Thursday’s decision by NHL players to put games on hold was undoubtedly a significant moment for the sport.
“It was a big moment for hockey, a big moment for society,” retired NHLer Joel Ward told Hockey Central on Friday when asked about his peers’ announcement on Thursday to press pause on the playoffs and stand with the rest of the sporting world in solidarity against racial injustice.
As a founding member of the recently formed Hockey Diversity Alliance, Ward played a crucial role in the player-led postponement of Thursday’s and Friday’s games. Members of the HDA posted public calls to action directed at the NHL to join their pro sports peers across the NBA, WNBA, MLS, MLB, NFL and professional tennis to halt operations in a widespread demand for change.
“For us, obviously hockey’s a different demographic from other sports and we thought it was a good opportunity for hockey to really step up,” Ward said. “We wanted to show solidarity. This is an important issue going on in society. People are dying — Black and people of colour are dying on the regular. Everybody sees it, and nobody’s doing anything about it. Everybody’s just turning a blind eye on it.”
The NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks initiated this historic wave of action from around the sports world on Wednesday when they announced they would be sitting out their game against the Orlando Magic in a call for justice after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Ward said he and other members of the HDA, including Evander Kane, Akim Aliu, Mathew Dumba, Chris Stewart, and Wayne Simmonds had “good discussions” with players in the Edmonton and Toronto bubbles as well as within the HDA about the key issues at hand leading up to the league’s announcement. Read More