The Caps Celebrate Pride Night

Logan Thompson sports Pride Tape on his stick during warmups. (Photos by Caps Outsider)

The Washington Capitals celebrated their tenth Pride night on Saturday against the Florida Panthers, an event which included several local LGBTQ+ community organizations, a pre-game party at District E, rainbow jerseys and hats, and other festivities.

Some of the Caps sported rainbow tape on their sticks during warmups, including Trevor Van Riemsdyk, John Carlson, Hendrix LaPierre, Nic Dowd, Dylan Strome, Brandon Duhaime, Connor McMichael, and Logan Thompson. Far more players, including Alex Ovechkin, signed sticks and pucks that the Caps are auctioning off to benefit the Wanda Alston Foundation, D.C.-based nonprofit that launched a housing program for LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness.

A few years ago, some players – mainly Christian and Russian players – opted out of wearing Pride jerseys during warmups, citing either religious beliefs or anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Russia. The NHL then banned all “specialty” jerseys during warmups and games, including camouflage jerseys for Military night, and purple jerseys for Hockey Fights Cancer night. At auctions, these specialty jerseys often raised quite a bit of money for charities (the Caps have done this many times).

Though scheduled long in advance and a staple of the Caps’ promotional schedule, the timing of the event, particularly for the ‘T’ in LGBTQ+, came in the same week that the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments about a teenage trans athlete competing in shot put, despite a West Virginia law that bans transgender women from being on women’s sports teams.

While the ruling has yet to happen, it’s widely expected that the Supreme Court will uphold the ban, something that certainly isn’t in the spirit being preached at Pride events.

Despite the festivities for Pride, the ceremonial faceoff had something else in mind. Four PWHL players, including local Hayley Scamurra, dropped the puck a day before Scamurra’s Montréal Victoire faces off against the New York Sirens at Capital One Arena tomorrow. Ovechkin and Florida captain Aaron Ekblad posed for photos with them at the circle.

John Carlson sports the Pride tape.
Connor McMichael warms up before the game.
PWHL players drop the pucks.
Some fans wore Love Wins jerseys.