“It was a big exhale for me because I felt like I was alone in it, but it was the exact opposite”
Ryan Reaves
"I have to go back to (Wednesday) night to be honest. We went out for dinner with a couple of the boys and then Brayden McNabb asked if we were going to play (Thursday). I said 'yeah, why not?' I then came upstairs and asked myself if we were really going to play. Are we not going to support what's going on here? We have to, you have to think we are. Honestly I was up all night," said Reaves.
"I ended up calling Marc-Andre Fleury, I texted him at 12 a.m. to see if he was still up. He called me back and we had a decent conversation. In my head, I was thinking about how there were only a couple players of color in the bubble. How is this going to look? Am I just going to walk out to support my black community? Am I going to be the one or two or three out of the eight teams doing it? Am I not going to support and just go play and act like everything is fine? I was back and forth, but in my head I felt like we shouldn't play. I felt like this was something that we needed to support.
"Lo and behold, I wake up after an hour or two of sleep and I have a text from Kevin Shattenkirk asking me to call him. I called him and he said he had players from the teams out east and they wanted to hear what I had to say. I said I feel like it's a strong message and a very powerful message if a sport like hockey, which is predominantly white, can stand up and say I don't know what you've been through and never will, but I see what's going on in this country and I don't think it is right. Every single player said they would stand behind it and that we should not play. I got another text that Vancouver wanted to talk. I get outside their locker room and every one of those guys thought we should sit for two days and said they'd stand behind it. It was a big exhale for me because I felt like I was alone in it, but it was the exact opposite. I couldn't have felt more in a group than I did this morning. It was great because it was such a powerful message to see that people really see what is going on in this country. As white athletes, they don't want to stand for it anymore. To take that stance, I applaud every single NHL player right now. I really do."
Ryan Reaves, speaking about the players’ decision not to play on 27/28th August
