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The current NHL season has not panned out as the Rangers had hoped, and it’s been a couple of months since the team publicly announced it was waving the white flag and gearing up for a retool. They cemented their status as the worst team in the Eastern Conference with a loss to the Kings on Monday, but a former player thinks the decision to host Pride Night played a role in that defeat.
The annual NHL calendar is filled with games that are dedicated to various causes and initiatives, like Military Appreciation Night and Hockey Fight Cancer. The vast majority of franchises also go out of their way to shine a spotlight on the LGBTQ+ community with Pride Night, although that celebration has generated a fair amount of drama over the past few years.
In 2023, a number of players declined to wear the custom jerseys their teams rolled out for Pride Night while citing their personal beliefs. That opened them up for criticism from fans who painted them as homophobic, but I think most reasonable people would acknowledge they were well within their rights to decline to participate.
The NHL tried to do some damage control and absolutely botched its response with a short-lived ban on themed jerseys of any type. It also tried to outlaw the rainbow stick tape that many players turned to for Pride Night, but the league quickly reversed course due to the internal and external blowback.
The dust eventually settled, and this season, the Kings and the Mammoth were the only teams that didn’t schedule a Pride Night or a similarly themed game (the Bruins and the Hurricanes opted to go the more overarching “Hockey Is For Everyone” route).
On Monday, the Rangers checked that box during a showdown with Los Angeles, and one former player asserted it played a role in the 4-1 defeat.
Former NHL player Ron Duguay blamed Pride Night after the Rangers fell to the Kings on home ice
Ron Duguay spent half of his 12-year career in the NHL with the Rangers, and the forward was a member of the team that earned the right to hoist the Stanley Cup in 1979. He eventually pivoted to a career in coaching in the minors before turning his attention to broadcasting, as he served as an analyst who covered the Rangers for MSG Network from 2007 to 2018.
The retired winger married and divorced multiple models before turning to a different realm for the romantic partner he was first linked to in 2022: former Alaskan governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. There are plenty of couples that don’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to politics, but his social media activity has made it pretty clear the 68-year-old shares her conservative bent.
That includes the tweet he sent out after the Rangers suffered a 4-1 loss at the hands of the Kings on Pride Night, as he asserted the rainbow flag that was presented with the traditional colors during the national anthem was responsible for “bad mojo” that contributed to the loss.
X/@RonDuguay10
This might be a hot take, but I would personally argue the loss had less to do with Pride Night and more to do with the fact that it involved a team that is sitting in the basement of the Eastern Conference with a 28-31-8 record, sent out yet another embarrassing letter announcing it had given up on the season in January, and had its apathetic fans get called out by the star player it traded before the contest in question.
Artemi Panarin on facing Igor Shesterkin:
“I hope he has a bad night tonight. Sorry New York Rangers fans, but you don’t care this year anymore” 😅 pic.twitter.com/jU5diFcxsH
— Rangers Videos (@SNYRangers) March 16, 2026
With both sides of the argument presented, I’ll let you come to your own decision.