Wayne Simmonds took to twitter today to share with his followers and the hockey community that himself and the others in The Hockey Diversity Alliance have requested the NHL Suspends Playoff Games on August 27th, 2020.
After playing scheduled Stanley Cup Playoff games on Wednesday night, the NHL called off its Thursday games.
The league didn’t want to cancel games unless a strong stance was taken by the players, which they did through a conversation with The Hockey Diversity Alliance. The executive committee of The Hockey Diversity Alliance is made up of Matt Dumba, Trevor Daley, Wayne Simmonds, Chris Stewart, retired forward Joel Ward, and Evander Kane. The group’s goal is ” to eradicate racism and intolerance in hockey.”
Matt Dumba said, “The NHL is always late to the party, especially on these topics, so it’s sorta sad and disheartening for me and other members of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, and I’m sure other guys across the league,” Dumba said in interview with Vancouver’s Sportsnet 650.
“But if no one stands up and does anything, it’s the same thing — it’s just that silence that you’re just outside looking in on actually being leaders and invoking real change when you have such an opportunity to do so.”
In total, the NBA, MLS, MLB and WNBA all canceled some or all games as a result of the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
