The NHL's annual Hockey Fights Cancer initiative is in full swing, but it will be without the traditional cause-related jerseys due to the league's ban on specialty warmup jerseys, implemented because several players "refused to wear specialty gear" on nights supporting the LGBTQ+ community, according to Bailey Johnson of the WASHINGTON POST. The NHL and the players union launched the Hockey Fights Cancer initiative in 1998. For the past 25 years, every fall and one spring, across the league, each team has "taken a night to honor those diagnosed with cancer and raise money to find a cure." More than $32M has been raised since the initiative began. One of the most visible ways in which players are involved in the fundraising has been by wearing lavender jerseys, "which are donned in warmups and then auctioned off." Teams are allowed to let players wear specialty jerseys off the ice, and the Capitals "plan to have their players walk into Saturday’s game wearing Hockey Fights Cancer jerseys" that will be signed and auctioned off. For years though, the sight of lavender in warmups was an "indelible part" of each team’s Hockey Fights Cancer game. Capitals D Rasmus Sandin said, "I think it’s terrible that we didn’t have any say and we can’t raise our voices in that kind of way, with wearing the jerseys" (WASHINGTON POST, 11/16).
HOLDING FIRM: In Toronto, Kevin McGran noted that the league “will not budge” on its stance prohibiting use of cause-related warm-up jerseys. Last year, it "turned into a controversy" when some players declined to wear rainbow-themed, warm-up sweaters. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said that teams will “continue to hold special nights,” like Pride, Hockey Fights Cancer and military support evenings, but “not with players wearing specialized jerseys.” Bettman: “We’re going to leave it where it is right now. I think what people lose sight of is our teams collectively do 338 specialty nights in support of causes, whether it’s Pride, military, Hockey Fights Cancer or whether it’s heritage nights. And so we want the attention on the activations, not on which players are doing and not doing certain things in response” (TORONTO STAR, 11/16).
While Hockey Fights Cancer nights will still occur throughout the league, the specialty jerseys will not be wornGetty Images
