The captain of the Washington Capitals hockey club, Alexander Ovechkin, refused to take part in an action in support of LGBT people* during the National Hockey League regular season match against Florida.
The game took place on the night of January 18 and ended with the victory of the Panthers with a score of 5:2.
As part of the initiative, Washington hockey players used rainbow electrical tape on the hooks of the sticks. However, Ovechkin went on the ice with the usual equipment, deciding not to join the action.
The Russian forward is 40 years old. He has been playing for Washington since 2005. Ovechkin last season set a historic NHL record for the number of goals in regular championships and surpassed the record of Canadian Wayne Gretzky. At the moment, the striker has 917 abandoned goals. Together with Washington, he won the Stanley Cup in 2018.
*Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation