Earlier today members of the Vegas Golden Knights, Vancouver Canucks, Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars gathered to meet with the media and take questions regarding the NHL's two-day work stoppage in protest against police brutality and racial injustice. The NHL's protest is of course in reaction to the NBA's decision to postpone/cancel games yesterday after the Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court in a show of protest against the issues of police brutality and racial inequality in the wake of Jacob Blake's shooting in Kenosha, WI.
Standing in front of players from all four remaining Western Conference playoff teams, Reaves gave a stirring speech that recounted how exactly the players came to this conclusion and what ultimately led to the players saying, "enough is enough."
First up, Reaves admits that he was indeed planning to sit out his team's scheduled game this evening against the Canucks, but that he was wrestling with just how to tell his teammates. This is hockey after all, and nothing is more important to a hockey player than having the support of his teammates. In Reaves' case though, he quickly found out that he was not alone. Reaves goes on to say that Tampa Bay Lightning forward Kevin Shattenkirk reached out to him early on to get his thoughts on the matter and then the Vancouver Canucks led by captain Bo Horvat had an in-person meeting with Reaves to discuss matters.
It was these two events that reportedly got the ball rolling. But, I'll let Reaves tell the story as his words resonate a Hell of a lot more than mine do.
Check it out:
Powerful stuff indeed. Here's hoping though that, as Reaves and Colorado Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri would go on to say, that this movement doesn't end in 48 hours. It's up to these players whether they want to continue using their media platform or not. What the NHL players are doing is not popular and they stand to lose millions of fans and paying customers as a result of their protest. What they do in the days and weeks following this protest is over will ultimately determine whether or not it was worthwhile.
