NHL Teams Won’t Be Wearing Theme-Night Jerseys Next Season

Next season, NHL teams will not be donning special jerseys for pregame warmups on themed nights. This decision comes as a response to a few players who declined to wear rainbow-colored Pride jerseys during the season that just ended, which led to unwanted disruptions.

Recently, the league's Board of Governors supported Commissioner Gary Bettman's agreement that these refusals overshadowed the teams' efforts in hosting Pride nights, where some jerseys were even auctioned off. In fact, all 32 teams held Pride or Hockey is for Everyone night.

Teams will continue to honor and celebrate Pride as well as other theme nights, such as military appreciation and Hockey Fights Cancer. Although players won't wear the specially designed jerseys during warmups, they are still anticipated to create and produce jerseys that will be autographed and sold to raise funds for a good cause.

After the Board of Governors meeting in New York, Commissioner Bettman expressed in an interview with Sportsnet that he proposed the idea of teams discontinuing the use of special warmup jerseys. His reasoning was that themed nights were losing their impact due to the distracting discussions surrounding players who chose not to participate.

"That's just become more of a distraction from really the essence of what the purpose of these nights are," Bettman said. "We’re keeping the focus on the game. And on these specialty nights, we're going to be focused on the cause."

During NHL All-Star Weekend in February, Bettman came to the league and teams' defense, emphasizing their approach to handling the situations. He stated that being "open, welcoming, and inclusive" meant embracing tolerance for different viewpoints.

"You know what our goals, our values and our intentions are across the league, whether it's at the league level or at the club level," Bettman said at the time of the conference. "But we also have to respect some individual choice, and some people are more comfortable embracing themselves in causes than others. And part of being diverse and welcoming is understanding those differences."

Next Flyers season will not be fun. They are finally rebuilding. That is a good thing. They are in the midst of trading a lot of their players to gear up for a long rebuild. Eventually it should pay off with a better product. But that wont make the product on the ice next season any better. They are going to be bad next year, by design. We will not get to see many wins. To be fair, we don't want to see many of them. So when the Flyers released their schedule for next season, it was not met with the same zeal.

That schedule is out now though, and there are some interesting games within it.

Just because it may be a bad season, doesn't mean there are no games worth looking forward to. Yes, it will be a tough season, but there are some games worth putting on the calendar to check out, even if it is because you want to see the other team. There will be good hockey players from other teams worth going out to see. Connor Bedard will be playing in Philly at some point. There will be games for the Flyers that could still be a fun time. Even if it is only to root for the other team because the Flyers are competing with them for the top pick.

The team record is going to be bad. But we should still try to enjoy hockey in this town as much as possible.

The season opener is obviously always worth looking forward to. It is the return of hockey. It may end up being not so great hockey. But it is still hockey. Though the opponent may drum up some not-so-great memories of our former GM. Columbus is where Johnny Gaudreau wound up after Chuck Fletcher couldn’t bring him to Philly. Plus, it will be the first time they see Provorov after trading him.

Likewise, the Home Opener is another game always worth looking forward to. They will face the Canucks this year when they play their first game at the Wells Fargo Center.  Even if the product isn't great, the home opener is always a good time. it will be a packed house, and even if the game doesn't go our way, it should still be a fun time just by virtue of being opening day. Losing may make it even better actually, since it is what we want them to do. 

Want to see what a good hockey team looks like? They will get that chance when they travel to Vegas to play the reigning champions. A team that in just several years of existence have done what the Flyers haven't been able to do in 50. Hell, they have played in two Stanley Cups in that time. As far as road trips worth taking to see the Flyers, this is probably top of the list. You likely wont get to the see a win, but you will see one really good team at least. And going to Vegas is never a bad time either. 

As mentioned, they will play Ivan Provorov for the first time to open the season. But the first time he returns to the Flyers will be November 19th. Ivan was supposed to be the next great defender for the Flyers. Instead he kind of fizzled out here. Was it that he was just not that good? Or did the Flyers fail to make use of his talents. Either way, it should make for a decent storyline when he returns to Philly. 

The goal of the season is to get the best draft pick possible. One of their greatest competitors for the best odds in the lottery will be the Coyotes. A franchise so in the dumps they don’t even have a real building to play in. This may be a game you want to tune into, just to see how it impacts the Flyers chances in the lottery.  

Keith Jones told us that the Lightning are one of the teams you should try to emulate when building a team. They didn’t make much noise this year, going out early in the playoffs. But before that they were in the last 3 Stanley Cups, and won two of them. Not a bad team to try in follow the footsteps of. So it may be worth paying attention to them when they come to town.  Becaus what the Lighniting have turned into as a franchise is how Keith Jones is modelling this team's rebuild. 

Despite the meager expectations for the Flyers this season, they are in one of the Stadium Series games this year. They will take on the Devils at Met Life Stadium in February. Weather can sometimes ruin these games. But it is a cool sight to see when mother nature cooperates. If you haven't been before, Met Life Stadium is not that difficult to get to via train. Even if the game doesn't go the Flyers way, it could still be a fun night at Met Life. 

The Flyers did not win the Connor Bedard sweepstakes. They weren't bad enough this past year, and he is going to the Blackhawks instead. But we will at least get a chance to watch him play in person. The Blackhawks, along with Connor Bedard, are playing in Philly at the end of March. When your team is as bad as the Flyers will be this season, you plan what games you go to more around who the other team is. And with how special Connor Bedard could be, that is the type of game worth going to.