Why the NHL's individuality issues may be preventing gay players from coming out (2023)

In a moving (and well-deserved) public display of admiration and respect for retired Detroit Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, who by almost everyone was such a true embodiment of class that "classes" in various Michigan school districts should rightly to be called Lidstroms: Ken Holland paid Lidstrom a huge compliment.

Holland called Lidstrom a "no maintenance" player.

It was a great appointment, a testament to Lidstrom's ability to lead the Red Wings to success without ever being in the spotlight, and heralded as a role model for current and future NHL players. But at the same time, it should be noted that Lidstrom's approach is not for everyone. Not all players are silent and I think progressing only on Lidstrom's silent path is bad.

More importantly, I can't help but think that if I were a gay hockey player, this feeling would make me afraid to come out.

Who wants to excel in a league where excellence is seen as a problem? The league wants players who are low maintenance and who reveal an alternative sexuality that requires maintenance.

It seems reasonable to assume that there is at least one gay hockey player in the NHL, something Tanner Glass reported when he joined the You Can Play project in March.

"The fact that there are no openly gay athletes in our sport is not right," he said.said the Winnipeg Sun. "If you look at the numbers, statistically there have to be some guys."

The glass is correct. It is difficult to determine exactly what percentage of the population is gay, but the latest research suggests that, demographically, it is between 2 and 3%. Even with that two percent, out of about 700 players in the NHLPA, we're looking at about 14 gay hockey players. Playing it safe, we can comfortably reduce that number to "a few" and assume we're in the ballpark.

But right now, as far as we know, he's not in the NHL. And if someone decides to reveal their sexual orientation, so be it. Only one.

There will also be a media circus. This person will obviously be a frontrunner and God knows there are several teams in the league waiting with baited breath for this player to emerge.In a recent interview with Adam Proteau of The Hockey NewsPatrick Burke, founder of the You Can Play Project, predicted an openly gay NHL player within the next two years.

But this is not only Burke's view. This is also your hope. After all, paving the way for hockey players to feel comfortable talking openly about their sexuality is what the charity is all about. It would validate the courageous work that Burke is doing and give the project a standard that goes beyond mere players who commit to making short, supportive PSAs knowing they have nothing to lose, especially when everyone else is doing it.

The You Can Play project is making great strides, but when it comes to embracing uniqueness, the league is woefully behind. In the NHL, if "person" isn't associated with "effort," it's usually presented as a disadvantage. Hockey may not have openly gay hockey players, but it does have some great openly gay hockey players who have been openly criticized for this lack all season long.

Consider the cases of Ilya Bryzgalov and Tim Thomas.

Page Case of Ilya Bryzgalov

What did we learn from this NHL season? Among other things, that Ilya Bryzgalov is a strange bird.

The fact that we didn't really find out until 2011-2012 that Ilya Bryzgalov, of all people, had somehow managed to slip under the radar until now is a testament to four things: Dave Tippett's excellent system that he can quietly make Mike Smith and Jason LaBarbera look like Mike Richter and John Vanbiesbrouck. Huge difference between covering hockey in Arizona and covering it in Philadelphia, where reporters get beaten up on a farm in Chester County. The crazy Bryzgalov contract that pays him $70 billion over eleven billion years and it's getting attention. and HBO 24/7, which offered even more.

Suddenly Bryzgalov had cameras and microphones in his face all the time and it was great. Throughout the year he joked with the crowd, played pranks, pulled funny nonsense and made funny faces. Bryzgalow's performance in the scrum was a treat to watch.

There was less on the ice.

No matter what the Flyers tried (besides playing defense against him), they couldn't get him anywhere close to playing level in Phoenix.

Even worse, when he played poorly, many of those who tried to explain his problems always turned to his personality. Somehow his unpredictability off the ice was matched by his unpredictability on the ice, as if his penchant for conceding bad goals was a symptom of the same weirdness that made him such a fun interview.

To hear the media talk about it from time to time, instead of going on the record, Bryzgalov shouted "Tra la la!" and do a pirouette from the turn.

To suppress his cursed whim, already in November Bryzgalovhe had a muzzlefor brochures. Bryzgalov's start meant that the day before the game and during the morning skate he was kept away from reporters and released later.

The media was upset, but mostly reacted with amusement.Broad Street Hockey's Travis Hughes was fun:

No kidding, it fails the scent test. But it's an indication of what's happening with unique characters in the NHL. If they play poorly, they essentially forfeit the right to excel. It's entirely possible, yes, possible, that Bryzgalov's banter with the media had absolutely nothing to do with his uneven play this season, but because he had the audacity to point out his personality, it was assumed that was where the problem lay.

What bothered me so much was Bryzgalov hurting the Flyers.Who was he?. I wonder if any gay hockey players have noticed this?

But Bryzgalov wasn't the only boxer who paid the price for the public to know about him.

The Curious Case of Tim Thomas

At the end of the 2010-11 season, Tim Thomas was an American hero. He just played one of the best individual campaigns in NHL history. His glory was endless.

However, people praised Thomas not only for his networking skills, but also for his engaging nature, assertive demeanor and what Joe MacDonald calledthe photo of her with the boy next door.

The irony is that people loved who Thomas was precisely because they didn't really know who he was. It couldn't have been more evident than when he unexpectedly decided to skip the team's celebratory visit to the White House in January. Margary Eagan of the Boston Herald summed up the hockey world's reaction to the news:

Eventually, Thomas revealed his political views on his Facebook page, explaining that he disagreed with the government's directives and that he was exercising his right as a free citizen by abandoning the trip. It rubbed a lot the wrong way, but he really had a point.

Also, speaking of fairness, for the first time anyone realized how politically inclined Thomas was, which caused a sharp shift in mood, even among Bruins fans.

It was Thomas who showed up and people didn't like him. Thomas tried to distinguish himself at the All-Star break.Z ESPN:

Unfortunately for Thomas, not everyone took the incident lightly, and his failure to show up at the White House was credited as a contributing factor to the Bruins' second half of the season. The before-and-after stats didn't help: The Bruins were 31-13-2 before Thomas stayed home and 18-16-2 after.

But it is this incidentActuallyaffect the game of Thomas or the Bruins?

Probably not.

It doesn't matter that the team's excellent record before the visit was exaggerated by their remarkable November, or that they were already rested before traveling to Washington, with 4 losses in their last 9 games. Thomas took much of the blame for upsetting the band's delicate and emotional chemistry, with views not shared by everyone.

Most argued that he really should have come to terms with his beliefs, a very important aspect of his identity, because that was what was best for the group.

I hate this. I thought it was a pretty stupid decision at the time, and I still do, but that's because I'm me. I do not hold Thomas's beliefs or opinions. I'm not Tim Thomas. If he believes strongly in that decision, he should be allowed to do so, and the fact that we expected him to be someone who wasn't for the good of the team seems unfair.

Also, the fact that much of the hockey community has turned against him after seeing parts of his identity that had nothing to do with how he played on the ice is troubling, especially as a reflection of how we can embrace a gay athlete.

Like I said, there are no openly gay athletes in hockey, but we saw something in both Thomas and Bryzgalow that I think is part of the reason.

The more we know about players, the more ways we can criticize them. Frankly, deviating from the pattern is dangerous, as Helen Etchingham recently pointed out.From the upside down shelf:

There are reasons why hockey might be the perfect sport for an openly gay athlete, but the way we hold and criticize others to conform is not one of them.

It is true that in the case of Thomas and Bryzgalov, there were several additional circumstances that worked against them. Bryzgalow's contract made his bad play intolerable and you can't underestimate the White House like Thomas did without a sigh. Also, many will find the first gay hockey player brave and attack almost anyone who tries to say otherwise.

However, the mood will not be entirely positive. While I would say that many of us and many in the hockey community are progressive enough to accept a gay hockey player like anyone else, there are some who do not share that acceptance and are just wise enough not to say anything.

Consider the reception retired basketball player John Amaechi received when he came out in 2007. It was very mixed. There were those who openly took it, those who condemned it stupidly, like Tim Hardaway who said "First of all, I wouldn't want him on my team" and then only judged him worse, and many others who revealed some serious concern. .

(My favorite was Shavik Randolph, who said, "As long as you don't bring your homosexuality to me, I'll be fine." I'm still not sure if Randolph is afraid to confront homosexuality or if he might be infected by it.)

I doubt anyone playing in the NHL today will receive anything but positive reception. You're more likely to see homophobic, accepting, and anxious reactions alike, which add up to the worst thing imaginable: attention.

For both Thomas and Bryzgalov, winning more games would likely silence the critics, and arguably the best thing that could happen to the first openly gay hockey player would be a quick Stanley Cup. But any judgments that followed the revelation will be blamedTHATthe revelation and how it destroyed the chemistry within the band. If what we are led to believe is true, bands are fragile collective souls whose soul resonance is not remotely possible without the complete removal of any disturbances.

With all of this in mind and with the public crucifixion of thomas, bryzgalov, and any other unsupported player, I've seen more than one gay hockey player decide, because of team chemistry and avoiding distractions, it's probably easier to stay in closet until they are done with hockey.

According to Burke, if a player is solely concerned with performance, stopping the game can improve performance. I talked to him about his experience, talking about other athletes who came out.

“They talked about taking the weight off their shoulders,” he said, “being more comfortable with who they are. All these guys told me it's an almost universal feeling... I don't expect any player or team to get distracted. I predict which one will be positive."

Burke also had something to say about all the players' fear of the media circus and the potential team distraction it entails.

"We've dealt with quite a few members of the media, we've dealt with quite a few fans, we've dealt with quite a few other players so we know that's not going to be a problem," he said. "The hockey world is ready for this and I honestly think it will become a rallying point for the players, for the team. They're going to rally around the guy who does it and not use him as a scapegoat or anything."

But this is optimistic. We see players being scapegoated all the time, often for the dumbest nonsense (like being born in Russia, for example), and there's not much their teammates can do to combat this negativity. Also, in my opinion, if a gay hockey player shared this optimism, he would not hide his sexual orientation.

And finally, You Can Play has a design to minimize the controls and reduce the pressure to be first through this circus - there is no such thing as first man.

"Ideally, we'd like to do it as a team, get four or five guys that want to go out and do it as a team," Burke said. "In this way, there is no first, there are five first."

"We've given enough people in the hockey community that we're here to support whoever wants to come out. We'd like to form a team. Whether it's retired players or current players, whether it's coaches, media or whatever I think that doing it as a team would take a lot of pressure off everyone."

Actually. Our problems with those who stand out are at the heart of my concern about gay athletes coming out about their sexual orientation, but that concern is certainly mitigated if we can single out an individual by creating a supportive community of like-minded people across the board. world. world once.