Well, James didn’t pull everything. Or did you look at it and not see them mentioned?

He may be “right”, but I still don’t see how that type of attack helps him at all. I’ve said all along that the he needs to stay above the fray – not because it helps his legal arguments – those speak for themselves without any finger pointing – but because if he were to somehow pull this off, he’s got to get in the sandbox with the rest of the owners.

Or the fact that those guys became criminals AFTER they joined the NHL. He already is one so why let him in the club?

this situation is much too grey to take a side. The NHL has no right to try to claim moral high ground […] However, Balsillie has permanently lost any opportunity to paint himself as sympathetic

I’m not sure any of us in the anti-move brigade are so much pro-Bettman/NHL as we are pro-Phoenix hockey fans getting a shot to prove themselves under competent management. We’re sitting on the same side of the courtroom, yeah, but we don’t really want to get too close. Gary might mistake us for people who want to be his friends.

The other factor is that Balsillie’s Hockey Is For Canadians shtick is really aggravating to those of us in (even the relatively successful) non-traditional markets who have put up with a lot of cultural chauvinism from Canada and the northern U.S. ever since we got our teams. We’d finally seen the flames subside some over the past 2-3 years, and now Balsillie comes along with not just a gas can, but a whole fleet of tanker trucks to get it going nice and hot again.

I grew up in Richmond, Virginia. This is a battle I’ve fought literally my entire life as a hockey fan, and the hope of moving on from it and just being a normal fan was pretty damn attractive. So much for that.

Well…I’ll bet you can say that about every major sports league and the majority of their owners. These are usually sophisticated, wealthy, businesspersons running multi-million-dollar operations. taxpayers and fans are just a means to the larger business ends.

Based on the voting, they had Leipold whine about the Predators sale. I think he was trying to hide that nice, shiny new hockey team he was given for backing out of the sale with Balsillie. Gillette had an issue in Montreal.

Melnyk inadvertently touched on the argument the NHL should have made from day one: They can’t support Balsillie because his actions have served to destabilize at least two troubled markets, thus increasing the risk to the NHL as a business. The league has allowed its opposition to Balsillie to appear to be opposition to the man, not the business practices. They’ve let it become, even if only in appearances, a personal grudge.

Pff. Balsillie would drive to an orphanage to steal toys to give to his nieces and nephews.

Most people, I think, are beginning to gear up for the hockey season. I follow this as closely as I am able because it is just unbelievably interesting. But, Team Canada’s camp is in town this week, got tickets to the Red-White game on Thursday (August hockey, yeah!), the Hitmen are less than two weeks from opening thier exhibition season, and Flames training camp isn’t far off. Even for hardcores, the Phoenix situation is going to get shuffled down a bit in a very short time.

I believe it’s not about the market.

It’s about Jim Balsillie.

It’s ridiculous to suggest that this is an anti-Canadian move on the NHL’s part. It’s nearly 100% anti-Balsillie (although a small percentage has to be attributed to Bettman & co. saving face in Arizona as well as supporting Gretzky’s presence here). I mean, come on – Balsillie may be in the eyes of many Canadians a hard-working rags-to-riches story, an honest businessman who loves hockey and wants to help the poor wretches in the GTA get more access to pro hockey (which I believe is a giant load of steaming poo, but anyway). But in the eyes of the NHL and the BoG, Balsillie is a threat. He is trying to steal a franchise and do with it as he pleases, NHL bylaws and “boys’ club” be damned.

It’s not about the location of the sandbox, it’s who controls the toys.

I don’t think it is about the market, but the market does play a role. Moving to Hamilton creates a strong foe in the Leafs, and there is little doubt that the league is sensitive to the position of the Sabres. At the same time though, there is an obvious dislike of Balsillie at the BOG level, and the league certainly does prefer to try and save a current market these days before considering relocation.

Balsillie’s attempts to get into Southern Ontario are only an added challenge hindering his hopes of success. It is not a reason of such importance that the story would be different if Balsillie was targeting another market, be it Kansas City or Winnipeg.

It worked in Denver, Minnesota and Atlanta.

It worked in Atlanta can at best be considering a dubious statement… but your general point is true.

I think long term this may end up being the best possible solution to ensure a franchise’s long term success in Arizona. Not the best solution overall, but the best solution given the circumstances. Move the team to Canada, which would remove the “Winnipeg’s Stolen Team” stigma, then get true, committed hockey people in to run a new expansion Coyotes franchise, which also gives you the chance to expand to another deserving market.

In a perfect world, what happened to the Patriots would happen to the Coyotes – a local businessman buys the team, and season ticket sales soar through the roof. But how things are working down there, I’m not sure that’s a realistic scenario.

I don’t think I would say it “worked” in Atlanta; it’s more like the NHL “worked” it in ’Lanta.

Speaking as a Coyotes’ season-ticket holder, I wouldn’t have a problem with that IF we were assured that we’d get a new team within at most five years. Honestly, at this point the name “Coyotes” and the Coyotes/Jets franchise has left a very sour taste in my mouth. A “fresh start” with a team that is OURS and not seen as a “pirated Canadian franchise” is a very appealing concept.

The problem is that there is no assurance out there that Phoenix would get another franchise. It’s pretty clear that the league is at best ambivalent about the potential here and is in this largely to keep Balsillie out of their ownership ranks. Thus, there’s really little else we can do besides fight for the crappy, lousy franchise we already have.

any different than Denver’s second time around? Both were started with relocated, Canadian, former WHA teams that made the playoffs both the season before relocation and for several years afterward. (Yes, the Avs had the huge advantage of winning the Cup in year one, but Phoenix was given a pretty good team for starters.)

And if you did “clean slate” Phoenix, where would they play? In some new arena in Scottsdale/Mesa? Go back to AWA, a truly mediocre venue for watching hockey? In Glendale, where the amount of bitching about the location is seemingly never-ending?

(Side note: I don’t get the location complaints—every time I’ve gone there, we’ve left from N. Scottsdale, Mesa, or even Chino Valley and the drive/traffic just wasn’t that bad; at least when compared with what we deal with in Northern CA. Glendale is a first-class place to attend a game, and worth the drive if the product on the ice is decent, IMHO.)

No, actually, I don’t. It didn’t take them until the lockout to become a bad hockey team.

Or the classy “I plan to keep the Pens in PA right up until I actually own the team, then all bets are off.” approach he took in Pittsburgh.