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Scott Laughton will “Probably” Use Pride Tape Despite NHL Ban
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The Flyers’ season begins tonight in Columbus. Hopefully they lose a lot of games, trade their best players at the deadline for assets, and execute a great rebuilding season. It’s a new era of orange. Meantime, this from Charlie O’Connor at PHLY:
The National Hockey League may be banning the use of Pride Tape during warmups of any team-run Pride Nights this season.
But don’t expect Scott Laughton to adhere to the new restrictions.
“You’ll probably see me with the pride tape on that night,” he said after practice on Wednesday. “I don’t know, I didn’t read really what it said, if it’s a ban or something, but I’ll probably have it on.
“We’ll see what they say, but it’s not gonna affect the way I go about it. If they want to say something, they can.”
We had the controversy with Ivan Provorov last year. He didn’t want to do the Pride Night stuff because he’s Russian Orthodox, and then his dog’s Instagram account started getting hate DMs. It was wild.
But yeah, the NHL came out this year and banned all themed warmup jerseys for any initiative, because they just want to avoid these conflicts altogether. Rainbow stick tape is included in the ban.
The NHL sent a memo to teams last week clarifying what players can and cannot do as part of theme celebrations this season, including a ban on the use of rainbow-coloured stick tape for the Pride nights that have become a hot-button issue in hockey.
The updated guidance reaffirms on-ice player uniforms and gear for games, warm-ups and official team practices cannot be altered to reflect theme nights, including Pride, Hockey Fights Cancer or military appreciation celebrations. Players can voluntarily participate in themed celebrations off the ice.
The Flyers do have a pride night this year, which is January 10th against the Canadiens. The NHL didn’t eliminate theme nights outright, they just limited what players can display on the ice. Not sure if this attempt to limit controversy is only going to create more controversy, but I guess we’ll find out.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com