Charly Arnolt Explains Why NHL On-Ice Initiatives Ban Truly Is All About Pride Nights

OutKick's Charly Arnolt — host of OutKick The Morning — gave her take on the controversy sweeping the hockey world that has nothing to do with hockey, the banning of Pride jerseys and rainbow-colored tape.

The NHL decided to do away with all specialty warm-up jerseys after woke fans and media members couldn't stomach the thought of some players passing on wearing them for religious, personal, and sometimes even safety reasons.

"Now that the NHL is back in play as of this week, they have decided to not only stop using pride tape on their sticks, but to outright ban it," Arnolt said. "Naturally. There was already some pushback on this new directive including coming from ESPN."

That's probably to be expected, but Arnolt mentioned something that isn't always brought up in this discussion. That the ban was part of an over-arching directive to do away with all on-ice special events.

"But you know what, this isn't about Pride," she explained. "There is an updated guidance from the league that specifies that on-ice player uniforms and also gear for games, warm-ups, and team practices can't be altered in any way to reflect theme nights. This also includes military-themed purposes or their regular Hockey Fights Cancer Night. It is an across-the-board mandate."

Arnolt Says The Ban Is All About Pride Night, Even If The League Tries To Say It Isn't

However, Arnolt said there may be a reason for the league's zero-tolerance position: plausible deniability.

"Honestly, my gut tells me that they lumped all of these on-ice initiatives into the ban to not purely offend the LGBTQ community because we know that is the one group that always gets offended about everything," Arnolt said. "So, this is a way to say, 'No, it's not about you.' But in all reality, I think it is about them."

Tough to argue that. Military and Hockey Fights Cancer Nights always seem to go off without a hitch.

"But anyway, you slice it, I think a ban is a smart idea," Arnolt said. "It takes the pressure off of players to make a decision whether or not they should support a minority group's sex life while playing their sport. Because we know what happens when a player says they don't want to participate in something like this. They are called a bigot, and they shouldn't be put in that position.

"Good for the for making this move. I think it's very smart."