on the Jacob Blake shooting and the importance of the BLM movement.
Post #ISupportHDA at game time to show your support for this players' lead initiative.
— Hockey Diversity Alliance (@TheOfficialHDA) August 27, 2020
Something we learned during the writing of that post is there’s such a thing as the Hockey Diversity Alliance, and the HDA is trying very hard to make hockey as woke as the NBA. Sure, the NBA has painted Black Lives Matter on the court, so the HDA is suggesting temporarily changing the blue stripe on the ice to black … for one thing.
The HDA has also made several other requests of the NHL, among them that team owners offer NHL rinks to be used as polling stations for the upcoming US election. https://t.co/cOklW2Gs1I
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) August 27, 2020
The HDA also wants the NHL to be fully transparent about “all information related to the policies, targets and commitments” related to the hiring of employees who are visible minorities.
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) August 27, 2020
The HDA has also asked the NHL to commit to funding $100M over 10 years to battle systemic racism.
The association has suggested that money go towards grassroots programs, social justice initiatives, anti-racism education, youth scholarships and exec & coach training.— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) August 27, 2020
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The NHL has yet to sign the pledge. It’s unclear if or when the league will do so.
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) August 27, 2020
The HDA asked for the NHL to run PSAs for the alliance during the playoffs this summer. And for the NHL to have on-ice presence of the HDA logo.
The league to this point has not agreed to those requests. pic.twitter.com/5k5IUJhkIn— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) August 27, 2020
The HDA has also proposed “Black out” warm up jerseys to help build awareness of the alliance and its agenda.
Such jerseys could be sold through Fanatics to help raise money for its initiatives.
Again, HDA members say no response from the NHL on this. pic.twitter.com/MPbeevPQup— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) August 27, 2020
The HDA has also suggested the NHL make a statement by temporarily changing the blue line to Black. pic.twitter.com/oEwmEYz0zx
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) August 27, 2020
I… I… don't even know what to say.
— FORM A WALL (@_shireenahmed_) August 27, 2020
The linesmen are gonna love that. ?
— Jay (@TheJayKaz) August 27, 2020
Sorry but…blue lines matter
— ???David⚽️⚽️⚽️ (@david_linklater) August 27, 2020
You won’t be able to see the puck on reviews.
— Sarah (@SarahMaybeNot) August 27, 2020
How this gonna work with a black puck @blphil16 ?
— Ryan Lee (@ryanlee2624) August 27, 2020
The puck is black…
— Mike (@mikenowo1) August 27, 2020
Who's going to tell them that the puck is also black? I think they have enough difficulty getting off sides calls correct now, imagine throwing in another variable.
— Nick Mariano (@TootSweet21) August 27, 2020
Gonna be hard to review for offsides.
— Billy Launders (@b_launders) August 27, 2020
— Jenna B (@Jenna_TMLFan84) August 27, 2020
— DCBOYZ•allcaps (@AllcapsDcboyz) August 27, 2020
NHL is trying too hard to appease a few players that aren’t even playing now.
— Michael Buck (@mames11_) August 27, 2020
This is getting out of control
— Maria Pellegrini (@maria_pellyy) August 27, 2020
This should fix it
— Jobin (@SlapTheBassMon) August 28, 2020
They did it, they solved racism https://t.co/H84nOKMxU3
— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) August 27, 2020
Related:
NHL postpones playoff games in solidarity with the NBA, which has just decided to resume playoff games https://t.co/hubXaeemie
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 27, 2020