I’m trying to reconcile this blog with the one on Provorov and Pride Night and failing miserably.
- Quetzalcoatl
You sign a contract, you're a PRO. Every single one of your teammates -- all but you -- comply with a pretty easy ask. Who is out of line? Look in the mirror.
You skate or you don't. If you don't skate in the warmup when you aren't injured or sick, have the stones to sit out the game, too. If club policy runs so strongly counter to your beliefs, ask for a trade or quit.
Like pretty much every official, I didn't like it when the NHL took our names off our sweaters and made is wear only a number. I hated it, in fact. But our choices -- and we had a choice -- were do it or quit. I did what I was told... just as everyone else did.
If Provorov was willing to die on the hill of not wearing the same warmup sweater for 15 minutes as every one of his teammates -- including a couple of very religious/evangelical teammates and at least one teammate who is openly of MAGA leanings -- he had every right to miss the game, too.
As for the bigger picture here, there's nothing to "reconcile".
I suspect you hated the blog I did that was critical of Tim Thomas refusing to join his Bruins teammates at the White House after their Stanley Cup in 2011 because he hated Obama. But you probably liked when I criticized Braden Holtby for refusing the post-2018 Cup invitation to the White House because of his enmity for Trump. Yet my reasoning was the exact same in both cases. I made crystal clear that it was all about being a teammate and had nothing to do with political aligments. Yet the comments section on both blogs -- and the Provorov one most recently --- were filled with people standing on a political soap box and projecting that's what I was doing.
In EVERY case here, I said personal politics have nothing to do with such matters. You are a member of a team. Represent your team. No one is forcing you to endorse a political candidate or support/oppose a policy or law. Don't shake the President's hand. Just be there for and with your team.
I'm 100 percent consistent in my beliefs in such matters. End of story.