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rubberdinghy

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Booche, you gotta be here for the NHL Awards and be a seat filler.

Provided you can get me one here at work!

I'ld love to meet Bettman. He sure would have a story to tell. I think he has been better for the game than people give him credit. For example:

Under Bettman the league expanded too quickly,

The only cities that came into the fold under Bettman's watch are Minnesota, Nashville, Columbus and Atlanta. Florida and Anaheim came in for the 1993 season but I believe they came about during the John Ziegler era.

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Here's Spector's take on the subject:

American hockey fans watching Game Five of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals between the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres on NBC this past Saturday afternoon got a rude surprise at the end of regulation time.

With the game set to go into overtime, NBC without warning abruptly cut to coverage of The Preakness, the second jewel in American horseracing’s Triple Crown. The only heads-up was NBC informing viewers who had Versus that they could switch to that channel to watch the OT.

Fine if you have Versus, but not for those who don’t.

That generated justifiable outrage, even some calls from American hockey fans and some bloggers and pundits that the NHL should dump NBC when the current contract with the network expires.

Don’t count on it. The NHL needs NBC much more than the network needs the NHL.

As I pointed out in a post on Tom Benjamin’s blog on the subject:

“(T)he NHL won't do this because they're desperate to keep their product on a major US network, despite shoddy ratings or mistreatment by said network.

Right now NBC is the only major network willing to broadcast their product due to the sweetheart deal they have with the NHL. That's why it was willing to extend the deal recently by another two years. They're not losing any money in the deal, they only have to provide minimal coverage, and they can influence both the NHL's regular season and post-season schedule to determine the best matchups.

Can you imagine NBC have that kind of sway over the NFL, NBA or MLB? They've got the NHL by the short and curlies and they know it, so they're obviously not gonna lose any sleep over any outrage from NHL hockey fans over switching unannounced to coverage of the Preakness.

And they certainly won't care how much Bettman stamps his little feet in protest. In fact, Bettman was probably outraged but didn't say a word to the good folks at NBC, because he needs them more than they need him.â€

There was probably considerably more outrage at NHL headquarters than their tepid response that was published in The Globe & Mail. Bottom line, there's nothing the NHL can do about it.

Don't be surprised if the league points out how accommodating NBC has been in their playoff coverage by pre-empting shows (such as the documentary on Barbero).

A horserace like the Preakness trumps coverage of an NHL playoff game for any of the American networks.

In other words, folks, your complaints and outrage will fall on deaf ears.

All of this is merely reflective of how far the NHL's value has declined in the all-important American sports market.

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So I guess the obvious storyline for the next week is that the Sens' big line hasn't had to face a #1 defender like Pronger or Niedermayer yet in the playoffs.

Ottawa vs Anaheim should be a great series. Wish I was able to get back to town to see a game, but game 6 against Buffalo is the happiest I've ever been to NOT see a game live!

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So why not have more Canadian teams? Hockey sells in Canada and the Americans don't care. Perfect.

Winnipeg

Hamilton

Quebec

Halifax

:)

Preds owner Leipold reportedly reaches deal with Canadian billionaire

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Nashville Predators owner Craig Leipold reached an agreement to sell his franchise to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie after 10 years of losing money.

Leipold told Predators' employees of the sale in a meeting Wednesday afternoon in Nashville, according a person familiar with the sale who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday night on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been finalized.

Whether the sale would involve relocation of the franchise remained unknown. The NHL's Board of Governors must approve any sale, but the Predators have struggled to sell tickets for years and their future in Nashville has been in doubt.

Team officials declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

Balsillie, the co-CEO of Blackberry makers Research in Motion Ltd., has offered an undisclosed amount for the team, Canadian sports network TSN reported. In December, Balsillie withdrew his offer to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins for $175 million.

An announcement confirming the deal could come Thursday.

Leipold, a Wisconsin businessman, teamed up with Nashville in the mid-1990s when then-mayor Phil Bredesen, now Tennessee's governor, built an arena and started looking for either an NBA or NHL expansion franchise.

Nashville and Leipold landed the expansion franchise in June 1997, and the Predators played their first game in October 1998.

But ticket sales lagged after the first couple seasons when the excitement and novelty wore off, and the team struggled to work from expansion franchise to playoff contender. The Predators earned their first postseason berth in 2004 only to lose the next season to the NHL lockout.

Leipold helped the NHL negotiate the current labor agreement after the lockout in the 2004-05 season, a deal that included revenue sharing, a salary cap and cash for small-market teams.

He went out and signed forward Paul Kariya in 2005, signed free agent center Jason Arnott last summer and traded for Peter Forsberg in February to try and boost the Predators' chances for postseason success.

Leipold had been looking for a local investor to buy a minority share of the team and lobbying publicly the past months for more local involvement to boost lagging ticket sales.

He announced a new, multiyear naming rights deal for the arena last Friday that he called a big statement for the team's future in Nashville.

"These are the kinds of things we need to have happen," Leipold said then. "Without a naming rights partner, without ticket sales, without corporate sponsors, that's when we get hurt. This is a great step. It sends the great message, and hopefully it'll get other companies calling as well."

A telephone message left at the home Brian Whitfield, the managing partner for Sommet Group, which bought the naming rights, was not immediately returned.

The Predators are coming off their best season yet with a franchise record 110 points and a third-place finish in the league standings.

But they lost in the opening round of the playoffs for a third straight season.

The team averaged only 13,815 per game this season, which gives Leipold -- or the new owner -- a chance to exercise a clause in the contract with the city of Nashville to ask for a "cure" season.

That would force Nashville to either buy enough tickets to boost attendance to 14,000. If the city declined, the team could leave by paying an exit fee following the upcoming season.

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Guest Low Roller

I hope I can get my laptop back up and running in time to watch the games on Sopcast. I can't believe I'm not in Ottawa for the finals.... I want to see pictures of the throngs of people packing bars downtown and all the crazies making their way to the SP.

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I've thought about it long enough... the X-factor... without question, in this series is Pronger. If he can be on the ice, and get his team some offence, they might stand a chance... but if we can throw a steady 1-2 of Top line then the Fisher or Neil or Schubert line , then chances are we can butter up this bohemeth who's been getting over 30 minutes a game. If our top line can score the way they have been... it shouldn't be close... but even if Pronger does step up... I believe the bottom two lines of the Sens can be counted on to generate a little offence if they were given the green light to drive to the net once in a-while with the defence holding the offensive points... they've been playing a corner game for the whole playoffs.

As far as I'm concerned. Everything is in the Sens favor. They should be favoured. I haven't checked the line or anything... and I don't care. They have to execute... that's obvious enough... but it'll be easy to win if you see Pronger passing from the face off dots, or behind... and a lot closer if you see him passing from the blue lines.

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