Toronto Maple Leafs Host a Very Successful Pride Night

The Toronto Maple Leafs hosted the Blue Jackets last night for Pride Night.

These nights are incredibly important because they specifically make the point that a marginalized group of people who has been historically excluded from the game (hockey’s past is EXTREMELY homophobic as anyone who was in a dressing room before the year 2000 can tell you) are welcome to be involved in the game of hockey.

This shouldn’t be controversial in anyway, but as you probably know, in the age of internet anonymity, hateful people love to have their say.  Just ignore them, they are only desperate for attention.

The Leafs have been one of the NHL’s most progressive teams, with players such as Morgan Rielly and managers like Kyle Dubas and Brendan Shanahan attending the Pride Parade.  They have done Pride Night’s long before every team was doing it – this is their 7th year – and they haven’t made up special jerseys on any of those occasions, so headlines framing them as doing something  wrong were nothing but click-bait.

Toronto Maple Leafs Host a Very Successful Pride Night

The Leafs do meaningful work in the community, they had Olympic Gold Medalist Meghan Duggan speak to the team and the Marlies, and every player but one wore the tape and the decal.

The team had a drag show (very important in light of the absolutely ridiculous fear people somehow developed for them over the last year), some themed food, and all arena employees apparently wore t-shirts.

The one who didn’t participate was Ilya Samsonov.  Originally I was of the opinion that they should cut or bench him for it, but when I learned the reasoning was that he feels his family in Russia could face retaliation, I changed my stance.

If there is even a tiny chance something could happen, you can’t blame him for it. Because he’s apparently participated in pride nights in the past and by all accounts is a lovely human being who does support inclusion, I am happy to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The hate shown by Eric Staal and James Reimer (and others) is disgusting, but hopefully Samsonov is honest about his reasoning.  I don’t believe Kyle Dubas would keep him around if he wasn’t, and that’s good enough for me.

As to the actuall game – wow.  The Leafs should have won that by a score of 12-0 but as per usual, when they go up against a goalie no one has ever heard of, he has the game of his life. The Leafs completely destroyed Columbus on this night, despite the score suggesting it was a close game.

The Toronto Maple Leafs may not be a team that does things like win, have success, or offer affordable tickets to their games, but when it comes to how they act and the example they set in the community, they are a team to be proud of.

Hockey is for everyone, not just super-ignorant bros from Thunder Bay, and it’s important to make that clear.  The world is a scary place, made better by sports and entertainment that offer you a respite, but that can’t just be true for people who fit an outdated definition of the word “normal.”

The history of the NHL and Hockey Culture in general is shameful and these Pride Nights are a good start to rectifying that.  Good on the Toronto Maple Leafs for being a leader during these often ridiculous times.