‘Heated Rivalry’ Is Bringing New Fans to Hockey. Does the Sport Deserve Them?

The NHL also pointed WIRED to its partnerships with Pride organizations around the US, Canada, and Australia, as well as pro-inclusivity organization You Can Play, which it’s been working with since 2013. The league said it will be hosting its third annual Pride Cup in 2026.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has said he “binged” Heated Rivalry in one night and told reporters that all NHL teams do a Pride night. However, as The New York Times reported, that is no longer the case, with a couple of teams opting for more general inclusivity events.

Teresa Fowler, an associate professor at Concordia University of Edmonton and Tim Skuce, an associate professor at Brandon University, have both been researching hockey culture in Canada for years. Fowler is candid when she speaks about the league’s embrace of Heated Rivalry, which she feels is performative.

“Where’s your gay friend on your team? You know what I mean?” she says. “It just seems so hypocritical when people are saying, ‘Yeah, we would welcome them,’ and yet, the person who they call their brother, you know, that they would do anything for, is too afraid to bare their soul.”

Fowler and Skuce published a study on hockey culture in 2023, interviewing 21 elite players from the junior A level and higher, many of whom they say were current or former NHL players. Fowler says she’s also worked with younger players, including U18 players and youth hockey. One of the main issues they pointed to that fosters a toxic culture in sport was hazing.

“They would make players dress up like women, and then go into a shopping mall and sing ‘My Little Teapot.’ They would have notches in their belts for sexual conquest. But then, of course, there’s the more physical [hazing rituals]: drag your testicles across the rink naked, get in bathrooms naked,” Fowler says. “It’s just gross. It makes no sense to me how this is team bonding, none whatsoever. Those rituals are sexism rituals, misogynistic rituals, where you’re constantly demeaning women.”

In 2022, a Globe and Mail investigation revealed that Hockey Canada, the sport’s national governing body, had in part used players’ registration fees to cover uninsurable liabilities, such as sexual assault settlements; last July, five former Canadian Junior Hockey players were acquitted of sexually assaulting a woman at a hotel room in London, Ontario.

Hockey Canada did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

Skuce, who played university and AAA hockey, says a lot of the men he’s interviewed said they “felt uncomfortable” with the hazing but “they didn’t want to say anything about it.” Team belonging is predicated on going along with what’s happening.

Skuce says he wants to see a shift away from humiliation-based hazing rituals to ones that are more “inclusive.”

With the Olympics taking center stage, there’s once again the potential for a spotlight on trans people in sports—a culture war issue Browne says has created a “moral panic.” He coauthored the 2025 book Let Us Play about the issue.