NHL’s cowardly decision to ban cause-themed jerseys sends wrong message

The NHL took the path of least resistance in banning cause-themed jerseys from warmups and in doing so turning Hockey Fights Cancer into collateral damage from Pride Night.

We’re told that the decision rendered by the Board of Governors on Gary Bettman’s recommendation was reached without input from or consultation with the NHLPA.

The players should have had a voice.

Intellectually, I get it. The NHL’s efforts were boomeranging. The only league to provide players with Pride-themed jerseys for pregame activities was being bashed by activists and across much of the media landscape for providing safe harbor to bigots when a tiny minority of athletes opted out of wearing them.

The focus had been trained on the handful of guys who did not wear the jersey rather than the hundreds who did. Teams and the league were being attacked for not suspending or discipling the holdouts, who were exercising their own personal rights. All publicity is most certainly not good publicity.

I get it. I get that the league is trying to extricate itself from the culture wars that permeate our society, but this response is cowardly.

When the going got tough, the NHL high-tailed it. The league waved the white flag. Minority ruled. This surely represents a step back even if Pride Nights will continue around the league. It sends a horrible message to those in the LGBTQ+ community who play the game at any level and have an emotional investment in the sport.

“Hockey Is for Everyone” sounds like an empty slogan.

If the Devils believe that Rangers-killer Akira Schmid is the real thing, then by all means the club should save the multi-millions it would take to acquire Connor Hellebuyck from Winnipeg then sign the elite 30-year-old goaltender to a long-term extension.

There may be no greater luxury than having a No. 1 goaltender operating under an $850,833 salary-cap hit as the 23-year-old Schmid will this year. But that’s if the Devils are sure about the Swiss. That’s if executive VP of hockey operations Martin Brodeur is sure.

Yes, Adin Hill.

Counterpoint: Sergei Bobrovsky rescuing the Panthers after starting the playoffs with Alex Lyon.

So Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish and prospective second-overall Adam Fantilli, and you tell me which of these natural centers is going to be a fit on Anaheim’s third line.

If the selection committee has adopted a policy, unwritten or otherwise, not to induct Russians into the Hockey Hall of Fame until further notice, then perhaps one of the 18 persons who comprise the panel might want to clue the rest of us in on it.

In the alternative, those who are conducting a vendetta against Alexander Mogilny should do the decent thing and identify himself/herself/themselves.

The ongoing snub of the great and historically significant Mogilny seems personal. It is unaccountable. Of course there is no accountability on the selection committee that does its work in the dark. This is not unique in recent history, the committee having cruelly withheld election of Pat Burns until the coach had passed away.

Precedent, however, cannot camouflage the stink.

I came across a clip from 2020 in which selection committee member Brian Burke, one of those old guard NHL guys who seems to have his fingers in everything, talked about Mogilny in an interview with SportsNet. Burke was careful to say that, under rules of confidentiality, he could not talk specifically about Mogilny while of course talking specifically about Mogilny.

Burke’s take was that — though there are other factors taking into consideration such as team performance, Stanley Cup, major awards and an international résumé, there were 14 players ahead of Mogilny in career points who were not in the Hall. He mentioned that twice.

So when do Vincent Damphousse, Ray Whitney and Bobby Smith — three of those who accumulated more points than No. 89 — get in?

I first wrote about the under-representation of goaltenders in the Hall of Fame in November 2015. At that time, just four goaltenders who’d played the bulk of their careers following the 1979 NHL-WHA merger had been selected for induction.

There has, however, been a course correction in the interim with six such goaltenders elected. That includes the Class of ’23 that features Henrik Lundqvist, Mike Vernon and Tom Barrasso.

Barrasso has the numbers and he has the back-to-back Cups with the Penguins in 1991 and 1992, but his out-of-left-field selection might open the door a crack for fellow American, Mike Richter, who doesn’t quite match his career counting stats but surely is at least his equal in stature.

Richter is one of the greatest money goalies of the post-Original Six Era, turning in legendary performances in the 1994 Stanley Cup run that represents the Rangers’ only title in 83 years and the 1996 World Cup championship that marks Team USA’s only title ever in an international best-on-best tournament.

He is in a group featuring Patrick Roy, Billy Smith, Ken Dryden, Bernie Parent, Grant Fuhr and Dominik Hasek. These half-dozen are all in the Hall of Fame. Richter is a long-shot, properly so with just 301 career victories that ranks 38th on the all-time list, but Eddie Giacomin is in with 290.

Barrasso’s ability to handle and pass the puck was considered revolutionary back in the day. Until, of course, Rick DiPietro came along. Isn’t that right, Mike Milbury?