Provorov's girlfriend surprises him for his 26th birthday

Intentionally or not Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov caused a bit of a controversy on Tuesday night.

As might know by now Provorov elected to sit out of the team's warmup ahead of their game against the Anaheim Ducks because he did not feel comfortable wearing the Flyers' Pride Night warmup jerseys featuring rainbow colored numbers on their usual black background.

Provorov cited his Russian Orthodox religion as his reason for not wanting to partake and clarified that he sought the permission of his coaching staff before making the decision to sit out warmup.

As you might expect, the reaction to Provorov's decision has been decidedly mixed. Some fans and media members have declared him a bigot and have called for either the NHL or the Flyers to fine him or suspend him. Others though have commended Provorov for sticking to his convictions, despite knowing the backlash that he had to know was coming his way.

Like most things these days, you have loud voices on either side of the subject screaming their point of view from the tree tops in an effort to one up the other side. Frankly, it's exhausting...

I mean... just look how fired up Toronto media host Sid Seixero gets on his Breakfast Television segment:

Give it a rest, buddy. Save your outrage for something that actually matters... not a hockey player refusing to wear a Pride jersey...

Personally, I have no problem with Provorov's silent protest. On the flip side though, I have no problem with people judging him harshly for his decision. He has the right to sit out and people have the right to judge him based on his decision. Period. That's really all there is to it, in my opinion. Everything else is just white noise that adds nothing to the discourse.

What IS amusing to me though is the fact that Provorov's jersey is now sold out on NHL.com and Fanatics.com.

Check it out:

Talk about a 'Streissand Effect' moment!

What would be really interesting to me though would be to see how quickly a Provorov Pride jersey would sell out on NHL.com. I'm willing to bet that both sides would absolutely bankrupt themselves in unnecessary purchases just to one up each other. Remember folks... unless you're fork over hundreds of dollars to a giant corporation like the NHL, you have no right to have an opinion...

What's also ironic to me is that Provorov went from being on top of the world just a week ago to being "cancelled" in just a week's time. Just last Friday Provorov celebrated his 26th birthday and he can pretty much thank his girlfriend Madison Fairhurst for pulling it all off.

She scheduled a minor event for him at a high-end Japanese restaurant in Washington DC and planned every aspect of the evening to ensure that things went flawlessly. She claims that she managed to do a good job of keeping everything a secret until just days before the big surprise party.

"I planned his surprise birthday for dinner for 3 months and ruined the surprise 4 nights before." Madison penned on her Instagram post of January 17.

In any case, I'm willing to bet that the couple are laying low these days. At least, until all the backlash dies down in a week or so.