Ryan Reaves speaks up for NHL after cancellation of playoff games (Video)

Ryan Reaves spoke about the NHL’s decision to postpone games on Thursday.

The day after what was seen as a missed opportunity for the NHL, the only league not to cancel games in solidary with the NBA’s player strike. Players chose to take a stand on Thursday, as the NHL chose to postpone all scheduled playoff games on both Thursday and Friday.

Ryan Reaves stood beside other players of color, like Nazem Kadri and Pierre-Eduard Bellemare, as he gave some thoughtful insights into the events that lead to the league and its players choosing not to play on Thursday. Earlier in the day, the Hockey Diversity Aliance made a formal request to the NHL to call off games in solitary with the NBA and its players.

“I think if you look around this room, there is a lot of white athletes in here and I think that’s a statement that’s being made right now. It’s great that the NBA did this, and the MLB and the WNBA, they have a lot of black players in those leagues, but for all these athletes in here, to take a stand and say ‘you know what, we see the problem too, and we stand behind you.’ You know, I go to war with these guys, and I hate their guts on the ice, but I couldn’t be more proud of these guys, the statement they made today is something that’s gonna last. These two days isn’t going to fix anything, but the conversation and the statement that’s been made is very powerful, especially coming from this league.”

Reaves commented on his stance on kneeling and made it very clear that he would have rathered taken a stand as a league, rather than a few players kneeling during the anthems. Reaves also made it clear that he had the utmost respect for the military, and that he didn’t want his actions to be misunderstood as a protest against armed forces.

“For me, I also have a lot of respect for the military, so I wanted to start the conversation with what’s going on in the [United] States right now, but I also want to stand and respect the people that fought and died for this country [Canada]. So, I don’t think I was planning on doing anything else on the ice, and I don’t know if I am after this, to be honest, but I think this is a much more powerful message today than anything that one, or two, or three guys could do on the ice.”

Reaves explained that he had been pondering his actions on Thursday the entire day of Wednesday, after seeing the NBA, MLB and WNBA players make the decision not play games. Reaves described the process that led to the players taking the stand that they did on Thursday, which included a large voice from his playoff series opponents, the Vancouver Cancuks.

“I think the best thing that happened, to me last night I think I struggled with what I wanted to do, whether it was, ‘am I really gonna walk out on my team, and be the only one, or is there going to be a of couple guys, but I woke up to texts from Kevin Shattenkirk, and he had a bunch of guys out east there, and they wanted to talk, and then I got a text saying that Vancouver wanted to talk. That I think was more powerful, the conversation started with white players on other teams that wanted to talk. I think that’s the most powerful thing that happened today, and now you see us all coming together, all opponents here. I hope after this, I don’t expect every one of these guys to go out and be advocates for this movement, but I am sure lots of us are. That’s the biggest thing, you can’t just talk about in the bubble and then go home and live your life. You gotta start being part of it, and I expect lots of us to do that.”

Tampa Bay defensemen Kevin Shattenkirk was asked what lead to his decision in contacting Reaves, and the overall choice to not play on Thursday. Shattenkirk told media members that his overall motivation was to support players of color around the league.

Vancouver Canucks head coach Travis Green was asked about how he felt concerning Canucks players reaching out to Ryan Reaves on Thursday morning, Green told the media that ‘things are bigger than sports’, and said he wasn’t at all surprised that the Canucks wanted to talk to Reaves, as it was the right thing to do.