When the NHL reconvened in Edmonton almost one month ago, its first official public act was a powerful speech given by Minnesota Wild defenceman Matt Dumba.

Think about that for a second.

Think about what that said about the NHL’s priorities and where it was aligned. The league could have gone 100 different ways at that moment to celebrate the return of the game after its COVID-19 pause and what it means to so many people.

Instead, it turned the stage over to a young player who spoke about social justice. It was a raw, powerful moment and Dumba, a man of colour and one of the founders of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, stepped up and spoke from his heart.

“For those unaffected by systemic racism, or unaware, I’m sure that some of you believe this topic has garnered too much attention during the last couple of months,” Dumba said. “But let me assure you it has not.

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Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star,

... And if you actually want hockey to be for everyone, it’s good for hockey to be uncomfortable for a while. The NHL has avoided saying Black Lives Matter, preferring a fill-in-the-blank hashtag, We Skate For (Black Lives). The last three Stanley Cup champions visited the Trump White House. The Trump family vocally appreciated the NHL not kneeling during the anthem, while players of colour in the NHL, from Dumba to Kadri to Kane, said they wished the league would do more. That, for the league, was a choice.

And so was this. Maybe it is a one-time thing, a Band-Aid, and hockey reflexively snaps back. Will players reflect on the fact that if you are a player of colour, you heard racial slurs as a matter of course, growing up in the game? Will fans? Will the people who love this game realize how much greater it would be if they worked to share it? The fact that the conversation is happening at all in this game is the win, in some ways, and that’s OK. Hockey could be so much more of a welcoming sport, and culture. It would make the game so much more.

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