TFoA

I don't know if people still hate these, but these are by far the best uniforms the Cavaliers have ever had.

I wasn't a fan of these when they came out initially, and I'm still not a fan of all of the crazy alts that they have (including the navy alt), but I've warmed up to them now and they've become one of my favorite looks in the entire NBA. Granted, the rest of the NBA is in a horrid state when it comes to uniforms, but this one is a shining light of doing something right when it comes to the uniforms.

It could have been worse they could have put Danny Heatley on the cover of a video game

To be fair, that wasn't an NHL decision.

Picking a cover athlete for NHL 2004 proved to be problematic. Joe Thornton was the original choice but after he was brought up on assault charges, he was removed and replaced by Dany Heatley for the game's first shipments. After Heatley's car crash that killed his Atlanta Thrashers team-mate, Dan Snyder, EA removed him and replaced the cover with Joe Sakic but not before a large number of units had already been shipped. As a result, both covers (Heatley and Sakic) made it into circulation.

I actually got a copy with Heatley on the cover for my birthday when it came out. Needless to say, it was pretty damn awkward.

Tkachuk was a Thrasher? Where was I for that?

It was during the 1-2 year period where the Thrashers were actually a somewhat competent team on the ice.

This is a great logo:

Agreed. Never really got why the majority of CCSLCers seem to hate this logo. It's not as good as the leaping Bengal, but it's not a bad logo by any means.

Stirrups aren't that awesome.

Agreed 8000%. When they went from stirrups to solid socks/long pants, I didn't shed a tear.

Everything but the Sixers looks weird to me but this especially

He looks odd in this uniform too:

YES. I do not associate A.I. with this uniform at all. Hell, I barely associate him with the Red-White-&-Blue color scheme at all since he only wore it for a year or two in his early days. The logo identity that the Sixers used before this one could truly be defined as the Iverson Era.

Not sure if posted yet, but...

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=395274

Yes, nine posts above yours.

A tentative deal? Haven't we been to this dance before?

Yeah, like 50 times. If the past is any indicator, this means two things:

1) The deal WILL fall through, but not in enough time to get the team moved.

2) As a result of the Coyotes staying in the desert for yet another season, another team is gonna get sacrificed to Canada.

It's been my gut feeling for months that this was gonna be the most likely scenario. Looks like it's gonna happen, again.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/Coyotes-win-as-Glendale-Council-pledges-more-money-148626725.html

Monday, during an eight-hour budget session, the Glendale City Council voted to budget another payout for next season.

During the same meeting, the Council also voted to raise property taxes and the sales tax. Council members said the Coyotes fund is not directly related to the tax hike, but another city official called it a "contributing factor."

Hmm, complete 180, the saga continues

What the...

That only makes sense if

You made your fatal mistake when you tried to make some sort of sense out of this.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/Coyotes-win-as-Glendale-Council-pledges-more-money-148626725.html

Monday, during an eight-hour budget session, the Glendale City Council voted to budget another payout for next season.

During the same meeting, the Council also voted to raise property taxes and the sales tax. Council members said the Coyotes fund is not directly related to the tax hike, but another city official called it a "contributing factor."

Hmm, complete 180, the saga continues

Holy crap, this is gonna go on another year, isn't it?!

I was in Quebec yesterday, reading the local newspaper. Apparently there's a hunting and fishing expo going on this weekend. They're having the typical door crashers and raffle. One of the prizes is a pair of Season Tickets for the Quebec Nordiques. It's like Hamilton all over again.

Wait, wasn't it the whole "counting your chickens before they hatch" thing that got Ol' Sillie Balls thrown out of the Owner's Club before he even got a chance to join?

I agree Brooklyn is always an option, but only for the short-term. They'd need to have the arena deal in place before moving in to a facility with such a limited capacity, lest they be stuck there.

Tickets for the Islanders-Devils exhibition game went on sale today - here's the seating map on the ticket page:

Sorry to interrupt the latest Coyotes news, but the Barclays Center website has a different seating chart with no available seating at one end of the arena. (My apologies for the large image size, they don't have a smaller one on the site.)

Holy , the Islanders are SCREWED.

Toronto is my homer pick for no. 1, but I say that the Bruins have the second-best banners in the NHL. I like it when teams get creative.

I also like how the Expos hung a banner for being the best team in the lockout-shortened '94 season:

I believe that banner was only hung for the final Expos home game.

I'm not so sure it was the last game at Stade Olympique. Look at the Brewers logo right next to the banner, it's the mid-90s "Motre Bame" logo. The Brewers switched to their current identity in 2000. You'd think that by 2004, they'd have changed it.

Found the box score from the Tigers-White Sox game on the scoreboard. It was indeed from September 29, 2004.

I'll be sad if they leave, but only for the same reason most hockey fans out here would be: i don't get to see my favorite team play the Coyotes live 2-3 times a year.

And that, in a nutshell, is the real problem.

They're not the only one with that problem. I was in Anaheim last night and the crowd was very evenly split between Sharks and Ducks fans despite neither team being out of the playoff hunt yet, and it was nowhere near a sell out. I was shocked based on how popular the Ducks were just a few years ago.

Well, I mean, the two teams are from the same state and the Ducks are in a down year. Of course there's gonna be a good chunk of Sharks fans in there.

The Coyotes' problem is that they probably could win the Stanley Cup this season and still have trouble selling out games next season, should they somehow still be there next season.

So if this happens the new Nords will historically be the old Winnipeg Jets and of course Coyotes while the new Jets are historically an Atlanta expansion team that replaced the Flames that now play in Calgary. Anyone else find all of that just bizarre?

It's better not to try to make sense of it. Instead, just say this: OITGDNHL.

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.

I vaguely remember before the last Coyotes game at America West Arena, they said that you could only see about 70% of the rink from the upper deck on that side.

Yeah, just looking at the 3rd pic in that post, you can probably tell that if you're sitting up high in the west end's upper deck (not on the front row or anything like that), the only way you're gonna see anything past the bottom of the faceoff circles in that zone is if you see it on the jumbotron. It's amazing that they stayed in that arena as long as they did.

Is 100x better than

IMO, the nightime lighting @ Qualcomm makes that uniform look really bad. However, during the day it looks awesome.

I just hate the navy facemask on that helmet. I wish they'd go to a white one.

Bad news on the Islanders front. It looks like Wang is now seriously considering offers from outside the NY-metro area. This is from Chris Botta, former NYI PR guy, who always felt the Islanders would end up either in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, or Brooklyn:

Sources insist that he is utilizing his leverage to be prepared for 2015.

But here?s where it gets really dicey for the true Orange and Blue believers, and those ignorant folks ? namely, this writer ? who found the notion of the Islanders ever leaving New York inconceivable.

Wang does not want to leave Nassau County, and staying put remains his first choice. But when I asked top executives to confirm that Wang will only consider overtures from municipalities within the New York metropolitan area, I could not get a promise on or off the record.

?I can?t guarantee that anymore,? said one source on high. ?They are looking at options inside and outside of New York State. It would be misleading to say New York only.?

So there you have it.

Source: islanderspointblank.com

I was actually really surprised at the general tone and message of most of the comments there, definitely more surprised than at the article. Usually, even when it's very definitely in the interest of the team to relocate, the fans are having none of it and freak on the owner, but there's a whole mess of Islanders fans over there that are actually supporting a move. Weird.

Seems to me they're all blaming Nassau County for the mess that they're in & are 100% on Wang's side. This is like the exact opposite of your typical reaction to a team moving.

Then again, most of them are convinced that the team will only be moving into the Barclays Center & not skipping out on New York completely. For their sake, I hope that's the case. It'd be cool if they could leave NVMC but stay in Brooklyn, even if it meant having to play in what would be the smallest hockey arena in the NHL.

Don't get me wrong, as a Devils fan, this s**t concerns me...

...but we're not even in the same galaxy as the Phoenix or Long Island situations.

You're logic is sound....except that this is Gary Bettman's NHL where teams that are trouble, but not as much trouble as the Coyotes, are sacrificed to save the Great Arizona Hockey Experiment.

Bingo, which is why I believe that the next team to be moved will NOT be Phoenix. If they weren't the ones to end up in Winnipeg when it was pretty much set in the stars to happen, then their chances of moving at this point are pretty slim. It's really sad that I've got more faith that another team will be sacrificed to Canada or a new market in America before the Coyotes mess is resolved. Hell, I'd even venture to say that the only way the Coyotes are leaving the desert is if the franchise gets contracted, and even those chances are slim-to-none.

This story just finds brand new ways to top itself.

I LOVED this uniform set. There, I said it.

Just started watching the Ducks @ Coyotes game. They first showed a low down angle that looked like most of the arena was packed, until the camera turned some more to reveal empty seats.

They really need to start WWE'ing it.

Why they haven't just tarped off the upper deck is beyond me.

But NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's message to all of would-be suitors, including those from Quebec City, has been the same: do not construct a building thinking there's a chance to get an NHL franchise because the league has no plans at this time to relocate another team.

wat

@SportsMoneyBlog Mike Ozanian <BR itxtNodeId="116">Sale of St Louis Blues to Hulsizer for a reported $18o mil or so falling apart.

Blessing in disguise for my Bluenote brethren.

I'm starting to get the feeling that if you put Matthew Hulsizer's and Ice Edge Holdings' capital together, you might be able to buy the Dayton Gems.

Dollar Beer/Hot Dog/Pop/Probably Tickets Outside The Arena Saturday at the Jobber drew 13,381. I find it telling that I can't distinguish whether that's good or bad.

Other than the home opener, that's probably a season-high for them, right? Then again, their season high is barely above Columbus' average of 13,000, which is 27th in the league. So it's good for Phoenix's below-sea-level expectations, but still bad.

Add the Devils to list of ownership/money woes.

Forbes? Mike Ozanian reports that the Devils are headed towards bankruptcy themselves and that owner Jeff Vanderbeek is compounding the team?s issues by treating the team the same way Tom Hicks did with the Dallas Stars. The issue at hand for the Devils? Vanderbeek isn?t making interest payments on the team. Quotes from the Globe And Mail on Vanderbeek?s inability to pay follow.

Devils co-owner Jeff Vanderbeek already missed an interest payment on the $80-million (all currency U.S.) loan Sept. 1. He was given an extension by the lenders in order to try and raise enough money to buy out co-owners Ray Chambers and Mike Gilfillan.

However, Vanderbeek?s efforts have not paid off yet so he still has not been able to make the interest payment. The Devils are not an attractive property to buyers because of their attendance troubles at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. They are 25th among the NHL?s 30 teams in attendance with an average announced crowd of 14,074.

So 2 out of the 3 teams that play in the league's largest market are currently going through turmoil. What in the hell.

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?hlg=20112012,2,158

this looks really bad get out of my league

That's actually not even the worst I've seen for that place. A couple of years back I was watching a weeknight Wild @ Panthers game for God knows what reason, and the place looked like a Cleveland Indians game at the beginning of "Major League." The game you posted looks like a sell-out compared to that one.