Minnesota Wild players chose not to wear a rainbow-themed jersey during warm-up for the team’s second annual Pride Night on Tuesday, despite a previous announcement by the team.
The Wild played against the Calgary Flames in an event designed to highlight the LGBTQ community “with many in-game elements [that would] incorporate the Pride theme.”
A special Pride Night ticket package — which included a Minnesota Wild Pride Night T-shirt, a pregame on-ice photo, and a pregame gathering — was available to fans, with a portion of the proceeds benefitting Twin Cities Pride, a local nonprofit that works to “empower every LGBTQ+ person to live as their true self.”
The team temporarily changed its logo on social media to include the Pride rainbow colors. Some players used Pride pucks and Pride tape on their sticks during warm-ups — which were autographed by select players and donated to Twin Cities Pride, Twin Cities Queer Hockey Association and Team Trans.
Players were also supposed to wear Pride jerseys during the warm-ups, as they did last year — but that never happened, according to sports writer Michael Russo, who covers the Minnesota Wild and the National Hockey League for The Athletic.
“[I was] told it was an organizational decision,” he tweeted Tuesday night.
According to Russo, the jerseys even appeared on the team’s auction site — but the entry was deleted.
“Part of the themed game programming includes custom-designed Wild Pride jerseys worn by the team during pre-game warmups,” the since-removed post read.
The team, which lost 1-0 in a shootout against the Flames, later released a statement saying it would continue to “host nights like this to show players, fans, and the LGBTQIA+ community that hockey is for everyone.”
Earlier this year, Philadelphia Flyers’ Ivan Provorov refused to wear a Pride-themed jersey during the team’s LGBTQ Pride event, citing his Russian Orthodox religion as the reason he chose not to participate in the benefit.
