TORONTO — The Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins didn’t consider following the lead of other professional sports teams by boycotting their game on Wednesday night, according to veteran players on both sides.
Instead they went ahead with the 8:10 p.m. ET puck drop — three hours after the NBA announced it was postponing its entire slate of games in the wake of Milwaukee Bucks players choosing not to take the court to face the Orlando Magic.
The Bruins and Lightning were completing a back-to-back in their second-round Stanley Cup Playoff series and didn’t become aware of the developments happening elsewhere until arriving at Scotiabank Arena, according to the players made available for Zoom interviews afterwards.
As a result, there doesn’t seem to have been any serious discussion about the merits of playing.
“It was so close to our game,” said Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. “After our pre-game meal we took naps and then we were on the bus so I don’t think any of us were watching the TV until we got to the rink and at that point it was obviously too close to the game to start any discussions or trying to move the games to different dates.”
“Just personally, with our team, we played last night, we played today, we didn’t really find out that the other leagues had taken their stance until we got here tonight,” said Lightning defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk. “So it was something that we found out by the time we got to the rink and something we’ll have to address going forward.”
The Bucks and Magic made history Wednesday afternoon when they refused to play in response to Jacob Blake’s shooting by police in Kenosha, Wis., over the weekend. Blake, who is Black, was left paralyzed after taking at least seven shots in the back.
A wave of similar boycotts immediately followed.
The Milwaukee Brewers decided not to go ahead with their game against the Cincinnati Reds, one of four Major League Baseball contests that went unplayed. The WNBA called off its three scheduled games Wednesday as players stood in solidarity with their NBA brethren. And the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament announced that it would postpone play on Thursday to take “a stance against racial inequality and social injustice that once again has been thrust to the forefront in the United States.”
The NHL decided to hold a moment of reflection before Wednesday’s Lightning-Bruins game, but didn’t do so for the Dallas Stars-Colorado Avalanche game played later in the night in Edmonton.
The Bruins had previously taken a public stance against racism with statements from Bergeron and Zdeno Chara following the murder of George Floyd by police in Minnesota. They also wore black t-shirts to the arena before their first round-robin game inside the Toronto bubble earlier this month.
“We stand against any type of racism,” Bergeron said Wednesday. “My stance and our stance doesn’t change.”
“Definitely we support NBA players and all the leagues that showed their support,” added Chara. “There’s different ways to express that fight and obviously NBA players expressed their opinions by boycotting the games today. So we support it.”
The teams will get an off-day in their series on Thursday and will have more time to reflect on what kind of response is needed, if any.
“I think the world’s changed in just the short time that we were at the rink,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “I got here at 4:30. I think what’s happening now at 11:15 is much different than what was happening at 4:30. I don’t know all the details of what’s happened in other leagues — I’m aware now — but at the time there wasn’t things being discussed with our group.
“I mean we were preparing to play the Boston Bruins and when you have such a short turnaround from playing last night to today, that was really all the talk. So that was basically all that happened.
“Like I said, I think there’s a lot of things we’re aware of now that we weren’t as aware of before the game.”
The Lightning beat the Bruins 7-1 to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Game 4 is scheduled for Friday night.
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