CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa . --- Three days after a racially-charged incident aimed toward the Capitals' Devante Smith-Pelly in Chicago, Ryan Reaves addressed the situation.
And then he couldn't.
Then, Reaves tried again. But he couldn't.
"I ... I don't really want to comment on it," the NHL's reigning heavyweight champion said, shaking his head in disappointment. "No, I don't want to comment on it, to be honest with you."
Saturday night a few Blackhawks "fans" at the United Center hurled racist taunts -- reportedly "basketball! basketball!" -- toward Smith-Pelly, one of the few black players in the NHL. Smith-Pelly got up from his seat in the visitor's penalty box and had to be restrained from confronting the fans, who were immediately ejected from the building.
NHL condemns ejected Blackhawks' fans racist taunts as "unacceptable and reprehensible behavior." Story: https://t.co/JLG8HRlVkI pic.twitter.com/2rlZoCjmZW
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) February 18, 2018
The scene in Chicago was in stark contrast to that just two nights earlier at PPG Paints Arena where Reaves scored his fourth goal of the season while Willie O'Ree -- the NHL's first black player -- was in attendance. O'Ree, who broke the league's color barrier in 1958 -- 11 years after Jackie Robinson in baseball -- was in Pittsburgh as part of the league's "Hockey is For Everyone Month," a league initiative promoting diversity.
After the Penguins' win over the Kings, a genuinely thrilled Reaves said it was an honor to meet O'Ree. “He’s a pioneer for players like me," said Reaves, who added he feels he too can be a role model for other aspiring black players.
“If somebody can look at me playing in the NHL and realize that no matter where they come from or their ethnicity or their race, they can get in the league, too, and do what they want to do in life, then yeah, obviously, I embrace that,” he said.
Tuesday, Reaves told me he's never heard racial epithets or slurs directed toward him at the NHL level, but he once did when playing junior hockey for Brandon in the WHL. Like the Smith-Pelly incident, he said he refused to let it bother him.
"When someone says something to me, it doesn't bother me," Reaves said. "Words don't .. I don't let anybody say something that's going to affect me.
"For somebody to say something ignorant or racist, that's on them. They obviously have some issues in their life. But I'm not going to let that affect me."
Reaves said a referee overheard the incident in junior and the WHL called him to confirm it.
"I said nothing, said you can deal with it anyway you want," Reaves said.
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