"Hockey is For Everyone" night
This past weekend, the Regina Pats held their HIFE game in an 8-0 win against the Seattle Thunderbirds. This felt meaningful as Luke Prokop was a part of this team for the 2022-2023 season, helping the team to the Memorial Cup. As of right now, Prokop is the only out player under an active NHL contract.
With a ceremonial puck drop from Jacob Wassermann, victim in the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash and paralympian (9th in the PR1 single skulls in the 2024 Paris Paralympic). Not a dry eye in the Brandt Centre that night, a truly beautiful moment.
According to Tourism Regina (not to ignore some of their recent PR stunts), this game is "all about celebrating inclusion and making sure everyone feels welcome in our hockey community." Apart from Wassermann's puck drop, I saw nothing, especially compared to last season's "Hockey is For Everyone" game.
No use of pride tape in warm up, no mention of any para or blind hockey associations, etc...
If the Pats really wanted to show their support, they could have done it during their "big Bedard year." Having the next big kid in hockey saying "regardless of your race, gender, sexuality, etc..., there's always room in the locker room for you." would have done wonders. Due to the nature of the second half of the 2022-2023 season, that did not happen.
Last year, there was the use of pride tape, involvement of local pride groups (Queen City Pride), and promo videos from what I can remember.
I do understand that the political climate of Saskatchewan is not particularly friendly towards queer people at the moment, and hopefully there will be a change after the upcoming election. There may be players from either team from countries that are hostile towards queer people and could be putting themselves or their families at risk by showing support.
There are indigenous players on the team, there's POC and queer people involved in off ice roles. People who have been traditionally excluded from the sport are existing and thriving. I hope that I continue to see that in the upcoming seasons.
I question I ask myself every year, is hockey really for everyone?
