In the few weeks since U.S. professional sports returned to action, the peaceful protest during the national anthems against racial injustice and police brutality became a widespread demonstration.
Players from the NBA, MLB, WNBA, MLS and NWSL took knees during the anthem or made a demonstrations in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. But protests during the anthem were noticeably absent from the NHL’s restart at the hub locations in Edmonton and Toronto.
The Wild’s Matt Dumba took a knee for the anthem while in street clothes and later raised his fist in Minnesota’s second game. But no other in-uniform player took a knee for the anthem.
That changed on Monday.
Ahead of the Western Conference round robin matchup between the Stars and Golden Knights, Ryan Reaves, Tyler Seguin, Robin Lehner and Jason Dickinson all took knees for the playing of the national anthems.
Seguin, Dickinson and Reaves (a dual citizen) are Canadian, and they took knees for both the U.S. and Canadian anthems. Lehner is from Sweden.
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, Seguin attended Black Lives Matter protests and spoke of his desire to be more proactive in fighting for racial justice.
Monday’s demonstration was certainly a step to back up his message from June.
