PHILADELPHIA — When the Flyers took their pregame skate Tuesday before facing the Anaheim Ducks, one player was absent on the ice.
Ivan Provorov, the 26-year-old defensemen, refused to wear the Flyers’ LGBTQ+ Pride Night warmup jersey during the skate, where players also wrapped their sticks in rainbow tape.
Provorov told reporters after the game that he declined to participant in the warmup because he had “to stay true to myself and my religion.” Provorov, a Russian national, identifies as Russian Orthodox, part of the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
