Ilya Bryzgalov speaks out on “absurd” protests in the NHL.

Bryzgalov calls out the NHL.

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HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Ilya Bryzgalov speaks out on “absurd” protests in the NHL.

The sport world in North America has been hit by a wave of protests following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin last week, and the National Hockey League has been no exception. The league's players boycotted their own games last week causing a delay in the schedule and earlier today the Hockey Diversity Alliance (HDA), a group led by NHL players, published an open letter to the NHL in which they made a series of demands that have been heavily criticized by many including myself.

I must say I am somewhat surprised that the league has chosen to continue down this path given that the reaction I have seen from our own fans has not at all been positive to these developments, but at least for now the NHL and its players remain defiant. The decision has already cost some teams money though, the Dallas Stars confirmed they had lost clients as a result of the protests, and I do wonder if that might not have an impact on how the league views these decisions moving forward. One thing is certain is that thus far no player in the league has chosen to speak out against the protests, either because they all agree with them or for fear of the backlash they would receive for doing so, but that is not the case when it comes to former NHL players. 

On Sunday beloved former NHL goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov made some pretty blunt statements regarding the current state of the NHL and even went so far as to suggest that these types of protests in the league were "absurd." 

“I don’t see a problem here, then they will play,” Bryzgalov said in a recent interview conducted in Russian. “I don’t see any connection between the NHL games and the story that happened in Wisconsin, which we know little about. How are hockey, sports and police illegal actions connected?”

"I'm tired of this hype. If we talk about Black Lives Matter, don't the lives of whites, Hispanics, Asians have any value? It's all so politicized. To admit a connection between sports and such things is absurd", - he added.

Bryzgalov has always been a popular figure in the NHL as a result of his quirky personality and given the reaction I have seen from fans to the recent protests I suspect that these comments will only further endear him to the NHL's core audience. 

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