James Reimer, other NHL players declining to wear Pride Night jerseys deserve scrutiny
Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov, who declined in January to wear his team’s Pride Night jersey, saying it ran contrary to his Russian Orthodox faith.
Things snowballed from there. The Minnesota Wild absconded from Pride Night jerseys as a team, and the New York Rangers canceled a planned Pride Night altogether. On Wednesday, The Associated Press reported that the Chicago Blackhawks will not wear Pride-themed jerseys before Sunday’s game because of security concerns involving Russian law (defenseman Nikita Zaitsev is a Moscow native, and others have connections to the country).
