Bruins fan got assaulted by some Avalanche fans
These are the stories you don't want to hear as it makes our sport look bad. Last week, the Boston Bruins were in Colorado to face the Avalanche right before the All-Star break.
It was a tight and exciting game, however Taylor Hall caught Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon in a vulnerable position and nailed him with a hard body check.
The hit left the Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon a bloody mess. MacKinnon left the game and missed the All-Star game also. The Avalanche battled back, down 3-1 to win 4-3 in overtime.
The Avalanche fans thought they lost MacKinnon and won the game. But unfortunately, some Colorado Avalanche fans (and I use that term fans loosely) most likely had a few too many drinks at the game and were still mad about the Taylor Hall hit. A Boston Bruins fan who's name we learned was Caiden Shaw, decided to get what in their minds was payback for MacKinnon.
So after the game in the Ball Arena parking lot, Caiden Shaw, who is a homosexual, was the victim of an alleged anti-gay hate crime when three men who supported the opposing team kicked and punched him after a game while shouting anti-gay slurs at him.
This is horrible. The news was reported by Denver 7, who interviewed the poor man Caiden Shaw, who lives in Colorado and simply attended the game to support his favourite team, the Boston Bruins, when he was attacked. The attack left him injured and stunned about the hate people can feel for someone with a different sexual orientation.
« It makes me think back to that younger kid whenever I didn't want to come out to fully be myself, and the reasons why you don't do that, or why you're scared to," Shaw told Denver7 News.
"As I left the Ball Arena in Denver, I was approached by three drunk Avalanche fans. At first, it was more of a hockey banter type of thing from them. Oh you lost that type of thing,» he explained. «I remember saying something along the lines of, �We'll get you next time."
"However, things got heated and the three men started shouting aggressive homophobic slurs.» One of the men got in Shaw's face and said, «You can't take us fagg*t."
"Shaw recalls attempting to push one of the men to get out of his way because he was afraid. But the physical attack began."
«From there, they tackled me to the ground and were calling me fagg*t, gay,» he said. «My head was in my arms, and I was kind of in a ball while they were kicking me and punching me.»
Shaw sustained knee injuries, bruising on his legs and arms, and a knot in the back of his head. But he said the psychological damage is the worst outcome. As he left his home town in the South for Denver to escape that kind of homophobia, now he doesn't feel safe anymore. This type of stuff shouldn't happen in 2022, it makes us hockey fans look bad. Hopefully, the three attackers will get some serious jail time for this despicable act.
The Denver Police Department has confirmed that their Bias Motivated Crime Unit is investigating the attack but did not specify if it was caught on surveillance footage.
Credit: HockeyFeed
