Desert Shenanigans, Mid-Week Notes, and the Birth of a Movie Blog

The weirdness that never ends in the desert took another turn Tuesday evening which had the league been totally honest, was what should have been done right from the beginning.

As Jerry Reinsdorf decided to call it quits because of the "seller's interference", Gary Bettman and the NHL jumped in as an official bidder to continue to try to rebuff Jim Ballsillie's aggressive attempts to take over the troubled franchise.

While some see this as a step forward toward finding a buyer for the team that will keep it in Glendale, it is really a step back to the spot that the team was in prior to Jerry Moyes double crossing Bettman by filing bankruptcy to begin with.

From last Fall, going forward, the NHL basically had control of the team and allegedly was trying to find a buyer to relieve Moyes of further obligations regarding his ownership of the Coyotes. Things were progressing at a snails pace, but in an orderly fashion, with the NHL propping up the team as needed.

Then Moyes, who was looking for a quick way out and wanting a little cash for the effort, aligned himself with the vulture, Jim Ballsillie, which took the control away from the NHL.

Now, three months later, and after millions of dollars have been spent on litigation by all involved, the NHL is making a formal bid to get back to where they were in the Spring, less any involvement by Jerry Moyes.

As Yogi Berra would say, "It's like deja vu all over again.

So many odd issues come out of the new bid that it is almost hard to fathom the possible appeals that will result no matter what is decided on September 10. The conflict between the NHL submitting a competing bid and the NHL Board of Governors not approving Ballsillie as an owner will be a great question for law students to debate for years to come.

Another oddity is that Ice Edge has also confirmed their bid and the NHL in their statement said that they fully encourage them. How do you encourages someone that you are bidding against? Again, this does not pass the smell test.

Looking around the net, everyone is checking in with a post on the breaking news. Puck Daddy has a good roundup with several sources included. NHL.com has a story and the text of Bill Daly's statement. Tyler at NHL Digest reposts a May segment where he predicted this scenario playing out. ESPN has the AP story.

In Pred Nation...

Dirk the Forechecker followed up on his POTG Radio homework assignment with his latest survey on the all-time best Pred's pugilist. Voting is in progress so get your opinion in before it is too late. Dirk's Wensesday's Breakfast links are also on tap and include information about tickets to the Pred's rookie games in Atlanta.

Michelle Kenneth had some nice things to say about Monday's POTG Radio show in her post at her home site. I wasn't hitting on all cylinders on Monday for some reason but Dirk and Michelle did a great job at keeping it interesting.

Hockey's Future came out with their top twenty list of Pred's prospects. There is no real surprise here with Colin Wilson leading the pack.

Before all the new bid news broke, Mirtle gave Mark from the View from 111 some good pub when answering a question about Jim Ballsillie.

The Windsor Star has a fresh regurgitation of the facts about Ryan Ellis wanting to make it to Nashville.

Also, before the new bid in the desert, Paul McCann continued his assault on Jim Ballsillie at Hockey Buzz. Paul has been very consistent on the topic for a long time.

After a technical delay, Illegal Curve has their Podcast with John Glennon posted on their site. You don't hear John on the radio much so this is a real treat. John also has a new post about a couple of ex-Preds, Scott Walker and Vern Fiddler at Inside Predators.

For all the Pred Fan Tweeters, Twibbon has a spiffy little Pred head to put in the corner of your picture. They are popping up on the Tweetdeck quicker than the weeds in my yard.

From No Alibis, No Regrets comes a summary of how everyone loves Ryan Suter.

Around the NHL..

Burnside and Lebrun at ESPN continue their daily Video and story from the Team Canada camp. This team will come ready to play in February.

Psycho Lady Hockey has her Tuesday top Ten and covers hockey player's pick-up lines. We touched base with Katrina yesterday and she has agreed to come on POTG Radio next month after she wraps up her current project. That will be a show to mark on your calendar.

Seventh Woman puts in her two cents worth on the DirecTV-Versus stink. I continue to maintain daily that it will get resolved before it is all over.

Dmitry Chesnokov interviewed Columbus prospect Nikita Filatov yesterday in the native tongue and provides the translation. A breakout season by the young Russian could go a ways toward helping the Blue Jackets get back in the playoffs.

John Grigg at The Hockey News looks at the amount of cap space being used by bought out players.

Blackstone Sports pointed us to a site that we haven't seen before that is a good resource for NHL news as well as other sports. Follow this link to Sportspyder.

Movies off topic...

We finally went to see Inglourious Basterds last night and the movie lived up to the high billing that almost everyone has given it. I teally enjoyed Brad Pitt's Tennessee accent with his character claiming to be from the town of Maynardville. I've been there many times and he sounded about right.

After a few recent articles about Twitter exposing bad movies quickly, the opposite effect was in order for IB according to this post.

Finally, big news on Tuesday night was the birth of a new movie discussions site called Beyond the Big Screen. The site was brain child of Brandon Felder who took on Jeremy Glover as a co-writer almost as soon as it was birthed during a Twitter discussion. This should be a good place to hang out and talk about something that hockey fans like almost as much as on ice action.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass