Amazon bought the naming rights to Seattle's KeyArena and has renamed it Climate Pledge Arena, the company's founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, announced Thursday.
"Instead of calling it Amazon Arena, we're naming it Climate Pledge Arena as a regular reminder of the urgent need for climate action," Bezos wrote on Instagram.
"It will be the first net-zero carbon certified arena in the world, generate zero waste from operations and events, and use reclaimed rainwater in the ice system to create the greenest ice in the NHL," the billionaire entrepreneur pledged.
"Our goal is to make sure every visit to this arena will be enjoyable and memorable, and sustainability is a large part of that," Tim Leiweke, the CEO of Oak View Group, said Thursday, according to NHL Seattle's Bob Condor. "It is not just about one arena, it's the platform. We challenge music, facilities, concert tours, and sports. It is our time to step up to face the challenge of our generation. We must take steps to build arenas and stadiums that front-and-center align with our zero-carbon mission statement."
Leiweke and OVG are overseeing the renovation of the building that formerly housed the NBA's SuperSonics and the WNBA's Storm in anticipation of the NHL expansion franchise's on-ice arrival in 2021-22.
The naming of the team itself has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as have the renovations, the resumption of which will likely be pushed back by two months. However, that's not expected to impact the team's ability to begin play on schedule.
A former Western Hockey League player has filed a complaint with the league regarding sexual and physical abuse he said he experienced during his junior career, according to TSN's Rick Westhead.
The former player emailed the league on Saturday, requesting anonymity. This includes his name, the teams he played for, and the years he played in the WHL.
"The WHL takes matters such as this very seriously and we have indicated to (the complainant) we will be in contact with him immediately to begin our investigation," WHL spokesperson Taylor Rocca said, according to Westhead.
The player said that during one incident, two teammates attacked him on a road trip.
"The abuse occurred while I was unfolding the rookie cot," he wrote. "I was attacked and pinned down face first by the two assailants, my hands at my side, with one assailant kneeling on each of my shoulders with his crotch against the back of my head and the second assailant sitting on my upper back. I was pinned helpless and unable to move; my face was pushed into the mattress. The only way to breathe was to move my head from side to side to get a gasp of air. The first assailant sitting on my shoulders removed his penis from his pants and proceeded to slap his penis off the side of my face when I attempted to get air while both assailants laughed saying, 'Not so tough now, hey rookie.'"
He said that on another occasion, the same two teammates forced several rookies to strip naked in the dressing room and play tug-of-war with a string tied to their genitals.
The former player detailed multiple other incidents in the complaint. He named the alleged assailants, several of whom currently have prominent roles in the hockey industry.
He said the abuse transformed him from a "driven, happy, engaged young man and a solid NHL hockey prospect into a black mass of anger, untrust of people, self-isolation, and alcohol abuse."
Former CHL players Dan Carcillo and Garrett Taylor filed last week a class-action lawsuit against the league over alleged abuse. Days earlier, police began an investigation after a former Kitchener Rangers player said a teammate forced him to try cocaine as a rookie.
Hall of Fame debates are a staple of sports arguments - whether a player's amassed the credentials to be honored among the best in their sport is prime fodder for discussion over a beer. We're spotlighting a collection of players who we believe either deserve the distinction but haven't yet been inducted, or don't quite measure up but had a great impact on their franchise or sport.
The year was 1993, and Curtis Joseph was getting jobbed out of admittance to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
At the time, Joseph was a rising star in his fourth NHL season with the St. Louis Blues, and had gone to lengths to prove he could capably shoulder an immense workload. Over 68 games in 1992-93, he led the NHL in shots faced (2,202), saves (2,006), and save percentage (.911). Per Hockey-Reference, his 16.2 point shares - an estimate of team standings points for which a player can take credit - were most among goaltenders, a cut above Ed Belfour's 13.0. Not only did Joseph pace the league in goals saved above average; his total, 57.42, blew away Belfour's remarkable 39.36 and is still the best single-season GSAA mark since the mid-1970s.
Yet when Vezina Trophy votes were counted that spring, Joseph placed third in the tally, behind Belfour, then with the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Pittsburgh Penguins' Tom Barrasso.
Joseph with the Blues in 1991. Graig Abel / Getty Images
The argument against inducting CuJo to the Hall depends in large part on the hardware he lacks, be it the Stanley Cup - he never reached a final in 19 seasons with the Blues, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Phoenix Coyotes, and Calgary Flames - or individual laurels such as the Vezina. That shortcoming helped keep Joseph out for the ninth year running Wednesday when the class of 2020 was revealed.
Selection committees and armchair pundits employ this sort of superficial reasoning across sports, and the coda to Joseph's brilliant 1992-93 season illustrates its flaws. Entertain this alternative scenario: Joseph's stats and uplifting impact on his middling Blues team remain the same, but Vezina voters of the day actually recognize and value what his mastery compared to league average signifies. They award him the trophy, and two decades later his career is deemed Hall material.
Whether that first outcome should have been realized - whether Joseph, not Belfour, would have been the just Vezina victor in '93 - is beside the essential point. Joseph was terrific that season and shone in many others, and to dismiss his Hall case outright because he never won a major award is to think simplistically.
Joseph, a 5-foot-11 acrobat in the crease, was rarely afforded the privilege of backstopping a superb team, and when the lineups in front of him fit that bill, like the defending champion 2002-03 Red Wings, he didn't lift them over the top. (Blame J.S. Giguere.) On the whole, though, he was a workhorse whose numbers support favorable comparisons to titans of his position. And he tended to elevate his game when it really mattered, equipping him to carry several pedestrian Blues, Oilers, and Leafs squads deeper into the postseason than was their right.
Joseph (right) and Wayne Gretzky at the 2016 Heritage Classic Oilers-Jets alumni game. Jonathan Kozub / NHL / Getty Images
After signing as a college free agent with St. Louis in 1989, Joseph went on to finish in the top five in Vezina voting in five of his first 11 seasons, including a close second-place showing behind Dominik Hasek in 1998-99. He was No. 4 in Hart Trophy voting with the Leafs that season, and the following year he won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for leadership and humanitarianism, a nod to his charitable work with sick children in Toronto.
Consistency and longevity were hallmarks of Joseph's. His 943 career games played are sixth-most in league history and his 454 wins rank seventh; only Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Roberto Luongo, and Belfour eclipse him in both categories. (It has to be noted that Joseph is third in career losses, with 352.) His 51-shutout total isn't top grade, but he authored 16 in the playoffs, third to Brodeur and Roy. Few goalies saw more rubber: Joseph faced 26,795 shots, sixth-most ever, and made 24,279 saves, also sixth all time.
"He thrived with more shots against him, and not a lot of guys are like that. In fact, very few guys are able to do that when they get peppered all the time," retired goalie Kevin Weekes wrote about Joseph at NHL.com in 2015.
“When I think of CuJo, I think of a goalie who gave his team a chance to win every night," Glenn Healy, Joseph's former backup with the Leafs, told the Toronto Sun in May. "What more was he supposed to do?"
Goalies like Joseph suffer when their names appear before the Hall from a high bar and a double standard. Belfour is a Hall of Famer; so are Brodeur, Hasek, Roy, Grant Fuhr, Billy Smith, and Rogie Vachon. Somehow, only those seven men have been inducted at the position in the past 30 years. As the New York Post's Larry Brooks once pointed out, many of the goalies who are enshrined played the bulk of their career prior to World War II. A mere 22 are products of the NHL's Original Six era or later.
Joseph at his 2010 retirement announcement. Rene Johnston / Toronto Star / Getty Images
Former New York Rangers stalwart Ed Giacomin is the only one of them who never won a Stanley Cup, an otherwise uniform barrier to entry that voters don't extend to skaters. That knock applies to Joseph, but not to Barrasso, Chris Osgood, Mike Richter, or Mike Vernon, fellow marginal Hall candidates from CuJo's era who have eight championships between them. It all goes back to Brooks' point: maybe the Hall of Fame committee's expectations for netminders are unreasonably high. (At least this year's class includes Canadian women's legend Kim St-Pierre, a three-time Olympic gold medallist.)
Joseph keeps even finer company in Hockey-Reference's career-similarity tabulation, which compares players at the same position based on their adjusted point shares by season. The quality and arc of his career rate as most similar to that of Vachon, the three-time champ with the Montreal Canadiens in the '60s and '70s who entered the Hall in 2016, 34 years after he retired. Among the other goalies with whom Joseph is classed: Belfour, Brodeur, Roy, Tony Esposito, and Henrik Lundqvist.
That isn't to say Joseph was better than any of them - just that he belonged in their orbit, as the dominance he summoned regularly in the playoffs attests. Joseph's Toronto clubs were never elite, but he spearheaded postseason runs in all four of his years there. He stole first-round series victories for lackluster Oilers teams against much stronger opponents: the Dallas Stars in 1996-97, when games of 43 and 38 saves keyed OT road wins in Games 5 and 7, and the Colorado Avalanche in 1997-98, when he erased a 3-1 series deficit by allowing just one goal the rest of the way.
Working backward, we arrive at his magnum opus: the 1993 playoffs with St. Louis. That was the year Joseph saved 61 of 63 shots in a double-OT loss to the Leafs, who might have reached the final had Wayne Gretzky's high stick on Doug Gilmour been penalized later in the spring. Joseph made 57 stops the next game, this time to win in double OT, and he prolonged the second-round series as far as Game 7 despite the Blues being outshot, on average, by 12 attempts per night.
If only that could have bolstered his Vezina case. At least Joseph got to relish ending the eventual Vezina winner's season. Belfour and the Blackhawks finished 21 points ahead of the Blues in the '93 Norris Division standings but were swept from the first round, undone by their inability to solve CuJo. Joseph's save percentage in the series was .957, and he blanked Chicago in Games 2 and 3, cinching the first of those historically tremendous 16 playoff shutouts.
In his youth, Oscar winner Forest Whitaker portrayed Jefferson, a football player who goes crazy and decides to decapitate everyone on a rival high school team after he's duped into thinking they destroyed his favorite car. Jefferson's role is a minor but memorable one in this classic stoner flick.
69. Jackie Moon
"Semi-Pro" (2008)
Will Ferrell's hot streak of comedic hits in the 2000s gave him carte blanche for future projects. There are certainly some parallels between the actor and his character, Jackie Moon, a one-hit-wonder disco crooner who uses his wealth to buy an ABA team and then inserts himself into the starting lineup. Though elements are exaggerated, Moon perfectly exemplifies the zaniness of the NBA's short-lived competitor.
68. Shep
"Above the Rim" (1994)
Warning: Video contains coarse language
Still working through the trauma of witnessing his friend die during a rooftop game of one-on-one, Shep (Leon) keeps his potent basketball abilities under wraps. Seeing him almost single-handedly take out Birdie's (Tupac Shakur) team at the neighborhood tournament while wearing corduroy pants and a long-sleeve shirt is one of the truly great feats of athleticism ever in a film.
67. Jonathan "Mox" Moxon
"Varsity Blues" (1999)
Mox (James Van Der Beek) is a subversion of a lead character often seen in sports films. As his powerhouse high school football team's brainy backup quarterback, Mox can see the pitfalls of the amateur sports world with uncanny clarity, which results in him sticking up to authoritarian head coach Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight).
66. Spike
"Little Giants" (1994)
When Spike (Sam Horrigan) moves to town in "Little Giants," Danny O'Shea (Rick Moranis) fakes the military kid's identity to get him on the football team, only to find out the muscle-bound meathead is a chauvinist who won't play with his daughter. Spike eventually gets his comeuppance against the Giants later in the film when his former teammates beat him during a youth football showdown.
65. Adrian
"Rocky I-V" (1976-1990)
Adrian (Talia Shire) may start out as a shy nerd working in a pet store in the original Rocky film, but as the series evolves, she becomes arguably the greatest supporting character in sports movie history. While Rocky takes the physical punishment of every blow in the ring, it's Adrian who wears the emotional scars of being in love with a fighter who just doesn't know when to quit.
64. Joe 'Coop' Cooper
"BASEketball" (1998)
In "BASEketball," South Park creator Trey Parker plays lead loser Cooper, who's transformed into a star player for the Milwaukee Beers after helping to invent an absurd combo sport, and he eventually becomes the team's owner. Parker's comedy in the film as Cooper, while funny at times, just makes "BASEketball" feel like a live-action version of South Park.
63. Jules Paxton
"Bend It Like Beckham" (2002)
Before she became famous for swashbuckling epics and period pieces, Keira Knightley shined as Jules in the 2002 sleeper hit "Bend It Like Beckham." Adding to the performance's charm, Knightley did her own playing scenes, rather than stepping aside for a stunt double.
62. Richie 'Baumer' Tenenbaum
"The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001)
Though "The Royal Tenenbaums" isn't really a sports movie at its core, Richie "Baumer" Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson) perfectly embodies the ethos of the proverbial burned-out tennis prodigy: Erratic, despondent, and competing inside his own head. He's like John McEnroe mixed with The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson.
61. Chubbs
"Happy Gilmore" (1996)
Chubbs Peterson may not be Carl Weathers' best work in a sports film, but the golf instructor who lost his hand to an alligator is an incredible character who delivers comedy gold with minimal screen time. Remember everyone, the key to putting is to "Tap it in. Just tap it in."
The original basketball-centric "Air Bud" spawned four direct sequels (with increasingly strained pun subtitles like "Golden Receiver" and "Seventh-Inning Fetch") and nine direct-to-video spinoffs. But even if you've never seen the films, you'll undoubtedly recognize the mutt's stature as one of history's truly great multi-sport athletes. He's Bo Jackson with a flea collar.
79. Charlie Conway
"The Mighty Ducks" (1992), "D2: The Mighty Ducks" (1994), "D3: The Mighty Ducks" (1996)
As one of seven players to appear in all three "Mighty Ducks" films, Charlie Conway (Joshua Jackson) serves as one of the series' emotional centers. His journey to becoming a team leader echoes coach Gordon Bombay's (Emilio Estevez) own transformation.
78. Ishmael
"Kingpin" (1996)
In this comedy, Randy Quaid plays Ishmael Boorg, a dimwitted, Amish bowling sensation who protagonist Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) tries to ride to fame and fortune before discovering he's not as good a bowler as initially hoped. Ishmael's lack of common sense gets him into a number of sticky situations that Munson, a bowler-turned-con man, only makes worse thanks to his poor decision-making.
77. Doug Remer
"BASEketball" (1998)
Tempted by the trappings of his newfound celebrity status, Doug Remer (Matt Stone of "South Park" fame) begins to waver from the anti-capitalistic roots of a sport which, as the name implies, combines two of America's favorite pastimes.
All is well by the time the final credits roll, though chaste viewers may regret bearing witness to Doug lactating in his opponent's face, among several dozen similar indecencies.
76. John Biebe
"Mystery, Alaska" (1999)
Getty Images / Hulton Archive / Getty
Before he was Maximus, John Nash, and Javert, Russell Crowe was John Biebe, the sheriff of the film's titular town and the top player on the local pickup hockey circuit. When the NHL's New York Rangers come to Alaska for an exhibition match, it's Biebe's leadership that gives the local side a fighting chance.
75. Ray Kinsella
"Field of Dreams" (1989)
In "Field of Dreams," Kevin Costner plays Kinsella, an Iowa corn farmer who hears a voice that instructs him to destroy his crops to build a baseball field for Shoeless Joe Jackson and other ballplayers. Kinsella spends the film being chastised by his family and peers for making a move that puts him in financial trouble but remains steadfast in his decision, which eventually leads to a heart-warming finish.
74. Ham Porter
"The Sandlot" (1993)
Porter (Patrick Renna) is the hilariously quick-mouthed catcher of the young group of mischievous ballplayers in "The Sandlot" and is also responsible for delivering the legendary line, "You're killing me, Smalls." When Ham isn't crouched behind the dish, he can be found making homemade s'mores in the team's tree house.
73. Coach Morris Buttermaker
"The Bad News Bears" (1976)
Let's forget about the remake and stick to Walter Matthau's original portrayal of Buttermaker; a surly, drunk pool cleaner who takes on coaching a team of outcasts for money but leads them to surprising success thanks to his out-of-the-box ideas (by 1970s standards) like putting a girl and a juvenile delinquent on the squad.
72. Cal Naughton Jr.
"Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" (2006)
After essentially playing a dramatic version of a similar character in 1990's "Days of Thunder," John C. Reilly tapped into his comedic talents as southern-fried NASCAR driver Cal Naughton Jr., teammate, friend, and eventual rival to Will Ferrell's Ricky Bobby. Every scene with Cal and Ricky crackles with incredible banter, the result of perfect on-screen chemistry.
71. Jimmy Dugan
"A League of Their Own" (1992)
Similar to Buttermaker, Dugan plays a player-turned-coach who spends most of his time behind a bottle. What differentiates the two, aside from Tom Hanks' brilliantly charismatic outbursts, is that Dugan's bad-tempered character is much funnier thanks to the film's incredible writing. Also, when Dugan isn't breathing booze down the necks of the Rockford Peaches, he shows flashes of compassion for his players, which makes him even more likable.
The 2020 Hockey Hall of Fame class was a deserving group for the most part, but several overlooked players arguably warranted inclusion.
A maximum of four male players and two female players can be selected by the Hall every year - a rule that may need to be expanded given the amount of deserving candidates. The 2020 class includes the maximum number of male players, but there are others who arguably deserved a spot more than those who were selected. In addition, the Hall chose to elect only one female player, leaving one spot unfilled.
The selections of Kevin Lowe and Doug Wilson were questionable, as neither boasted superstar credentials during their careers. Lowe won plenty of titles, but his admission that he never considered himself a Hall of Famer is a sentiment likely shared by many in the hockey world. It took him 20 years of eligibility to make it, while Wilson waited for a quarter of a century to get his call.
While Jarome Iginla was a no-brainer to make it in his first year of eligibility, Marian Hossa wasn't necessarily worthy of immediate induction. He was likely to earn enshrinement at some point, but whether he deserved to be inducted in his first year is debatable.
With that in mind, here are four players who had strong enough cases to crack the 2020 class:
Alexander Mogilny
C Andersen / Bruce Bennett / Getty
It's downright absurd Mogilny was snubbed for the 11th consecutive year. He ranks third all time in goals and goals per game among Russian forwards, and fourth in points among his countrymen who've played in the NHL.
Mogilny finished with over a point per game in his stellar career (1,032 in 990), including a 76-goal, 127-point campaign in 1992-93 and a 55-goal, 107-point campaign in 1995-96.
He has even greater significance to the growth of the game internationally as the first player ever to defect from the Soviet Union to the NHL. His ordeal is well-documented, making it even more egregious that someone who risked his life to play in North America and then had a tremendous career continues to be denied the recognition he deserves.
Daniel Alfredsson
Bill Wippert / National Hockey League / Getty
Alfredsson isn't a slam dunk Hall of Famer, so the fact he was passed over for his first three years of eligibility wasn't surprising. However, this year represented a prime opportunity for the voters to honor him, and their questionable selections only further emphasized they should have instead anointed the longtime Ottawa Senators captain.
He doesn't have the Stanley Cup resume of a player like Lowe, but he was clearly a superior player, averaging nearly a point per game for his career while winning the Calder Trophy and an Olympic gold medal to boot.
If character is a consideration, Alfredsson exuded it in spades during his career, and it's a mild shock he hasn't yet been recognized for all of his contributions.
Theoren Fleury
Kellie Landis / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Fleury is beloved in Calgary and beyond, but he was far more than a fan favorite. The dynamic Flames legend produced at an outstanding clip, notching 1,088 points in 1,084 career games.
He also helped the club win the Stanley Cup in his rookie season of 1988-89, posting 34 points in 36 regular-season games before adding 11 in 22 playoff contests en route to the title.
Fleury's achievements are even more impressive when you consider he was only 5-foot-6 and about 180 pounds. Next year will be his 15th on the ballot, and it's about time he gets his rightful place among the rest of the game's greats.
Jennifer Botterill
Bruce Bennett / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Botterill's accomplishments and accolades are numerous both at the collegiate and international level.
She's the only player ever to win the Patty Kazmaier Award - given annually to the top U.S. college female ice hockey player - on two occasions, and she amassed 319 points in 113 games while at Harvard. She was also one of only four players to collect 100 or more points in a single NCAA campaign.
Botterill is a Canadian hockey legend, having won three Olympic gold medals and five World Championship titles while representing her country. She was a two-time MVP at the worlds, and produced almost a point per game (174 in 184) during her tenure with the national program.
The Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee hasn't elected two women in the same year since 2010, when it enshrined both Angela James and Cammi Granato. However, Botterill clearly deserved to be chosen alongside her former teammate, 2020 inductee Kim St-Pierre.
Honorable mentions: Patrick Elias, Rod Brind'Amour, Sergei Gonchar, Julie Chu.
Calgary Flames legend Jarome Iginla has entered rarified air.
The longtime Flames captain was one of five players selected Wednesday for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2020.
"It's an amazing, amazing honor," Iginla told Hockey Hall of Fame chairman and fellow Flames icon Lanny McDonald upon receiving the call, per TSN. "Thank you guys on the committee for voting for me to be a part of it. ... It's just hard to believe, it makes you reflect and think back and it's truly, truly hard to believe."
Iginla, 42, will enter the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, and he admitted it's an achievement he couldn't have imagined when he made his NHL debut as an 18-year-old in 1996.
"I never dreamt it when I got into the NHL, it's awesome. I'm truly honored and very blessed. ... it means a lot to my family and I, and (I) still can't believe it."
The two-time winner of the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy ranks 34th in all-time NHL scoring with 1,300 points in 1,554 career games. He's also one of 20 players to record at least 600 career goals, notching 625 over 20 NHL seasons.
Iginla holds the Flames franchise records for games played (1,219), goals (525), game-winning goals (83), and points (1,095). The club raised his No. 12 to the rafters at Scotiabank Saddledome last March.
Internationally, the native of Alberta won gold with Team Canada at both the 2002 and 2010 Olympic Games.
Marian Hossa, Kevin Lowe, Kim St-Pierre, and Doug Wilson were also selected as players. Longtime executive and current Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland was selected in the builder category.
