NEWSLETTER
The sport of hockey has a long way to go until it truly can live up to the “Hockey is for Everyone” tag-line.
Earlier this week, former Arizona Coyotes prospect Jalen Smereck, a Black player for HC Donbass in the UHL (Ukraine), was the target of a racist gesture from HC Kremenchuk’s Andrey Denyskin. On Tuesday, Smereck posted on his Instagram profile that he would be taking a leave of absence until Denyskin faced discipline from the league.
“These situations are very tough, and I am a big believer in standing up for what is right,” Smereck wrote in his post on Tuesday, “I will not play another game in the [UHL] until Andrey Denyskin is suspended and removed from the league.”
The video of the incident was shared by the HC Donbass Twitter account early on Sunday, and was reposted by the World Hockey Report account later in the morning, and has over 1.3 million views. The gesture is clear as day to what Denyskin was doing and clear to who he was gesturing towards.
Denyskin later addressed the incident on Instagram, saying it was “a gesture that someone can consider as an insult in race” that he made after his emotions got the best of him. Denyskin went on to claim he respects “all people regardless of race or nationality.” He has since deleted the post.
Smereck is not taking the incident lightly. In an interview with Ken Campbell of Hockey Unfiltered, Smereck says he believes that Denyskin should, at the very least, be suspended for the rest of the season. “I definitely think he should be done for the year…For me, I would think his career is pretty much over…[he should be] suspended for this year [from the league] and get a suspension for the rest of his career from Team Ukraine. There’s no way to apologize for that. And even the apology he gave was really bad.”
I highly suggest reading the full interview between Smereck and Campbell as he talks more about his unfortunate history with racist incidents like the these, but that this was the worst he has dealt with.
On Monday, the IIHF responded to the incident:
This a direct assault on the ideals and values of our game, and we will ensure that all necessary ethics violation investigations occur to ensure that this behaviour is sanctioned appropriately. 2/2
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) September 27, 2021
The hockey world was quick to have Smereck’s back after the video of the incident started to circulate. Other Black players in the NHL like Anthony Duclair, Mathieu Joseph, and Pierre-Olivier Joseph, as well as J.T. Brown shared their support for Smereck in social media posts condemning the actions and calling out the rest of the hockey world to continue to examine the racial issues it faces as a whole.
But it is not just on Black hockey players to call these horrible incidents out. For a sport and league (NHL) that is primarily White, there needs to be more said and done by those players to change the way other players are treated. Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly spoke about the incident on Tuesday, saying “It was a horrible act. It was disgusting. I mean, there’s no place for that in our sport, but especially just in our society. In terms of what should be done about it, I don’t know. But I think there has to be action. And I think it’s just a sign that there’s more work to be done.”
The hope for Smereck, and for many others around the sport, is that the IIHF and the UHL make the right decision with the discipline handed down to Denyskin. This is not something that can be allowed to happen with just a “wrist slap” punishment. What Denyskin did was blatant and has no place in society, let alone in hockey.
