Will Flames Use Warmup Jerseys For Pride Night?

Unofficially, the Calgary Flames do have a Pride Night jersey developed for every player to wear during warmup on Tuesday night. 

Officially, those plans have yet to be confirmed. 

While the night has been advertised by some of the Flames' LGBTQ+ partners for weeks, including the promise of the warmup jerseys, recent NHL occurrences have led to some apprehension in arenas across North America. Ivan Provorov elected not to wear the Pride design in Philadelphia earlier this year and others have followed suit. Marc and Eric Staal are the latest to make headlines in Florida, sitting out the warmup and releasing a statement ahead of their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Some teams are avoiding wearing them altogether — including the New York Rangers, Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks — in order to prevent the singling out of any players who choose not to pull on a rainbow-inspired sweater. 

Where the Flames land at this point may come down to a behind-the-scenes poll of the players, proactively trying to figure out whether anyone is against putting the jersey on. From a public relations perspective, it's an impossible situation. While most players would say they're happy to sport the symbols of inclusion. At the same time, most would also say that everyone has a right to choose whether or not they want to do so. 

That's what Nazem Kadri's reaction was when asked about Pride Night in Calgary following an odd inclusion into San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer's media availability to talk about why he wouldn't wear the Sharks Pride Night jersey last week. 

"James is a great guy. I’m not sure why I got tied into it, really, but at the end of the day, his opinions are his opinions. He’s got that prerogative to have those opinions," Kadri told reporters on Thursday this week. "For us, it’s supporting — whether it’s an ethnicity or a community — anybody is welcomed in our hockey rink. That’s where we stand."

One reporter posed the question in the hypothetical suggested by Reimer, that he wouldn't wear a Muslim jersey despite "loving" Kadri, who was his teammate for a handful of seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

“I would not feel disrespected at all. I’d obviously probably want to wear the jersey. I wouldn’t really have that expectation for anybody else to wear it," Kadri said. "I wouldn’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. At the end of the day, it’s their choice to wear it or not — I don’t think it would alter my opinion (of them) that much."

As far as what to expect in Calgary when the Los Angeles Kings come to town on Tuesday, Kadri wasn't sure if all the publicity was going to change any of the plans here. 

“I think we’re going to continue with it. It’s an initiative that we have," he said. "We want to welcome everyone into the Saddledome, we want to continue to grow this game and get as many people watching hockey as we possibly can."

The Flames have had some stellar themed inclusion jerseys this year, including Lunar New Year, Black History Month and Indigenous warmup jerseys that were well received in the community and in the locker-room. These were all collaborative efforts with the communities they were highlighting. 

Let's hope this is just another success for the Calgary Flames. On the ice, where they need to get a second straight win at home, and off the ice.