Sheng’s Daily: “Human rights take priority over sports.”

Where do we start?

It seemed like a good day to delve a little into Evander Kane’s history of speaking out against racism. He’s been talking about it longer than you might think.

In other San Jose Sharks news…

Kane, as he has all summer, took the lead this morning, addressing the NHL’s lack of silence about the Jacob Blake shooting.

We the @TheOfficialHDA have formally requested the @NHL to suspend all playoff games today. We strongly feel this sends a clear message that human rights take priority over sports.

— Evander Kane (@evanderkane_9) August 27, 2020

From @TheOfficialHDA pic.twitter.com/Vy2mPyPZJY

— Evander Kane (@evanderkane_9) August 27, 2020

Players inside the bubble reached out to Kane and Matt Dumba:

Important to note that it was players in the bubble reaching out to Kane and Dumba to come on their call. Today has all the feeling of a players-led initiative. https://t.co/bagLL7UZhB

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) August 27, 2020

This would result in the postponement of yesterday’s and today’s postseason games.

The San Jose Sharks issued a statement, echoing the Hockey Diversity Alliance’s.

pic.twitter.com/UaeaihIJuP

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) August 28, 2020

Finally, Kane spoke to NBC Sports about what the HDA hopes to accomplish in the future with the NHL.

You wanna know what we are up to? @evanderkane_9 couldn’t have said it better brotha #ISupportHDA https://t.co/tqkLHZoRq4

— Matt Dumba (@matt_dumba) August 28, 2020

Kane did point out, however, to TSN, that hockey needs to be leading the conversation about social justice, not following the lead of others: “Once again we are late to the party.”

Not related, but also important, is the wildfire relief effort in California:

Join us in helping those affected by the wildfires in our home state.

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) August 27, 2020

Around the NHL…

A picture is worth a thousand words:

If players wanted to show solidarity, this is the way to do it. The visual is powerful. pic.twitter.com/n6ZuZSd0tY

— Hemal Jhaveri (@hemjhaveri) August 27, 2020

Powerful stuff from Ryan Reaves here pic.twitter.com/iXBcDMkY6H

— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) August 27, 2020

Fellow HDA founder Akim Aliu spoke to TSN about today’s events — remember it was Aliu who kickstarted the long-dormant topic about racism in hockey when he revealed what Bill Peters subjected him to in the AHL. (TSN)

Yesterday morning, Jimmy Murphy urged the NHL and NHLPA to back up their words from earlier in the summer and not play. (Boston Hockey Now)

Barry Trotz talked about why the NHL didn’t cancel games on Wednesday. (NYI Hockey Now)

Meanwhile, Alain Vigneault feigned ignorance.

Vigneault was asked if he had any thoughts on the decisions of multiple leagues to sit out last night, and if we should expect any kind of response from the Flyers for today's game. His response (for clarity's sake, he was asked a similar question last night and deferred): pic.twitter.com/BYTQX5iGwH

— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) August 27, 2020

The Arizona Coyotes, however, are taking action.

pic.twitter.com/ATdA2qRaih

— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) August 28, 2020