Sidney Crosby And The Penguins Break Their Silence On The NHL Pride Ban

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Tyler Ball
October 12, 2023 (3:06 PM)

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The NHL recently announced that they are putting more restrictions on teams for Pride Nights. Now one team is responding to the new restrictions and how they plan to move forward.

Crosby Breaks His Silence On NHL Pride Ban

After the recent announcement of pride tape bans and other restrictions on specialty nights, the Penguins have responded. Several players have now expressed their disappointment with the NHL over their decision. The first to speak was captain Sidney Crosby.

"It's unfortunate, those nights are good opportunities to show our support for different initiatives and organizations. We'll have to find other ways, whether it be players or teams to be able to do that."

"Just to show my support," Crosby said of why he made that decision in years past. "That's basically it. I mean, everyone had the option. I chose to do that."

Crosby expresses his disappointment in the league for putting restrictions on these types of nights. He also drops a hint that the organization will be looking to find other ways to support the different initiatives including pride.

Penguins Support Pride Nights

After Crosby spoke several other players added their voice to the discussion. All of the Penguins players who spoke on the topic were disappointed in the league and still wanted to support the LGBTQ+ community.

"I don't think it's great," Rickard Rakell said. "I think we've done a good job of supporting everything in the past. It would be something that a lot of us would be comfortable continuing doing. So it's tough when the focus is kind of shifted towards the ones that have not chosen to support it. I guess we just have to find a different way to show our support."

"It's disappointing that it's come to this point," Jake Guentzel said. "We're still having a Pride Night. I'm glad we're having that."

"It's kind of unfortunate that we can't use the tape, use the jerseys to show our support for things," said Bryan Rust. "I believe our team's still going to have the nights to recognize those various groups, wherever it may be. I think for us, I think we're going to still continue to try and show our support any way we can. I think our team and organization are doing a really good job of still recognizing those groups, whoever they may be."

"I was kind of surprised," Marcus Pettersson said of the memo. "But you know, I think we're still doing as a team a Pride Night. We're going to have to find other ways to support the cause, because I think it's important that we do just find find other ways to support. I think it's good that Pittsburgh is doing a Pride Night and that we still have that."

"It's kind of sad," said P.O Joseph. "You want to support all causes. There's so many nice movements that we try to create in the NHL. And I feel like we kind of kind of show that we're not supporting it as much (with the ban). It's kind of hard to speak about it but I mean, I really like to support those things like the Cancer game, Black History Month and all the stuff."

The Penguins still sound committed to being allies to the Pride Nights and LGBTQ+ community going into the future.

As more players continue to speak out in support of Pride Nights the NHL might have to begin reconsidering their position and policies. Either way, it sounds as though many teams including the Penguins will continue to celebrate Pride regardless of the restrictions placed on them by the NHL.

As Read On - Dk Pittsburgh Sports - Penguins players 'disappointed' over NHL's Pride Tape, special initiatives ban