Gary Bettman Is An Excellent Commissioner, Financial Advisor

Gary Bettman, the well-loved and vastly-respected commissioner of the National Hockey League, is known for making great decisions. He is also known for his leadership and vision.

In the vision category comes this little tidbit from ESPN.com's Scott Burnside:

Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie has accused NHL commissioner Gary Bettman of forcing the owner of the Nashville Predators to break off discussions about the sale of the team to Balsillie...

According to the article, Bettman prefers the Predators be sold to a group interested in moving the team from Nashville to Kansas City, another hot bed of hockey interest just like Nashville.

While Balsillie already has a deal with Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, not to mention 14 thousand deposits on season tickets, Bettman seems to prefer trading one lousy market for another. But of course he does! He's Gary Bettman! He never makes a decision that isn't absolutely perfect for the league!

Why waste time expanding the league back into Canada, a country that loves its hockey more than it loves its own children? Why waste time having financially successful teams?

I think Gary Bettman should be NHL commissioner forever. He's a genius.

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We're All Invited To The Nashville BBQ, Suck Fest

The Nashville Predators unveiled their new RBK Edge uniforms last week, and, due to an ill-timed out-of-town excursion, I was unable to offer my opinion when it immediately came spewing forth from my mind.

My initial impression of the new jerseys was to ask, "Why the hell are the Predators wearing aprons?" Unfortunately, because I hesitated, somebody beat me to it.

That somebody is the illustrious Teebz, whose opinion is more or less identical to my own on the Hamilton/Kansas City/Nashville Predators' new look. In sum, it sucks. Just like the team is going to this coming season.

I'm not even going to justify their aesthetic cop-out by posting a lengthy analysis of the new uniforms. Instead, I'm going to go buy dirt-cheap tickets to their game against the Avalanche on October 4th so I can mock the Predators in person.

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Secret Lovers: Leipold Cheats On Balsillie

The National Post (of Canada, of course) is now reporting that Predators owner Craig Leipold has dropped Blackberry tycoon Jim Balsillie's offer to buy the team in favor of a bid from William DelBiaggio. But the Predators will still be moving. Instead of going to Hamilton, Ontario like Balsillie wants, the team will likely find themselves next in the hockey hotbed of Kansas City, where "Boots" DelBiaggio seeks to bring them.

What a brilliant move by the NHL and Gary Bettman, who are obviously pulling Leipold's strings on this one. Why move a current NHL team from a weak market to an extremely strong one? Just send it to another unproven, non-traditional American hockey wasteland and hope for the best. That's a sure recipe for success!

However, that will stop plans to grant an expansion team to Kansas City, so Bettman will have to find another new market to plop a brand-new NHL team nobody really wants to see (other than Las Vegas, which is a sure bet---sorry). I suggest Nashville, which will obviously "need" a new team once the Predators ship off to the Great Plains.

Oh, and Hamilton ticket buyers, sorry about your luck. Good thing they're giving refunds.

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Fire Sale In Nashville Continues, Except For The Team Itself

The Nashville Predators are still busy dumping salaries, this time trading star goalie Thomas Vokoun to the Florida Panthers for an array of 2008 draft picks. While surprising to some extent, the Preds still have breakout netminder Chris Mason to rely on. Mason actually put up slightly better numbers than Vokoun after filling in for him during a stint on the injured list.

But while they continue to downsize the payroll, current owner Craig Leipold has requested that the NHL halt all activity in favor of Jim Balsillie's bid to buy the Nashville team until a final agreement is reached. The current deadline is June 30th for a binding deal on the sale. While this doesn't mean the sale is off, it does indicate that Leipold is wary of Balsillie's not-so-subtle intention to move the Predators to Hamilton, Ontario as soon as the 2007-08 season.

Could the Predators end up staying in Nashville? If so, what then? They'll be missing some key stars and have only eventual draft picks to show for them. It could be years before they're a legitimate post-season contender again. Oops.

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The Predators Put On Their Running Shoes, Begin Race To The Bottom

The Predators, in the first of many moves (and non-moves) to jettison player salaries, have traded talented free agents Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell to the Flyers for a first round draft pick. That's right, two good players for a single draft pick. And, to make matters worse, it was the draft pick the Predators originally gave to the Flyers as part of the trade for Peter Forsberg, who will not play for Nashville next season. The Flyers are clearly the winner in this series of exchanges.

Obviously, the Predators are simply dumping salaries and racing for the bottom (cap-wise). Why? Because current owner Craig Leipold wants the hell out, NOW. No better way to speed the process of a sale than to quickly deflate the team's operating costs through salary elimination. Secure a draft pick for the future but dump the stars and veterans and get primed for a rebuilding process that will likely take place north of the border.

It's not a stretch of the imagination to think that Nashville's quick dumping of players like Timmonen and Hartnell will be followed soon by the departure of Paul Kariya and others. And it's also not a stretch to assume that Nashville's front office is simply following the direct orders of Leipold through all of this.

So the Predators spend next season as the NHL's Tampa Bay Devil Rays and then slip quietly in the night to Hamilton, Ontario, and into the open arms of more than 10,000 season ticket holders and new owner Jim Balsillie. The writing, as they say, is on the ice.

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Hamilton Fans Can't Wait To See Nonexistent Hockey Team

Hamilton, Ontario doesn't even have an NHL team, but that isn't stopping local residents from making deposits on thousands of season tickets at Copps Coliseum. Ticketmaster even has a seating chart up for Copps with the title "Hamilton Predators NHL Franchise Deposit Map".

In what can only be a PR stunt by potential Predators buyer Jim Balsillie, the ticket sales have already surpassed the 9000 held by fans in Nashville. Make Nashville look bad, make Hamilton look great, seal the deal. That has to be Balsillie's game plan, or otherwise there'd be no reason at all to sell tickets for an NHL team that doesn't yet exist, and may not exist by next season anyway, even if Balsillie's purchase of the team goes through.

I've only been to Hamilton a couple of times, and only then to drive through on the way to Toronto. I don't know much about the city, but it must be boring as hell. How else would fans have money just lying around to throw at a nonexistent hockey team? Can't be much else to do, apparently.

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So Long Predators, We Hardly Knew Ye

Jim Balsillie wanted to buy the Penguins. When that didn't work out, he just scrolled down the list of NHL teams alphabetically organized on his Blackberry and decided to go for the Predators next. This time, he had a little more luck.

Not so lucky are the 15,000 or so Nashville residents who attended the Predators games (on average) last season. Despite being a dominant team during the regular season, the Preds haven't been able to generate the kind of local corporate interest so critical to the survival of modern professional sports teams. There was plenty of talk during this past season that of all the teams in the NHL other than the Florida Panthers, the Nashville Predators were the most likely to move in the coming years.

It's likely that it won't take more than two. Balsillie won't move the Predators next season, but there is no doubt that his plans involve taking the team back to Canada with him, probably to somewhere in Quebec or Ontario---or so the rumors go.

Can't say that I blame him, since Canada could use another team (or four) and the fine residents of Tennessee just aren't going to appreciate hockey like people farther north.

I've actually been to two games at the Gaylord Entertainment Center where the Predators play. They were both Avs games, of course. I saw the Avs lose to Nashville during the 2000-01 season (the last year they won the Cup) and again I saw the Avs play an awesome but unfortunate OT loss to the Preds during the 2005-06 season. Both times I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the Nashville atmosphere. It will be a shame to lose it as a hockey town.

But such is life. One more year and the Predators will be somewhere in Canada, probably with a new name and a new look. Whatever pans out should be interesting, at least.

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The Playoffs?! !

With the Avalanche out of the playoffs, it's tempting to just ignore the whole NHL post-season and find something else to do, like watch baseball or take up playing golf. Tempting, but totally impossible. Who are we kidding?

Most hockey blogs are now posting their half-brained post-season predictions, saying things like "Sharks in Six" and "Senators in 10 Years" and such. We're not going to play that game, since everyone knows that predictions are worth nothing once the pucks start dropping. Seriously, who picked Edmonton and Carolina to be in the finals last year? Don't lie. It wasn't you either.

So, we'll take another route. Without a home team to root for this year, we've decided to choose two new "favorite" teams, one from the Eastern Conference and one from the Western Conference, for the sake of fairness.

But how do you choose a couple of new favorite teams? What do you look for? Geographical proximity? Quality of roster? Aesthetic strength of uniforms? Raw sex appeal? The process can be very complicated, obviously.

In the East, we decided to pick arguably the most exciting team in all of hockey, a team that has completely turned itself around in just one season on the backs of the most talented crop of young players the NHL has seen in a long time. With youth comes sex appeal, and this team definitely has it in spades. Studs barely over the age of 18 who score all the time, hot Russian mail-order husbands, you name it, they've got it.

In the West, the only criteria the team really had to meet was "Do the Red Wings hate them?" The answer is a resounding yes! The team we chose is both underrated, under-appreciated and the Dead Wings hate their guts with a passion. Even better, two of their players used to play for the Avalanche. That's good enough for us!

Obviously, the teams aren't too difficult to figure out.

So, without further ado, the newly-crowned OFFICIAL NEW FAVORITE TEAMS OF DEAR LORD STANLEY for the 2007 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are:

AND
- Pittsburgh Penguins - - - - - - - - - - Nashville Predators -

We'd love to see these teams win their conference championships and face off in a finale that lasts no fewer than seven games. And we'd love to see Sidney Crosby try to grow a playoff beard. Talk about entertainment!

Go Preds! Go Pens!

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Nashville 4, Colorado 2 (The End)

Of course the Avalanche would lose at home against the Predators on the same night that the godforsaken Edmonton Oilers beat the Flames. Of course Colorado's playoff hopes were dashed one day before a final showdown with Calgary for the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Avs played super hard against Nashville but just couldn't stem the tide. It would be fitting that two former Colorado players, Peter Forsberg and Paul Kariya, would play roles in their demise. Arguably Paul Kariya doesn't count as a former Av (dismal single season played with the team), but you know what we mean.

So the magical run ends.

Let's review the lessons learned here, shall we?

1. Don't wait to become a competitive, even dominant team until game 65 of the regular season.

2. Do get to know your teammates and play together like you actually care about each other's success from day one.

3. Don't count on young sophomores (Svatos) to carry the goal-scoring weight early in the season when veterans (Hejduk) should be leading the way.

4. Do give your home-grown goalie talent (Budaj) a chance to succeed from day one, instead of shunning him for out-of-town dead weight.

5. Don't ever trade anyone for Jose Theodore. Ever. Ever ever ever ever ever.

6. Do play your hearts out every night of the season.

Next season the Avalanche have lots to look forward to. Young players continuing their development as stars, a now-proven starting goalie with success to build upon, a returning veteran captain still at the top of his game, and a coach who has shown he can motivate his players even if it all came a little too late.

The Avs should be ashamed of themselves for not making the playoffs, but proud that they worked so hard in the end and hopeful for far more success next year. And in the name of Hockey Jesus, bring back the avalanche warning siren to the Pepsi Center for every home goal scored!!

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The MasterDater Strikes Again

Denver Post writer Adrian Dater gave Peter Forsberg a textual hand job today.

Says Dater:

On Saturday - barring another of the countless injuries that added frustration to the awe fans felt toward him - Forsberg will return to the Pepsi Center for the first time as a visiting player with the Nashville Predators.

The Avalanche have missed him. The fans have missed him.

Yeah, let's run through the list of things the Avs and their fans have missed since Floppa took off for the not-so-greener pastures of Philadelphia last season:

1. A constant string of injuries that minimizes his impact nearly every season.

2. A reckless, physical style of play that frequently results in unnecessary penalties as well as the frequent injuries mentioned above.

3. Constant rumors almost every season that he reserves the right to jump ship and move back to Sweden at any time, depending on his mood at the moment.

4. Poorly-maintained facial hair that periodically threatens to take over his entire face, rendering him completely blind---and not even during the playoffs.

Dear Lord Stanley may be the only one, but this blog is glad to see Forsberg on any other team than the Avalanche. When he was healthy, he was often great, but he's past his prime, nearly physically destroyed and completely unreliable over a full season. All he'd be now is a financial burden for the Avalanche.

The best "welcome home" the Avs could give him and his Nashville Predators is a hardcore beat-down in the form of a 0-5 shutout loss. Maybe afterward, Mr. Dater could personally "console" poor Floppa himself.

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