Hockey can 'raise the conversation' about racial justice, panel says

Hockey can have a major voice in the conversation about racial justice but needs allies throughout the sport and beyond to make it happen.

That was the main takeaway from "'Willie' -- Creating Constructive Conversations About Race," a webinar session Thursday that focused on lessons learned from the documentary about Willie O'Ree, the first black player in the NHL and the League diversity ambassador. The talk, presented by Prodigy Search, was held on the eve of Juneteenth, which celebrates the effective end of slavery in the United States on June 19, 1865.

The hourlong session was a frank discussion about race in North America from the time when O'Ree made his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins on Jan. 18, 1958, to today, when players of color like Buffalo Sabres forward Wayne Simmonds are subjected to racist insults.

"These things still happen," Simmonds said. "Even though Willie went through those things back then, we're still facing these things today."

Simmonds spoke on the webinar panel moderated by "NHL on NBC" analyst and former NHL forward Anson Carter. It included "Willie" producer Bryant McBride, a former NHL executive; David Alward, consul general of Canada to New England and former premier of New Brunswick; and Frank Nakano, general manager/senior vice president of sports and entertainment at JP Morgan Chase, which was a contributor to the documentary.

"Willie" chronicles O'Ree's life, from his upbringing in Fredericton, New Brunswick, to climbing the professional hockey ladder during the racially turbulent 1960s to being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018.

NHL Network is having a special showing of "Willie" on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. At 6 p.m. ET, the network will air "NHL Tonight: A Conversation," a Juneteenth special on issues surrounding racial injustice and inequality hosted by NHL Network analyst Kevin Weekes. His guests will include Vegas Golden Knights forward Ryan Reaves; Damon Kwame Mason, director of the black hockey history documentary "Soul on Ice: Past, Present and Future"; Kim Davis, NHL executive vice president, social impact, growth initiatives and legislative affairs; and St. Louis sports broadcaster Mike Claiborne.

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Nakano said hockey is in a unique position in the dialogue on race.

"We've always relied on sports in the past to bring people together, conversations together, and I think we need to do an even better job to bring this particular conversation to a head," Nakano said. "It's just an odd, candidly, situation when the best players in a given league are of color and yet this conversation still exists. It pains me when you hear Wayne talking about having to go through this currently. I can only imagine as it goes on with kids. Trash talking is one thing, but when you're crossing the line, we need to raise the conversation to talk about it more socially."

McBride said the discussion Thursday was purposely scheduled for the day before Juneteenth.

"Understand what Juneteenth is," he said.

President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which was supposed to free slaves in the South in 1863, but it wasn't enforced in several states until after the Civil War two years later. Confederate soldiers surrendered in April 1865. But June 19, 1865, is observed as slavery's end because that's when Union troops marched into Galveston, Texas, and Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger read General Order No. 3, which declared, "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights of property between former masters and slaves."

McBride, who was the NHL's first black executive, applauded NHL players -- minority and white -- for speaking out following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in custody of the Minneapolis Police Department on May 25. The incident, captured on video, sparked demonstrations worldwide.

McBride and the other panelists said that other voices in the hockey world -- fans, parents and recreational players -- must also speak out when they see or hear racial injustice occurring within the game, whether it's at an NHL arena or a local rink.

"If you're in a setting where someone is in the stands or in the locker room or in a game in the heat of the moment and somebody says something that's inappropriate, often people will stand there, look, and not say anything because they don't want to add to it," McBride said. "You can deviate from that norm positively. … You can say, and be equipped and have the tools to say, 'You know what? Not acceptable here. Take your opinions elsewhere. They're wrong and not appropriate.' That's in a workplace setting, a play setting, anywhere."

Simmonds recalled when someone in the stands threw a banana on the ice as he was taking part in a shootout as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers during a preseason game in London, Ontario, in September 2011.

He said he didn't want to talk extensively about it at the time. "I didn't want to give that person gratification to let them know that it actually got to me, so I kind of just kept moving forward and continued what I was doing," Simmonds said.

Simmonds, a member of a recently formed Hockey Diversity Alliance with six other current and former NHL players, said he wishes he had spoken out and said more at the time. He said that he's speaking out now to "support players who look like me, even those who don't look like me."

"Whatever way I can do that," Simmonds said, "whether it's sharing my personal stories or being a part of the HDA to where now we could actually have a say in what happening in our sport, I'm going to do whatever it takes to illustrate that point, to get it out there and to make it better."