#NHL got its social justice decision right — just one day late

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NHL players speak to the media after the NHL and NHLPA’s announcement to reschedule the games of the Western Conference second round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs.
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Image should not be everything, even in this world in which individuals with no discernible talent become social media “influencers,” but hockey’s image took a beating on Wednesday that was worse than the one Dale Rolfe absorbed that day in Philadelphia in 1975.

The sport and league seemed to turtle. The players appeared to be passengers while athletes and governing bodies under the umbrellas of the NBA, WNBA, MLB, NFL, MLS and USTA unambiguously took a stance against the systemic racism that is an enduring stain on our country and in support of social justice and equality.

Six teams competed in three playoff games on Wednesday. The league did as little as possible to give cover to itself and its players, spending fewer than 30 seconds in its thoughts and prayers moments of reflection in Toronto before the Lightning-Bruins game was 30 seconds more than the NHL devoted to the cause or to Jacob Blake at any time prior to or during the game in Edmonton between the Stars and Avalanche.

Four teams and two games were scheduled for Thursday. They were not played. The other four teams remaining in the Stanley Cup hunt, and the two games between them scheduled for Friday, were all finally postponed following hours of conversations among players on conference calls that included one with two of the leaders of the Hockey Diversity Alliance in Matt Dumba and Evander Kane.

This was an initiative born within the NHLPA, which ultimately had the final say in whether to resume play on Friday or Saturday. Saturday it is.

The Post has learned the Flyers and Islanders, scheduled to meet for Game 3 in Toronto, had first intended to play and create a platform in that manner. But the Canucks, scheduled to play their Game 3 against the Golden Knights in Edmonton, changed the dynamic by adamantly expressing their objection to going on the ice. Conversations ensued with players on Vegas, who were immediately on board.

The league deferred to the players, who didn’t quite have enough time on Wednesday to formulate a game plan — again, they could have used support from the NHL that night — but were fully engaged by Thursday morning. Calls went out to Dumba and Kane. More calls were conducted. A decision was reached.

“We obviously had a chance to talk as a team [Wednesday] night. This morning it went beyond that, and we got together to try and figure out what sort of direction we were going to be going in,” Tampa Bay’s Kevin Shattenkirk said via a Zoom call. “We got to speak with some of the players in the bubble in Edmonton, and when we realized that Vancouver and Vegas were considering sitting out and got to speak to them and speak with Ryan Reaves and talk about the issue at hand and how important this is, I think this is something we were all fully behind.”

Reaves, a black man, is the universally respected enforcer for Vegas whose sway goes beyond the ice. It appears NHL players coalesced around him, and Dumba and Kane, and any and all teammates of color, as much as they did around the ongoing issues highlighted again by the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wis.

And that is fine. If all politics is local, then the NHL brethren is absolutely correct in first cleaning up its own backyard. It can be and is nasty out there. I’m not talking just about the pros. A couple of months ago, I had a telephone conversation with a family whose 7-year-old son was leaving a program in upper Westchester because of racial issues. I spoke to the youngster as well. He was crying.

“We took our time and were able to process this as a whole and speak as a group of players and make the right decision,” Shattenkirk said. “I think today unified us as a group to realize any black player in this league, any black player who is a kid playing hockey can feel that they have a voice and that the NHL and the sport itself is a safe place.

“Obviously, in a predominantly white sport they feel alienated, but they have the support of every single one of us and that’s what we’re striving to achieve here — inclusion and making sure that everyone feels welcome in the sport of hockey.”

The NHL is a horse of a different color. Only a little over a quarter of the league is American. More than 30 percent hail from Europe. Many players spend their offseasons at their respective cabins on lakes. The NHL is not the NBA and it is not the NFL.

But NHL players recognize they have a platform, and they intend to use it. They recognize their obligation. So for two days, the rinks are dark. The goal is to make a brighter future.