Over a decade has passed since the Whalers headed south to Raleigh, leaving Connecticut with just an AHL tenant at the former Hartford Civic Center (also known as the Mall, the building now carries the bland title of the XL Center).
But, with a couple of franchises apparently in some financial distress, Hartford's mayor is looking to see if he can bring the NHL back to the city with a new arena on the horizon.
Hartford's Mayor Eddie Perez headed down the Merritt Parkway to Manhattan to meet with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman Wednesday morning to talk about the possibility of landing a franchise with a new building in the city, and delivering in no uncertain terms the city would want to get in the running for a new - or more likely, a relocated - franchise.
Later today, Adam Gretz and I will be posting a dialog about tonight's game between the Capitals and Penguins in Pittsburgh. It's a match that's been hotly anticipated for some time, fueled in large part by an interview that Washington's Alexander Semin gave to Puck Daddy where he had some choice observations about Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby and his place in the promotion of the NHL.
Starting when Crosby and Ovechkin broke into the league a couple of years ago, these meetings have always been cast as a clash between the two, but the facts on the ground, or should I say the ice, have changed. If anything, it seems as if Ovechkin and Crosby respect each other as worthy opponents.
But if you want real bad blood, look no further than the smoldering rivalry between Ovechkin and his countryman, Pittsburgh center Evgeni Malkin.
For a while now, it's been rather apparent that Russian hockey players tend to open up a bit more with the Russian press than with their North American counterparts. Case in point, this interview that Ovechkin did with Russia Today, the English language satellite television channel. Granted, you need to keep in mind that Russia Today is owned by the state operated news agency, RIA-Novost, but for soft interviews like this one you could probably discount that.
The couple reportedly met when Mike checked out one of Carrie's concerts in March 2008, but things appeared to heat up over the holidays when fans caught a glimpse of the 25-year-old Grammy winner on the Jumbotron "Hug Cam" at the Air Canada Centre. She was reportedly in a private VIP box, which also included the handsome hockey player's parents and his brother, Bud.
Carrie also reportedly spent New Year's Eve with Mike's sister, getting pedicures and being pampered at swanky spa and hair salon, Rinaldo.
"She was here with Mike Fisher's sister and the staff took good care of them," Pat Rinaldo told the paper. "She was very quiet, very sweet and pleasant. She wasn't demanding at all, everyone loved her and a lot of people recognized her."
When you take a look at the standings in the NHL's Western Conference, it's easy to see things are looking up for the Phoenix Coyotes. After years of futility, the team is now starting to develop plenty of young talent around a solid core of veteran players like Shane Doan, Oli Jokinen, Ilya Bryzgalov and Ed Jovanovski. Put it all together, and the Coyotes are in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race a little less than halfway through the regular season.
Unfortunately for the Coyotes and head coach Wayne Gretzky, the most important number for the Coyotes these days isn't the point total in the standings, it's the numbers on the balance sheet. Earlier this month, David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail detailed the tale of woe that is Phoenix's balance sheet, with the team losing $30 million per year over the last two seasons. The line from that story that was most chilling, came from one former NHL governor who declined to be identified:
"I don't know how they can sustain the losses," one former governor said."The team loses so much money you can't sell it. If I were offered the team for a dollar, I'd say no because you can't fix it."
It is estimated by the former governor that the Coyotes have lost more than $200-million since 2001 - at least $70 million beyond the purchase price.
With the financial position of Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes on the brink of collapse thanks to the ill health of his trucking company, Swift Transportation, logic dictates that those losses can't be sustained for much longer. And if ESPN.com's Scott Burnside's latest report is correct, the NHL is already making preparations for what looks like an inevitable financial collapse.
Every Monday morning The Ice Sheet will take a close look at everything that's happened in the NHL since Friday night at 5:00 p.m. -- or if need be, anything else the author wants to bleat about. To read them all, click here.
In this interview, Jagr provides Lysenkov his take on the economic condition of the NHL and the salary cap -- Jagr describes the resolution of the lockout as when, "communism suddenly took over the NHL" -- but more importantly, gives a completely honest and somewhat unexpected take on Sean Avery and his recent antics. The interview starts after the jump.
Things are starting to get hilarious when the topic of the Tampa Bay Lightning comes up. Unless, of course, you're a fan of the Lightning, in which case, it's probably not a laughing matter at all. But for the rest of us, man, it just keeps getting better.
After cornering the market on free agents this summer -- and dumping them two months into the season -- the Lightning find themselves in the basement of the NHL, having won just twice in their past 17 games.
They've already fired head coach Barry Melrose -- who lasted just 16 games -- and have won only once since naming Rick Tocchet as his replacement. And you know who finds all of this funny, and is taking great delight in it? Melrose himself.
Over the past 48 hours or so, as the hockey world stopped dead to consider the behavior of one Sean Avery, I couldn't help but think back to the early part of October when, during a trip to the penalty box in Nashville, Avery decided to tangle with a Predators fan sitting next to the glass.
At the time, it was impossible not to laugh a little. After all, who couldn't get a chuckle out of what looked to be a rather proper lady giving the NHL's No. 1 bad boy a piece of her mind. It was hard to get her out of my mind too. After all, she probably had a story to tell, one that plenty of other folks would like to hear.
And boy, does she have a story to tell.
(Editor's note: Some of the language that follows is extremely graphic and is not suitable for younger readers.)
How bad can things get for Sean Avery? Well, if what we're hearing from TSN's Bob McKenzie is correct, the answer is very, very bad, as the franchise looks to rid itself of this meddlesome winger:
Sources tell TSN that Avery's personal publicist reached out to the Stars' organization first thing Wednesday morning in an effort to get Avery an audience with his teammates so he could apologize to them.
The Stars made it clear to Avery's representative that the door was not open for that to happen at this time and perhaps not at all.
The Stars, it would seem, are not in the mood for reconciliation. The Avery-inflicted wounds - in the dressing room, in the coaches' offices, in the front office and the ownership suite - are just too raw and fresh at this point. And they may never heal to the point to allow him a way back in.
It's been a few weeks since we first heard some rumblings of discontent from Mike Modano about Avery's antics, and it was hard not to notice that none of his teammates have jumped to his defense in the last 24 hours. It's lonely being Sean sometimes.
Over a decade has passed since the Whalers headed south to Raleigh, leaving Connecticut with just an AHL tenant at the former Hartford Civic Center (also known as the Mall, the building now carries the bland title of the XL Center).
Later today, Adam Gretz and I will be posting a dialog about tonight's game between the Capitals and Penguins in Pittsburgh. It's a match that's been hotly anticipated for some time, fueled in large part by 
Seems like NHL athletes are 
How bad can things get for Sean Avery? Well, if 
