Ex-Capitals forward Joel Ward opens up about racism, importance of representation in hockey

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"People wanted me dead for the color of my skin," he said of tweets that appeared on social media soon after. "I was like, 'Oh, geez, my God, they want me dead.' I was like, it's one thing to say, 'Hey, you suck.' Like, to say, 'I want you dead' because of the color of my skin, I was like, 'Damn.' So that was kind of an eye-opener."