Courtesy of The Athletic, commentary on the NHL’s recent decision to scrap Pride and other specialty warmup jerseys:

Whenever it seems like the NHL has taken a step forward, the league then manages to take a couple steps back.

The latest surrounds the NHL’s decision to stop wearing specialty warmup jerseys after a meeting with the Board of Governors. It’s a change that was undoubtedly influenced by the controversy Pride nights stirred up around the league this year, when individual players and teams opted out of wearing Pride-themed warmup jerseys.

The solution, according to the NHL, isn’t to stress the need for inclusivity or what the jerseys represent. It’s to run away from the problem and avoid bad press, instead of using it as a moment to progress.

Teams around the NHL have created and worn specialty jerseys for a number of tribute nights — from Hockey Fights Cancer, Military Appreciation night and St. Patrick’s Day, to Black History Month, Women’s History Month, the Lunar New Year, Hispanic Heritage, and of course, Pride night.

According to a league source who spoke to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, commissioner Gary Bettman told governors all theme nights were important and should be continued, but the uniform has become a distraction, taking away from all of the positive efforts and could continue to be so for any of a variety of different tribute nights.

Those ‘distractions’ were teams and players opting out of wearing them.

NHL teams will not wear specialty jerseys during warmups next season, commissioner Gary Bettman said Thursday.

However, the theme nights they represent, including Pride, Military and Heritage, will continue.

It started with Ivan Provorov in Philadelphia, who cited his Russian Orthodox religious beliefs as the reason for not wearing a Pride jersey in warmups. The defenseman skipped the team’s warmup skate altogether but played in that night’s game. His decision, unfortunately, overshadowed all the work the team, and individual players like Scott Laughton and James van Riemsdyk, put into celebrating the LGBTQ+ community that night.

The NHL commented on the situation, noting that “clubs decide whom to celebrate, when and how” with both league counsel and support. However, the league added that “players are free to decide which initiatives to support, and we continue to encourage their voices and perspectives on social and cultural issues.”

The Flyers’ and NHL’s responses obviously were disappointing to some, but understandable to an extent given that employers have to reasonably accommodate religious practice. Provorov couldn’t be scratched for not wearing a Pride jersey that supposedly conflicts with his religious beliefs. There is an argument to make that skipping warmups, however, could have led to him being healthy scratched, since there was nothing stopping him from skating in a standard jersey — nothing except that he’d opted out of something the Flyers chose to do as a unified team in support of a marginalized community.

That night opened the door to more players opting out of wearing Pride-themed warmup jerseys. Much of the focus was on Russian players, after the country amended its anti-gay laws; players including Ilya Lyubushkin and Denis Gurianov, among others, opted out for reasons relating to that. The Wild and Blackhawks cited similar reasons for their team-wide decisions to not wear Pride-themed jerseys.

Not all decisions surrounded Russian players, though. It wasn’t the case for the Rangers, who scrapped their plans for warmup jerseys. Or a few other individual skaters. James Reimer did not wear the themed jersey or participate in warmup skate in San Jose, citing his Christian beliefs. Eric and Marc Staal followed in Reimer’s footsteps, despite both having worn themed jerseys with previous teams.

While teams can still celebrate and honor different communities with tribute nights, including Pride night, warmup jerseys are an important element of those celebrations that will now be missing.

In the big picture, that may not seem super significant. It’s one small detail to lose. It’s just a jersey, after all, and it won’t stop teams from supporting causes in other ways throughout the night. Teams have had successful Pride nights without warmup jerseys; just look at the Avalanche, who were incredibly thoughtful in how they celebrated and highlighted the LGBTQ+ community this season.

Teams can still make their own jerseys for each cause. In recent years, that’s meant connecting with the community to find a designer and elevate their work. Those jerseys, and that merchandise, can be promoted across the team’s platforms. It just can’t be seen on the ice ahead of an NHL game.

But that warmup jersey is often the most visible aspect of it all. Sure, on the surface, it’s just a jersey that’s worn for a few minutes. The meaning is deeper. It’s symbolic of a team, and the players wearing it, welcoming another community to hockey and showing them they, too, have a place here. It’s a message of unity and inclusivity, which hockey so deeply needs. That’s true on Pride night, or any other tribute night in the league.

Those nights are something teams around the league have really started to build on. The Canucks are a prime example, having worn eight different warmup jerseys last year. When it comes to the work teams put into those tribute nights, the jerseys are unquestionably the most memorable part of it all, especially since the rest of the league and its fans don’t always get to see the other details woven in throughout the game, on the local broadcast, or in the arena.

And it’s a way for a team to raise money for a certain cause as well. Player-worn warmup jerseys tend to go up for auction to raise money for the community being highlighted that night.

The distractions that have overshadowed what Pride night stands for are the reason teams won’t be generating as much in charitable donations for the LGBTQ+ community on those tribute nights, or for cancer research on Hockey Fights Cancer night. It would seem that for the NHL, though, avoiding further backlash trumps raising money for these causes each year. And yet, this decision is bringing self-inflicted bad press, all because a few players decided to single out their backward views by refusing to wear a rainbow jersey for a few minutes. That’s who apparently should be protected — the ones who create division, not the players who want to reach out to communities in warmups. Or the sector of fans the NHL should be trying to grow to include.

The NHL, at least, will continue to benefit from the sales each team makes on merchandise created for those nights, or whatever Fanatics pumps out, even if sales slow down because there won’t be the same level of marketing that warmup jerseys offer.

Taking warmup jerseys out of the equation may seem inconsequential on the surface to the NHL, but it will likely create a new distraction on each tribute night moving forward over the next year that will overshadow each event. The purpose of these nights is to amplify causes, and that will likely be minimized because the most front-facing and recognizable aspect of it is gone.

Instead of supporting marginalized communities, the board has chosen to hide from the problem. It’s cowardly from an organization that should be one of the most powerful in hockey. But it’s not surprising. Avoidance is par for the course in the NHL, where the answer is never meaningful progression. And that’s a key reason why hockey’s viewership hasn’t expanded the way it should have.

The NHL cannot get out of its own way when it comes to growing the game, and the decision to conceal the distractions Pride nights created this past season instead of facing the problem head-on is just the latest example of it.