WaFd Bank Weekly Warmup: Sept. 1

As the NHL Stanley Playoffs reduce to four teams this week, the intensity will significantly rise as the winners from hub city Toronto will travel to Edmonton to play the Eastern Conference Final. That winner will then advance to the Stanley Cup Final.
Let's drop the
WaFd Bank
Weekly Warmup puck on the coming week in hockey.

Joining the Boycott
As news broke last Wednesday that the Milwaukee Bucks were going to forfeit their scheduled playoff game to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, just 40 miles from the team's home base, the other NBA teams in the Orlando bubble waived off the Bucks forfeit to make it a league-wide boycott of the night's slate of games.
The NHL played its scheduled two games that night, prompting any number of social media posts expressing disappointment the league and its players didn't protest by boycott Wednesday. By Thursday morning, the recently formed Hockey Diversity Alliance (HDA), was
formally notifying the league of its request to cancel Thursday night games
to show solidarity with a sports boycott that by then included the NBA, WNBA, major league baseball, soccer and the men's and women's tennis tours. The HDA, represented by two of its founders, Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba and San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane, connected with team captains in a call that grew to more than 100 players joining from the eight remaining playoff teams.

The decision was
made by the players to cancel Thursday's games
, and supported by the NHL and its clubs. But players who played Wednesday but not scheduled again until Friday, insisted they wanted to part of the protest, prompting Friday's games to be similarly canceled to mark Jacob Blake being shot seven times in the back.
At first critical of their fellow NHLers, the HDA's Kane and Dumba expressed gratitude for the players' decision to join the boycott. It's evident the alliance, formed in June, is establishing itself as a constructive source and sounding board for NHL players.
Pledging Future Action
Along with the formal request to the NHL to postpone playoff games after talking with players in the league's bubbles, the Hockey Diversity Alliance, it has asked the league to sign a pledge to establish policies and social justice initiatives Colorado center Nazem Kadri, one of the HDA's nine founders, says are "reasonable." The alliance released a statement Saturday inviting the league to commit to funding grassroots programs for people of color, anti-racism training, specific hiring targets for people of color, potential funding and an immediate commitment to zero tolerance for racial discrimination and abuse.

'Fresh Voices'
Kim Davis, the NHL's Executive Vice President for Social Impact, Growth Initiatives and Legislative Affairs, welcomed the Hockey Diversity Alliance in June and reiterated the same in recent comments to media members: "We are excited to be able to bring fresh voices to the table to help us understand the issues in a much more intimate way and take action against those issues. For our players to use their platforms for anything is a big deal because it really has not been the culture of our sport. For it to happen with regards to social justice and them standing up for social justice, it truly takes it from being a moment to a movement in our sport."

HDA's Kane Explains
While no games were played Thursday, the HDA's Evander Kane appeared on the NBC Sports for its "NHL on NBC" coverage. He walked through a historic Thursday: " Going back to [Wednesday], we had an internal discussion with the members of our alliance on how we felt and what we wanted to do, with again, more inaction from our league and, to be honest, from our players, we felt.
"We had another early discussion [Thursday] morning, and that was fortunately followed by a conversation with a group of over 100 players in the bubble. Give them credit, they reached out to us. We were pleasantly surprised to hear some of the dialogue they had within their teams and within small groups regarding these issues and what they wanted to do. Ultimately, they made a decision to forego games today and tomorrow, and obviously we supported that decision and commended them for that."

"It was great to see the players came to the realization this was an important period of time and moment in time to make a statement and come together. I think the biggest thing I stressed along with Matt [Dumba] was it can't just be one or two teams or three or four teams. It's got to be everybody. The fact everybody came together, I thought, was great."
Tampa Bay Advances, Three Slots Await
When the Boston-Tampa Bay second-round playoff series started, TBL captain Victor Hedman was nursing an injury that worried his teammates and coaches. Monday night, Hedman scored the series-winning goal in double overtime, eliminating the 2019 Stanley Cup finalist Bruins in five games. While backup goalie Jaroslav Halak played admirably for Boston (including the team's only series win), no one can deny the B's missed one of the league's top goalies, Tuukka Rask, who opted out of the Toronto after Game 1 of the BOS-TBL series.

The Lightning will now face either the New York Islanders or Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference Final to be staged in Edmonton. Former Seattle Thunderbirds star forward Mat Barzal and his NYI teammates lead the series, 3-2, with ex-Everett Thunderbirds star goalie Carter Hart and PHI hoping to stave off elimination in Game 6 at 4 p.m. Tuesday on NBC Sports Network.
In the West, Dallas has a 3-2 lead over Colorado after the Avalanche won what will need to be the first of three elimination games Monday night winning with its third-string goaltender. Game 6 is Wednesday, while Vegas, up 3-1, in the series, will look to Vancouver home Tuesday night (NBC Sports Network, 6:45 p.m.).