Alex Ovechkin Lets His Thoughts On Pride Night Known

Everybody knows Alex Ovechkin as the Russian goalscoring machine who will likely go down as the greatest goalscorer of all time. With this fame also comes a lot of attention on everything he does.

Last season the Washington Capitals held a pride night, not using pride jerseys but rather pride tape, and it was reported that Ovechkin did not participate. This did not receive nearly as much attention as it would have as Ivan Provorov refused to wear a pride jersey that night.

After all of the backlash, the NHL removed specialty jersey nights altogether and now there will be no more pride jerseys, breast cancer awareness jerseys, military appreciation jerseys, or any other specialty warmup jersey.

In a recent interview, Ovechkin made his thoughts on how the NHL handled the situation known.

It is clear that Ovechkin is a fan of the NHL's handling of this situation. There are a couple of possibilities on what led him to make these comments. First and most drastic, he is not a supporter of the LGBT community. Second and more likely is that Ovechkin is a supporter of free speech. If a player chooses not to wear a jersey that is his choice for whatever reason he pleases.

At the end of the day, it is a touchy subject that has divided the sport of hockey more than it already is. While putting a temporary end to specialty jerseys feels like a cop-out, it will likely cause less of an outcry during the season.

As seen on Blade of Steel - Ovechkin shares his thoughts on how the NHL handled players not wearing Pride Jerseys