Tampa Bay Lightning’s J.T. Brown raises fist during national anthem

Lightning forward J.T. Brown raised his fist during the national anthem on Saturday, the first protest of the NHL regular season.

The 2017-18 NHL season has just begun here in the month of October, and with that, the question has been begged more than once as to whether or not any players in the league would show any sort of protest during the national anthem. With the subject of anthem protests being prevalent in the NFL in the wake of the Colin Kaepernick situation and everything going on in our world currently, of course, it’s safe to wonder how much other leagues will follow suit.

Well on Saturday before the Tampa Bay Lightning took on the Florida Panthers, we got our first protest of the regular season from Tampa Bay forward J.T. Brown.

Before the matchup on Saturday, as the national anthem was being played in the arena, Brown stood and raised his fist in the air. Brown has done this in the preseason this year, however, this did indeed mark the first time during the regular season that we have seen any sort of protest during the anthem.

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Earlier this week in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Brown explained that he believes these protests that are happening are in no way disrespectful, no matter what the President of the United States has to say.

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“Some will tell you that’s disrespecting the military, well I wanted to hear it from someone who is serving, not some person on Twitter,” Brown said. “Some thought (kneeling) it was disrespecting, but most felt that we have a right to do it, regardless of whether they agree with you or not, or would stand next to you.”