Taping your stick as a hockey player is nearly as essential as lacing up your skates. While NHL fans likely recall the cool purple-tweaked jerseys their favorite teams and player have donned for warmups to mark "Hockey Fights Cancer" month in past Novembers during the regular season, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has steered cancer research awareness in other directions.
In the Seattle area, one sign of solidarity with cancer patients and their families showed up in the form on purple tape on the hockey sticks of youth players in Kent, Shoreline, Snoqualmie and Lynnwood during this month. Hockey players can be particular about how they wrap the woven-cotton cloth tape that provides some traction for stickhandling the puck, whether making a more accurate pass or putting spin on a shot on goal. They tend to prefer black as a color because helps camouflage the puck from the goalie.
Sticking to It
The NHL's "Hockey Fights Cancer" month has faced challenges this November, but local youth hockey players have represented for the cause
![snoking](https://media.d3.nhle.com/image/private/t_ratio16_9-size20/f_auto/prd/duazkt91yirhojg8jmxp.jpg)
![Kent-Valley-10uB-team](https://media.d3.nhle.com/image/private/t_ratio16_9-size20/f_auto/prd/xzuc0e5ejqoiiew5tsrl.jpg)
![WWHA](https://media.d3.nhle.com/image/private/t_ratio16_9-size20/f_auto/prd/ernkqyxcrsp5jpozsoti.jpg)
![Sno-King](https://media.d3.nhle.com/image/private/t_ratio16_9-size20/f_auto/prd/scbhxxnlwxr7q1a0upnw.jpg)
![SeattleJuniors](https://media.d3.nhle.com/image/private/t_ratio16_9-size20/f_auto/prd/zdlcttb4orsbuqxfytve.jpg)