Storm damages hub-site arena
Assessment favorable for Edmonton games
The mayor of Edmonton, Alberta, said Friday that a preliminary assessment shows storm damage to Rogers Place is not structural and the arena will be able to hold upcoming NHL games.
Mayor Don Iveson said photos of the Thursday night flooding and damage to the arena’s roof are concerning.
“The damage is cosmetic and is to the roof’s surface, as opposed to any structural damage,” Iveson explained Friday at a news conference. “It doesn’t look good but . . . the building is sound, and it will be possible to recover from this quickly.”
Oilers Entertainment Group, which leases the arena from the city, said in a statement that significant rain, mixed with hail, led to pressure on the arena’s storm drainage system. Water damage was restricted to Ford Hall and the mezzanine level corridor, adding that, “We do not foresee any significant delays or barriers to either the Edmonton Oilers training camp or preparations and activities related to our hosting as the NHL hub city for the 2020 NHL playoffs.”
Capitals
Goaltender Braden Holtby hasn’t dwelled on his looming free agency — at least not that he has expressed outwardly. Friday, Holtby, 30, continued to dismiss thoughts of free agency and reiterated that his only focus remains the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs. “I haven’t put much thought into the free agency all that kind of thing,” he said. “My focus right now is to win a championship and moving forward, is to find the next best place to win a championship with.”
Elsewhere
Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning was selected as a Vezina
Trophy finalist for the third consecutive season, with a shot at becoming the first back-to-back winner of the NHL’s top goalie award in the past 12 years. Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyk and Boston’s Tuukka Rask rounded out the list of finalists released Friday after a vote by the league’s general managers. The NHL also announced three finalists for the Willie O’Ree Community Hero award, given to an individual who has positively impacted their community through hockey. The finalists are Dampy Brar of Calgary, Alberta, where he co-founded Apna Hockey, which supports South Asian hockey players; Alexandria Briggs-Blake of Oxon Hill, Md., where she led a fundraising effort to build a new arena for a predominantly African American hockey team; and John Haferman of Columbus, Ohio, cofounder of the Columbus Ice Hockey Club, which has brought hockey to more than 30,000 underprivileged and disabled children over the past three decades.