Chicago fans ejected following racist taunts at Capitals’ Devante Smith-Pelly

An awful incident during Saturday’s Capitals-Blackhawks game in Chicago resulted in a group of fans being ejected after directing racist taunts at Washington’s Devante Smith-Pelly.

After a third period fight with Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy, Smith-Pelly headed to the penalty box to serve his five-minute major. That’s where the 25-year-old forward, who is one of the league’s few black players, was targeted with racially charged comments from fans seated near the box.

Fans next to the penalty box said "basketball, basketball, basketball" to Smith-Pelly when he was in the penalty box, according to a Caps spokesman. DSP was understandably upset. The off-ice official confirmed what happened and the fans were booted. That's the holdup for Trotz.

— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) February 18, 2018

The game’s television broadcast happened to be showing Smith-Pelly when he appeared to hear the remarks made by those fans, making him visibly angry. Eventually, the Caps forward had heard enough and got up to confront the fans though the glass partition.

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