The_Admiral

Milwaukee as a hockey farm team for Nashville is the most upside-down affiliation in sports. It'd be like Vancouver sending its prospects to AAA San Diego.

There's a city in Quebec named Asbestos. Such a move wouldn't help them get away from their problem at all!

I don't think the Nassau Coliseum is long for this world, but that doesn't mean the Islanders are similarly doomed. They're worth too much where they are.

Photos provided by their lawyer showed a white substance on the floor and walls of the coliseum's boiler room.

Kaner!

Geez, I'm so tired of the Coyotes situation. It's obvious to everyone but the NHL that Phoenix can't support a hockey team.

They are on life support and it's time to pull the plug on them.

[/mini rant]

Yeah they were flying banners over the Dodger's game at Camelback Ranch on Saturday trying to lure some spring training visitors over to the arena after Sunday's games to watch some hockey on Sunday. Found that just funny given that a large number of spring training go'ers aren't locals.

The Blackhawks played a road game in Phoenix during spring training the last few years because of all the Cubs/Sox fans that make the visit. I can't confirm that there were Sox fans who rooted for the Coyotes because too many Cubs fans like the Blackhawks, but I can't confirm there weren't, either.

Comping playoff tickets doesn't seem very wise when you're already giving the parking away for free, but we might be in lame duck territory with today's news, anyway.

The NHL posted this and then deleted it. Predicting that they'd take it down, I cleverly screencapped it.

I'd like to congratulate Quebec City on its forthcoming "NHL-style arena." I'm going to bake them a batch of chocolate chip-style cookies.

I'm sure someone will ask Peladeau and the mayor about the Coyotes, and then one of them will force "oh we wouldn't know a thing about that" through an array of snorts and giggles while the other elbows him in the side saying "shut uuup" (all this in French, of course). On the whole, the Quebecois seem to lack the discipline and stoicism of their prairie brethren, from what I've seen.

Again, damn shame.

Still, 14,500 would be better than they draw in Nassau. And they'd remain accessible to their historical fanbase.

Would a few seasons there be worth it over remaining in Nassau while trying to figure out their situation?

Seeing as Nassau is literally falling apart (the roof is leaking, they have to strip the asbestos out), I'd say they could do a couple years in Brooklyn between the end of their ironclad Nassau lease and the completion of a new arena. I wouldn't make it permanent; it really doesn't seem like a very good hockey rink at all.

Question for Gothamite: with the renaissance of Brooklyn, is suburban Long Island, in some sense, dying? All I read is that the high taxes and NIMBYism/BANANAism are sending everyone out of there. I mean, it's not that people won't live there anymore, just that maybe there won't be that sort of enormous middle class that would justify building a 17,000-seat arena outside of New York City.

Anyway, this press conference is probably just to say they have the arena stuff figured out, finally. I doubt they're going to come right out and say "nous avons acheté les Coyotes," because that would make the NHL very mad. I guess Quebecor people are gonna be there, though.

Hmm, press conference in two hours regarding the new QC arena. That was...sudden. Who calls a presser on a Sunday afternoon, really.

Your timeline is messed up. Isles were '72, Scouts moved to Denver in '76 (and then the Meadowlands in '82). I don't doubt that the NHL has wanted to get in on Seattle for a long time, but that failed Seattle/Denver expansion was well after they set up shop on/squatted on Long Island, so it's not really a matter of them "coming home."

Isles aren't leaving the region, though. They'll play in the Barclays if they have to between the Nassau Coliseum and a new arena. Bruce Ratner was on during intermission of a game I watched last week, wildly gesticulating about how much he wanted to help keep the team around. I'm sure the team's various ownership/broadcast overlords wouldn't have him on TV for nothing.

You know, Seattle would've been a fine place for the NHL to go. Unfortunately, the old owner of the Supersonics led an expansion bid just so he could sabotage it at the last minute (Miami or Anaheim got it instead) and keep the Sonics from having competition. Then he had the Seattle Center Coliseum renovated to be basketball-specific so that an NHL counterpart would be untenable. And you know where he is now? Dead!

There was also supposed to be a Seattle/Denver expansion in the '70s, but it was cancelled because the Scouts moved to Denver instead. Poor Seattle.

I'm just saying that since all that the BOG cares about is expanding revenue, and US TV revenues would be a good way to do so, that expanding into Canada would not be something they would see as favourable to that plan.

But there's not really money in US TV revenue. NBC just locked up the NHL at a good but not great price for the next ten years, so you're not really making any fast money by replacing Phoenix with Kansas City or Seattle. Meanwhile, the Canadian broadcast rights--which are distributed among all 30 teams--are up for renewal. It's sort of like the NHL signed its own salary-cap-circumventing contract, except having themselves locked in at what seems like a good rate now will bite them in the ass later when it turns out to be well below market value.

One of the dumber canards going, and not that you personally said it but plenty of people do, is that Canada doesn't need more teams because they'll always watch hockey on TV but American interest is dependent on the markets involved. Again: not the NFL. Hockey is not first and foremost a TV show; it remains a gate-driven league. You have to make your money by selling tickets, beer, and parking spaces; local broadcast rights are a secondary concern; national rights highly tertiary. If there are hockey tickets in Phoenix that people can buy and don't while there are hypothetical tickets in Quebec City that people can't buy but would, then you have not properly allocated your resources in a gate-driven league.

And as far as media goes, secondary as it may be, it can't hurt that the Nordiques would be an arm of a huge media conglomerate.

I don't think there's an argument about Ottawa. I'd expect that QC's anglophone coverage would be the same sort of perfunctory nod that Ottawa's francophone coverage is. Incidentally, I think the Senateurs games are on TVA Sport, where the Nords would be. I wonder if they'll get bumped off.

Ehh, I'm not crazy about that Citadelles package. Too St. Louis Rams-y for me.

I think the Nordiques, like the Jets, will need their identity spruced up (I gave it a whirl with a "coat of arms" logo and crenelated striping), but the name and the fleur-de-lis need to be a part of whatever they go forth with.

There was a Sabres-Jets game on NBCSN a few weeks ago. They chanted "silver medal" at Miller.

If they move, they'll have their own cable channel, possibly national, which as we know is virtually a license to print money. Even if it's not in English, that's still a lot of hockey-related revenue for the league. Cap goin' up!

Except the NHL has already said that Winnipeg is staying in the Southeast next season. (I'm assuming they're assuming the Coyotes are still in Phoenix.)

They'll have to flip the Jets and Nordiques if the move goes through and call it an emergency realignment or whatever.

Seattle getting the Hornets would be like the Arrested Development episode where Tobias directs the school play but keeps dicking around with the casting until Maeby ends up playing the male lead and STEVE HOLT plays the female.

Change "Seattle getting the Hornets" to "Quebec and Winnipeg staying put"

Fun With Google Translate:

Nicolas St-Pierre @ ckoi_st_pierre Reply Retweet Favorite · Open

@ jf_the_chief Quebec is running as plausible the NHL can not afford to return an unnatural walk

Their mascot was Badaboum, whom I believe to be an anthropomorphic otter.

I'd be more inclined to stop making fun of them if they didn't put forth a division leader with a -16 goal differential. hey, at least it's up from the -26 they had a week or so ago!

I can't see Pittsburgh agreeing to go west after they flipped their crap about maybe not playing the Rangers and Flyers six times a year. I figured at least the Maple Leafs might go for increased Hawks/Wings games.

I think they should use a logo that combines a national symbol, the military, and their corporate overlords. Worked well last summer. Fleur-de-lis on top of an outline of the Citadelle with a Videotron logo at the top, gonna sell like mad!

P-K Peladeau is supposedly enamored of the Nordiques' name/identity, so I think they'll be the Nordiques. If the Jets' intellectual property reverted to the NHL when they moved in 1996, I wonder if the Nords' did as well.

I wonder where they're going to get their operations staff. Armada? Remparts? It was easy with the Thrashers, because TNSE was basically functioning as an NHL operation already and just sort of assimilated the Thrashers' roster into the existing Manitoba Moose front office and operations, rather than move the franchise as is traditionally done. Tougher with the Coyotes unless they too essentially merge with the Armada and/or Remparts, because their existing account reps and promotional staff probably don't want to relocate with the team and probably don't even speak French anyway.

I wonder what'll happen to Don Maloney and Dave Tippett. One school of thought is that Quebecor needs to install its own people, the other is that Maloney and Tippett have done so much with so little that you can't fire them now. I see both sides, so I say keep Maloney and launch Tippett. Maloney seems to be a pretty good judge of talent, so give him a chance to work his magic with a better budget. However, Tippett coaches a style of hockey that's absolutely abhorrent to the Quebecois/international sensibilities that this team is going to appeal to. Ask Jacques Martin: in the land of the Flying Frenchmen, the Stastnys, and run-and-gun Q league, you can't do this sluggish, thumb-up-your-ass fraudulence and expect anyone to have your back. You can't do that in Quebec, and with the resources of Quebecor behind you, you shouldn't have to.

Oh, and it shouldn't matter which language the coach speaks; there's no lingual taffy pull in QC.

There's something kind of cozy about that west end (girls). That mezzanine doesn't seem so bad. Upper deck sightlines must've sucked, though.

KeyArena has about 12,000 usable seats for hockey and the scoreboard hangs over one of the ends instead of center ice. It would be a cross between when the Coyotes had to play in a basketball-only arena and when the Senators had to play under the stands of a football stadium, so "viable" is highly subjective. And I don't think the Tacoma Dome has an ice plant anymore. Buildings that stop holding ice events seem to stop maintaining their ice plants (or vice versa). I don't think the Palace of Auburn Hills still lays down an ice surface, for example.

I thought the deal with No Not That Chris Hansen was that he wasn't going to start building an arena till an NBA team was secured, partially owing to the fact that an NHL team wouldn't have anywhere to play in the meantime and partially because they're really only doing this to get the Supersonics back and an NHL co-tenant is just a reason to justify the expenditures (see also: dragging the Whalers down to Raleigh so NC State could have a big arena). That the Kings and Hornets are off the market really throws a wrench into the "getting the Supersonics back" thing, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's on hold for a while.

So yeah I'm pretty sure there's no way you could have an Seattle NHL team ready to go by October. And Las Vegas hahaha you're not fooling anyone Bill Daly

Sending two teams each way with a Quebec move so it's not just Winnipeg moving west only for QC to take their old purgatory slot:

Pacific: Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, Colorado, Dallas

Northwest: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Minnesota, Winnipeg

Central: Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Columbus, Toronto

Northeast: Montreal, Quebec, Boston, Buffalo, Ottawa

Atlantic: NY, LI, NJ, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia

NASCAR: Washington, Nashville, Florida, Tampa, Carolina

Not perfect, but you're never going to get it perfect when most hockey teams are east of the Mississippi and north of the Mason-Dixon. Minnesota and Winnipeg should be in the Central over Columbus, but what are you gonna do.

Incidentally, with an 84-game season you can get a nice little scheduling rotation: 24 games with the division, 40 with the rest of the conference, and 20 with the other conference. From there, you can play one division at home, one division away, and the third division home and away, rotating every three years. Just shorten the preseason. No one cares about the preseason.

I think the Panthers are fine, its not a bad market

Infomercials get better ratings than Panthers games. This is not hyperbole.