Sean Avery calls out “virtue signaling” reporters in wake of Provorov incident

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.

Head coach John Tortorella showed support for Provorov following Tuesday evening's game, saying today that Provorov was just "being true to himself and his religion." Today, Torts doubled down on that support today:

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.

Several high profile hockey journalists have been outspoken against Provorov, most notably E.J. Hradek, Pierre LeBrun and Gord Miller.

It's that last LeBrun post that caught the attention of former NHLer turned social media and podcasting darling Sean Avery. Since news of the Provorov incident has become public Avery has been sharing his opinion on social media and on his podcast 'No Gruffs Given'. In particular, Avery has taken reporters like LeBrun and others to task on their over the top reactions to the news.

Check it out:

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.