Tampa Bay Lightning Makes NHL History with All-Black Starting Forward Line
History was made earlier this week when the NHL team The Tampa Bay Lighting by becoming the first in the league to have an all-Black forward line. 27-year-old Daniel Walcott, 24-year-old Mathieu Joseph, and 27-year-old Gemel Smith were the three forwards who were apart of the historic moment.
Tampa Bay Lightning coach John Cooper told ESPN, “First of all, they’re all in the NHL for a reason. They deserve to be here and have worked their tails off. To have them all together, they had a little chemistry. Moving forward in the league, you hope it isn’t a story anymore and will be the norm. It was a pretty cool moment for all those guys.”
According to statistical analysis site FiveThirtyEight, less than 5% of NHL players are Black or people of color. Joseph said Monday’s game against the Florida Panthers was a “step in the right direction.”
“It was fun to have some progress and it was great to see and I was glad I was part of it. … Any players of color in this league want to showcase to our families or other people of color,” said Joseph. Joseph, Smith, and Walcott were all born in Canada. The NHL acknowledged the moment on Twitter stating “Tampa’s all-Black line inspired hockey players around the world!”
The Tampa Bay Lighting also posted a video of player Daniel Walcott’s father, David Walcott, from 2017.
“One of the things that was really funny is that he had mentioned having a line of all Black hockey players and I was thinking, JT’s on the lighting, my son’s coming up and they have another guy named [Bokondji Imama] and they have Joseph, “ said Walcott.
“It’s very possible that the Tampa Bay Lighting could be the first NHL team to have an all Black player line.”
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