Left-Leaning Hockey Fans Forced To Confront Right-Wing NHL Reality

It has been confirmed by multiple U.S. hockey players after landing at Miami International Airport that the team will be making the trip to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, taking President Donald Trump up on his offer to attend his State of the Union address.

While the men will head to the White House, the women politely declined the invitation, citing the timing of things making the trip difficult for them.

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The women are being lauded as heroes for this decision, while the men are catching more flak for being increasingly chummy with President Trump.

It shouldn't be surprising to anyone that the American section of the NHL — and the NHL in general — is decidedly right-leaning. But if you've spent any amount of time on social media, you would realize this is at odds with a growing faction of the fanbase.

I was shocked when I first realized it, but having to be on X so much for my job, I've run into a huge contingent of far-left fans who love hockey.

For every fan with a team emoji in their handle, there seems to be three more with trans flags or #FreePalestine adorning their bio.

It's bizarre, but when you break it down, it seems to align perfectly with the plan being laid out by the powers that be to "grow the game."

From "Pride Nights" at NHL arenas around the country, to the gay hockey romance "Heated Rivalry" being shoved down our throats all winter, it's no shock that the hockey fanbase is shifting further to the left in recent years, because it's by design.

I can't tell you how many times I've been perusing social media and run into posts like this when hockey fans realize their favorite players DARE to think differently from their fringe belief system.

Saying that the players are "ignorant pieces of sh*t who don't have morals" is a wild way of saying "they disagree with me politically," but this person is at least in the acceptance stage.

The fact that they are shocked a sports league with one of the highest ratios of registered Republicans and the lowest percentage of registered Democrats is full of good old boys who reject leftist values and just want to crush beers and laugh at Trump's jokes in the locker room is hysterical.

This is something the new wave of leftist hockey fans will either have to reconcile with or, if it upsets them to the point of calling their favorite players "ignorant pieces of sh*t," abandon the sport entirely.

The truth is, though, that these players represent the values and beliefs of the majority of their fanbase — and the country at large — but leftist hockey fans don't realize they are the vocal minority and are upset because their hometown team isn't filled with players who color their hair and put pronouns in their bio.

The funniest part of all of this, though, is that the man that's drawing some of the most criticism for his supposed "allegiance" to Trump is Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk.

I was at the Panthers' impromptu celebration on Fort Lauderdale Beach the morning after they won their second straight Stanley Cup this past summer, and there was Tkachuk, front and center, arm-in-arm with Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, pointing at him and screaming, "Re-elect this man! Best mayor in the country!"

For those who don't know, Mayor Trantalis is a gay Democrat.

There is a very real chance that Tkachuk is just an apolitical guy who supports people that support him, be it Trump or Trantalis.

My point is, these psychopaths need to stop letting politics dictate their sports fandom.

I'm to the right of Richard Nixon, and college football is my favorite sport.

Could you imagine if I stopped supporting a player every time I found out he was a liberal, or supported Black Lives Matter or was a Palestine sympathizer?

I couldn't watch the sport anymore. 2020 alone would have broken me.

Separate the art from the artist, and the player from the political party.

You'll be a hell of a lot happier in the long run.