Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly called racial comments made by fans during Saturday night's game against the Chicago Blackhawks "sad" and "disgusting."
"We've talked about this before," Smith-Pelly told reporters. "It's happened in hockey before. It's happened to people we personally know. We've had the conversation. It's just a few ignorant people being idiots, that's it. ... He just said it's a few idiots being ignorant."
Smith-Pelly, 25, got into an altercation with fans who grabbed his stick and shouted "basketball, basketball, basketball!" at him, per ESPN. The fans were removed from Chicago's United Center.