Cosmic

How's about this; the NHL announces two expansion teams because it wants so damn badly to have those stupid Coyotes stay in Desertland, and is hellbent on never being proven wrong on the obvious.I have no doubt that's part of it.

Can I call it now? The NHL announces two expansion teams, netting the Coyotes ~$30M in expansion fees before they can reach the magical $50M threshold.

If we're working under the assumption that the NHL is "top tier", then sure.

So Hamilton could probably support an NHL team, but they'll be left without even an AHL team?

It's not one or the other... it's both. The AHL is a competitive league AND a development organization for the NHL. NFL practice squads are pure development entities. The difference between the AHL and a practice squad is that thousands of people don't pay to watch the practice squad do its thing (I'm sure the NFL is working on it, though). The AHL can tell you you're seeing the stars of tomorrow, and the NCAA can tell you that student-athletes are playing sports to build character, but the reason people put down money to go to the games is that they want to see the team that happens to operate in their city win. At the same time, though, I think minor league fans know the deal; the parent clubs basically loan the talent that they don't have room for on the big club's roster. Pulling stupid stunts like having one division play less games than the others and mostly playing intradivision games before waltzing however many of its teams into the playoffs threatens to tip the seesaw too far towards the "development" side.

The cigarette companies? Other than that, probably no.

I played this matchup so many times on Madden ('95, I believe... the one where the Panthers and Jags were ridiculously powerful hidden teams) that this doesn't look weird to me. LRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR(I believe that was the code to get the hidden teams on SNES. I still have a soft spot for the Panthers because of that game.)

I don't think anyone ever thought he was an elite scorer, but he was good enough at the right time to get that huge contract. He had his point-per-game year, then a pretty good year. After that pretty good year, he had 14 points in 11 playoff games. Then, huge contract with the Rangers. Edit: Even factoring in all of his horrible years, he's still averaging 59 points per an 82 game season. That's nothing to sneeze at.

Spend money for Super Bowl ad... don't take deposits until nine days later. I have total faith in this ownership group.

It's really hard to believe that they're actually gonna let teams in the West play fewer games. I'm mostly OK with the "leagues within a league" thing, but I'd like some token acknowledgment that they are all in the same organization. Say you have an East, a Central and a West... is it too much to ask that teams take a five game road trip through one of the other conferences each season? Five games out of 75ish?

They're similar, but it's very very possible to end up at the same place you ended up without having seen your artwork.

I see your point, but I also think the rays are an art deco thing and that's an art deco building.

I'm wondering if this is the Sharks' basic plan, too. There wouldn't be anywhere near the hard feelings if you move your AHL team from your NHL city after a couple of years when a good opportunity opens up.

This is the correct uniform for him. Nope. Most years in one uniform, most successful years of his career, went to the Stanley Cup Finals and won the Selke Trophy with the Sabres.

Admiral, your Brian Burke boner is showing.

The Las Vegas ticket drive... will rely heavily on chain letters, apparently: http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/34100/potential-las-vegas-owners-get-strong-response-to-ticket-drive

This is one that really bugged me at the time. Joe Juneau scored the goal that knocked the Sabres out of the conference finals in 1998 (the year the Caps got demolished by the Red Wings), then he was on the Sabres the next year.

The old trophies were ugly, but still better than the new ones. They're just like baby Lombardis. They don't do enough to be their own thing. Maybe that's how the NFL wants it.

Yes. That's as good as it gets for the Sabres. My all-time favorite hockey jersey.

I have no idea what's up with that 3 on the new banner. This is what the actual font looked like: Maybe the yellow outline is messing with my vision, but the 3 from the jersey seems to have a more consistent thickness in the blue.

So the Sabres retired Dominik Hasek's number last night. They pretty much matched the old ones, so I'm happy. It would have been neat to see a red and black one, but he did wear the blue and gold, so it's not a big deal either way. They won't be retiring anyone's number that only wore red and black, and they even kept the original logos around for the alumni association during the red and black era.

They have a club policy of not disclosing terms? When all salaries are eventually public knowledge, anyway?

With important college football on New Year's Day again for the foreseeable future, they should really look at moving it deeper into winter. Baseball stadiums suck for a hockey game, and NFL teams aren't gonna offer up their stadiums for a Jan 1 game.

Apparently, overpaying marginal players and flying them all over Eurasia with money from oil speculation is unsustainable.

This is a couple weeks old now, but the KHL is imploding. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/12/16/will-the-crashing-ruble-kill-khl-hockey/