FanHouse Web 2.0

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

St. Pete Times reporter Damian Cristodero dropped a bomb the other day, quoting Tampa Bay GM Jay Feaster that huge changes could hit the Lightning if the team hasn't turned things around by Christmas: "Being sub-.500, being 13th or 14th out of a 15-team Eastern Conference isn't cutting it, given the money we lose, to think we're going to keep payroll where it is and not make changes."

Naturally, Vinny Lecavalier became the topic of conversation for everyone from Vancouver to Montreal, who believes it should own Vinny based on birth-right. Lyle "Spector" Richardson -- one of the few level heads when it comes to trade speculation in the NHL -- points out that unlike high-priced teammates Brad Richards and Marty St. Louis, Vinny does not have a no-trade clause in his contract. But Spector also claims that Feaster has gone on the record stating that "he wouldn't go down in history as the man who trade(d) Lecavalier." Which, to me, means it's more likely that the Bolts will fire John Tortorella or trade Vaclav Prospal if the team doesn't turn it around.

But even if Vinny were on the block, the notion that he could be had for some sort of mediocre Joe Thornton package is ludicrous.

(Coming Up Next: Last Night's Losers, Scandalous and Hilarious Puck Headlines, More CBC Hockey Blogging Reaction, Wade Belak Hits Pay Dirt, Games You Need To Watch Tonight, NHL Limericks and Why Hockey Players Need To "Where Visors.")

Canadian Press writer Dean Bennett makes the case for Sidney Crosby as "hockey's first superstar of the cyber age":

He's the subject of hundreds of Internet discussion groups that compare him to Jesus Christ, ask for his hand in marriage or seek to know him better in language as subtle as spiked heels and a leather bustier.

There are more than 1,700 memorabilia items - pictures, pucks, posters - bearing his image on EBay alone. Books, blogspots and websites dissect the numerological implications of his fascination with No. 87. You can click to find photos of him as a toddler, or see art of the family dryer he dented with the shots of a thousand pucks.

OK, so referring to sites like this one as a "blogspot" is as clunky as Bush decrying rumors on the Internets; but we all know the MSM is just starting to finally cozy up to the alt hockey media. More important than Web 2.0 savvy is historical accuracy: Is Sidney Crosby truly the first superstar of the "cyber age?"

Historically, TiVo and the National Hockey League have been getting along about as well as David Koci and one of Zdeno Chara's ham hocks. FanHouse's Eric McErlain felt letdown and deceived by TiVo when faced with a compatibility problem with NHL Center Ice PPV back in 2006. Other TiVo fans have complained that they can only record roughly 90 minutes of a Center Ice game.

Now, Brooklyn-based Interactive Designer John Niedermeyer blogs about a stunning flaw with his new Series 3 TiVo HD, namely what he calls its "unnaturally strict copy protection on premium content"; something that's having serious implications for this out-of-market hockey fan:

What this means is that NHL Center Ice content is copy protected, and will be deleted within hours of the game's completion. Gone. Irretrievable.

This angers me to no end, as I am a busy person, who is paying a premium price to the NHL, as well as TiVo. The NHL's popularity has waned so much here in the States, that I can't for a minute imagine that they are responsible for this policy.

Niedermayer goes into specifics on his blog, and points to New York Times technology columnist David Pogue addressing the TiVo/NHL Center Ice issue in a recent mailbag. As Niedermayer said, it would be absolutely hypocritical if the NHL was responsible for this content protection policy, considering how the League has flooded the market with video content since the lockout. Hopefully this is a software mistake by TiVo; one that can be quickly fixed, so hockey fans like Niedermayer can go back to watching the Sabres lose cheering for their favorite team.

Several months back The FanHouse reported that Yahoo! was negotiating to purchase Rivals.com. That effort stalled for unknown reasons, although it was speculated that questionable business practices by a Rivals executive had tripped the deal.

However, several more months have passed and the two sides have reached a suitable agreement. What it all means is anyone's guess, but the acquisition makes a little more sense than the Scout.com/MySpace merger reported recently in this space.

Rivals is already publishing some content on the Yahoo! Sports platform but I haven't seen Yahoo! content circulate in Rivals sites. These are strange days where recruiting sites - once the basement business and realm of the 900 number for updates - sell for millions of dollars to former Silicon Valley search engines gone big business.

I have yet to locate a sale price but will update this as we find out more about this merger.

Update: TechCrunch reports that Yahoo! paid $100 million to complete the sale. A very gracious hat tip to reader Jason of Eleven Warriors.