Mid Week Musings

Tuesday night's playoff game was the first real nail biter in the third round. Chicago came back and pushed Detroit into overtime only to have their backs broken by a defensive let down that gave Detroit a three on one break away to win the game.

This really puts the Hawks in a hole as they go home to play Friday night. In order to win the series, Chicago will have to win four of the five remaining games which seems highly improbable at best against a Wings team that can gum up the middle and make a two goal lead seem almost insurmountable.

Mirtle has a good story on Chris Osgood who has again become a rock in goal for Detroit. Few saw this coming as Osgood was very mediocre at best during the season's play.

A rare off night for the playoffs today so maybe Carolina's players will heal up and be ready to even the series on Thursday.

Phoenix Hearing...

The Big story of the day, off the ice, was the circus held in the Phoenix courtroom of Redfield Baum on Tuesday afternoon. It was amazing that in a courtroom that allegedly would not allow Blackberrys or phones that I was following the tweets of seven or eight reporters. It was close to being there with the advantage of getting a little different slant from each reporter.

In my mind, I think it is perfectly clear that within a month, through mediation, heavy handedness, or strong armed tactics, the eventual out come will be that the league will find a patsy to "buy" the Phoenix team, Glendale will make concessions on the lease, and the league will try to make a go of it similar to what happened in Nashville. If it doesn't work, they will be the Vegas Coyotes with a few years.

On the flip side, in exchange for being allowed to keep the franchise in Phoenix, the league will agree for a minimum of a one team expansion that will probably begin play in the fall of 2010 or 2011 in the Toronto area. Some folks estimate the value of that auction could bring 300-400 million which would be shared among 30 owners and the NHL and allow Buffalo and Toronto to be paid an amount for infringement into their market.

There is simply no way that the league will allow Balsillie to pay $215 million for the Phoenix team and move it to Hamilton and bring Balsillie $200 million in windfall value without the league or owners getting a penny of the money.

The best unbiased reporting of the event was in the form of the live blog of the hearing from the National Post. Here is another story from the Post that discusses that Bettman was a failure for letting all this become such a spectacle. The Globe and Mail puts a positive spin on the story for Balsillie and the hometown Hamilton Spector gives its take.

The Arizona Republic has its story here and a separate one about the phantom "new bidder".

@starletta8 tipped us off to this 10 year old paper on sports bankruptcies that gives an historical account of the Penguins situation of that era.

Before we move on, you wouldn't want to miss Jim Balsillie's press release on the day's activities.

In Predator News...

The Tennessean has a story on David Freeman being the Kiwanis Club's Nashvillian of the Year.

John Glennon also has a story saying that it doesn't appear Greg Zanon will be resigned. This is not surprising considering the cap hit that would be required versus bringing up Cody Franson for less than a million dollars.

The Predators have a video about the Colin Wilson weekend in Nashville. While you are there check out one that I missed about Shea Weber at the World Championships.

Around the NHL...

At the Memorial Cup, the Windsor Spitfires beat Kelowna 2-1 to stay alive and will play the loser of tonight's Drummondville-Rimouski contest on Thursday in the tiebreaker game. Kelowna is already qualified for Sunday's finals.

The Sporting news continues with their awards this week naming Peter Chiarelli as the Executive of the year. This is on the heels of Claude Julian being named Coach of the Year on Tuesday.

I missed Big Hair Hockey's podcast on the Eastern Conference finals last night but will listen today. Her Western Conference panel podcast was good too.

The Hockey Writers ask a good question, "What ever happened to Eric Daze?" I used to like him in fantasy leagues and hadn't thought about him in several years. They give the answer too.

Adrian Nadeau points us to this short clip that is good advice for anyone regardless of what you do in life.

I'm a fan of the special mastheads on Google. Today's is on the "missing link". For all the logos @codeyh sends us here.

Finally, another off topic look back at Nashville in the 70's by the Tennessean with a slide show of pictures from the day. I love the fashion sense everyone had back then and the admonishment to streakers, "Repent, the end is in sight."

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

Mirtle reports on the PHX situation killing ticket sales.

From @MakeItSeven "Tune in to Prime Time Sports on the Fan 590 at 6 pm to hear Jim Balsillie talk about". It was cut off but I'm assuming it will be about the Coyotes.

Here's a couple of news stories from the CBC, First is Lisa LaFlamme and second is Howard Bloom. Interesting that a Blackberry commercial plays as an intro.

In the "Me, Too!" category, the Winnepeg Chamber of Commerce chief speaks out.

For you skateboarders, from @tonyhawk: "30 years later and I am still sneaking into backyard pools (of abandoned homes) to throw a session" This is Dogtown and Z-Boys all over again.

Another edition of the One-Percentile Podcast at HTM is up.

As the day winds down, Puck Daddy has a even handed analysis of the PHX situation.