Bill Plaschke: Raffi Torres in blackface is a disgrace to the NHL

This year’s award for the scariest Halloween costume goes to the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes, who dressed in racial insensitivity then masked it as fun.

Did you hear about Monday night’s team Halloween party? Forward Raffi Torres and his wife, Gianna, showed up dressed as rapper Jay-Z and singer Beyonce Knowles, which would have been trendy and cute, except both of them were wearing blackface.

For those who forgotten their history -- and these two folks clearly did -- blackface was a type of makeup worn by vaudeville performers in the 19th century as a parody of African Americans. It was degrading then, and it is degrading now, but Torres’ teammate, Paul Bissonnette, thought it was so funny he sent out a photo of the happy couple on Twitter.

An understandable wave of criticism followed, leading to the ignorant statement that makes this costume so frightening.

The Coyotes, you see, publicly defended Torres.