Fierce fights are imminent in the world of hockey, especially in the highly competitive National Hockey League (NHL), but now there is ferocious debate about whether or not the recent decision to limit the recognition of themes was justified.

In June, four months before the season started, the NHL announced a league-wide ban on athletes altering their warm-up gear to reflect the team’s theme for that night. When teams have home games, they generally assign a theme for that night for their fans to celebrate and bring a large amount of awareness to a critical issue or organization.

Although these themes are celebrated by most, certain themes spark debate about what players wear on the ice. 

The first instance of this controversy was when Ivan Provorov of the Philadelphia Flyers chose not to partake in warmups in his Jan.17 game against the Anaheim Ducks. After the 5-2 win, he stated how as an orthodox Christian, he felt that he would not be staying true to himself and his faith if he applied pride-colored tape to his hockey stick in order to warm up with the team.

Immediately after Provorov made headlines, six other NHL players across the league were recognized as missing from their team’s warmups. After their games, they also cited their team’s use of LGTBQ gear during warmups as the reason for choosing to not participate in warm ups in general.

Even further, select teams such as the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks banned the use of LGTBQ gear by their athletes in the last season for multiple reasons.

Many NHL athletes grew up in Russia and just like Provorov, are orthodox Christians who don’t feel comfortable wearing and using LGBTQ gear. Thus to allow them to feel comfortable warming up, the Rangers and Blackhawks coaching staff had enforced that no athletes were allowed to wear LGBTQ gear.

Teams additionally decided to specifically ban pro-LGTBQ gear during warmups since Russia passed further legislation against LGBTQ individuals and supporters. One of the effects of this legislation was that Russian NHL players were subjected to criminal punishment upon return to Russia if they were associated with a team that supported LGBTQ.

Ultimately, the league as a whole sought to reduce potential sources of contention and unwanted negative media coverage, so league Commissioner Gary Bettman announced his decision to ban teams using or wearing theme specific gear during warm-ups before the season started on October 10th.

Although the main source of contention regarding game themes has been centered around LGTBQ activism, the league-wide policy differs from previous team policies in that it prevents players from recognizing any theme during warmups. 

The ban also means that even non-controversial topics such as “Star Wars night” can longer be recognized by players on the ice.

Moving forward teams will still continue to assign themes for fans, so they can enjoy related festivities and activism can continue to be potrayed for critical issues.