NHL Comes To Las Vegas With Fun Times Friday Before Saturday’s All-Star Game
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The marketing-challenged, uni-demographic National Hockey League did the best it could in Las Vegas to show it can be funny and loosey-goosey with its skills games inside T-Mobile Arena and a goofball hockey blackjack card game on the Strip Friday.
There were the Hangover references, a Derek Carr/Hunter Renfrow combo cameo and overhead Bellagio Fountains video by the NHL to give fans a sense that it’s hip in a Vegas, baby kind-of-way.
Unfortunately for the league, the day of jokes, jest and fun times could not erase the fact the league includes only 25 Black men who have played in a NHL game this year, a mere three percent of the entire NHL. It’s a sad reflection on the NHL.
And Commissioner Gary Bettman justified Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz’s behavior as “frustration” when Wirtz threw a petulant fit in response to a reporter’s question about how the Original Six franchise responded to the explosive Kyle Beach sexual-abuse lawsuit.
So many of the NHL owners in U.S. markets seem out of touch with a diverse America and its societal problems, with Bettman simply validating the beliefs of bosses like Wirtz by not speaking out on this teachable moment.
The league did announce it’s combining forces with ESPN and the local club, the Vegas Golden Knights, to build an All-Star Game legacy project –a ball hockey rink in Las Vegas. The project’s cost and plan were not disclosed, but the commitment was.
“Projects like this, that embed hockey into non-traditional hockey neighborhoods, not only offers children new opportunities to play, but invites them to co-create the future of the sport,” said Kim Davis, NHL senior executive vice president of social impact, growth initiatives and legislative affairs.
