Bruins, Predators wear T-shirts in support of Black Lives Matter movement

The Nashville Predators and Boston Bruins showed their support for the antiracist movement Sunday by wearing T-shirts for their game day arrivals to their respective arenas.

The Predators wore Black Lives Matter T-shirts before Game 1 of their Stanley Cup Qualifier series against the Arizona Coyotes at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

"The last couple of months, getting back to playing sports, the message we want to send is equality throughout and that's part of the reason we did it," Nashville defenseman Ryan Ellis said. "Equality for everyone is important in today's society and we're looking to be a positive change in that sense."

The Bruins wore three different shirts to their game against the Philadelphia Flyers at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto that read, "Listen. Learn. Change.," "Eracism.," and "End Racism." and echoed sentiments that they wanted to make a statement as a team following comments from a few of Boston's leaders condemning racism earlier in the week and Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba's

speech in support

of Black Lives Matter on Saturday.

"This was a team-wide discussion that goes back," Bruins defenseman Torey Krug said. "Obviously (Patrice Bergeron) made a statement, (Zdeno Chara), a number of players, myself. We're just supporting Matt Dumba's comments yesterday, I thought were very strong. Heartfelt. So we're trying to get behind eradicating racism. Listening. Learning. Educating. Changing the social injustices. I believe that's what the players were representing and will continue to represent. That was the impetus behind the dress code today."

Bergeron and forward Brad Marchand addressed the team's support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Wednesday.

"Ultimately we are against any form of racism, whether it's in hockey or in life," Bergeron said. "We're trying to listen. We're trying to educate ourselves and we've had some great conversations over the last few days about it and we're going to continue that and hopefully it'll encourage other people to listen and learn more."

"Like Bergy said, I think we all believe that and we're all on the same page," Marchand added. "We don't stand for racism and we are against it, and just like Bergy said, we want to continue and further that conversation and we have had a ton and we do have so much to learn and I think this has really opened our eyes that we need to be part of the solution and that's what we want to do."

Bergeron pledged $25,000 each to the NAACP in Boston and Centre Multiethnique de Quebec in June.

In July, the Toronto Maple Leafs reported to Phase 3 training camp

wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts

and posted the message, "It's a movement, not a moment," on social media.

"I think what we've realized is that not all of us have had the experiences that people around the world have had," Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said last month. "I think this is our small way of keeping the conversation going and really try to acknowledge that this is an ongoing thing. It's going to take a lot of work. We're completely committed to supporting the movement."