There are few things more ignominious than a professional sports team, ostensibly owned by a person or people with copious amounts of money, playing in a dilapidated arena.
It’s embarrassing across any sports league, be it the NBA, NFL, MLB or NHL.
Similarly, there are few things more ignominious than a “green” alternative, ostensibly built to save energy and the planet, failing to provide adequate power — even if it’s only perceived that way.
It’s embarrassing across any green initiative, be it electric vehicles or windmills.
Those two ignominious and embarrassing threads collided in professional hockey during a Saturday tilt between the New York Rangers and Seattle Kraken.
That game, which was played in Seattle, featured a pathetic lighting incident that forced the teams to switch sides.
As The Hockey News reports, just 69 seconds into the game, the lights above Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick “stopped working.”
Due to the dimmed lights on just one side of the ice, the NHL made the controversial call to have the teams switch sides mid-period (instead of between periods.)
After Seattle scored the first goal with Quick’s vision technically compromised with the dimmed ice, the NHL made the call to switch sides… and wouldn’t you know it? Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer promptly gave up a goal, tying the game 1-1, under the dimmed side of the rink.
schultzy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/fvlgRtXUX4
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) October 22, 2023
BreadSnipe™️. pic.twitter.com/TWuj5CX7LT
Was the lighting issue related to the arena’s “green” infrastructure?— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 22, 2023
The plan, per both the NHL and the Kraken PA announcer, was for the teams to switch off at the 10-minute (halfway) mark of each period to make it fairer until the lights were fixed.
They never got fixed, and both teams awkwardly navigated around this impromptu wrinkle for the duration of the Kraken’s 4-1 loss to the Rangers.
It was enough for Quick to take a shot at the whole debacle — and this is where that second thread comes in.
“I thought, you know, it’s Climate Pledge Arena, maybe they were using energy-efficient bulbs or something,” Quick said, according to New York hockey reporter Arthur Staple on X.
Yes, the Seattle Kraken play in an arena called “Climate Pledge Arena,” and yes, it’s every bit the leftist pandering you think it is, as the arena is named in reference to the controversial Paris Climate Accords.
To be clear, there is nothing suggesting that anything related to green or alternative energy contributed to the amateurish lighting issues at Climate Pledge Arena — but it’s undeniable that they use “sustainable” energy.
And that makes it a matter of perception.
It doesn’t matter whether or not green energy contributed to the faulty lighting.
What matters is that that connection will be made — subliminally and fairly or not — by people.
And given that green energy’s most prolific mouthpiece is busy getting herself arrested these days, the last thing they need is more negative press or questions raining down on their heads.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
