dilbert719

This would be easier to take if they stopped trying on the "terrible hockey team" hat.

4 years, $14.5M, $3.625M annual cap hit. More money than I was expecting, less than I was fearing. Overall, I think we can live with that.

Cleary's now apparently an undone deal. Elliotte Friedman ‏@FriedgeHNIC 6m Not exactly sure why, but it appears as if there is some complication between Daniel Cleary and PHI. Told he will not be joining Flyers.

The divisional alignment is acceptable, if you take into account the financial boost the Florida teams will get from having that many Canadian teams in their division. The names are just dumb. This could have been resolved, if the NHL had the basic sense to revert to the old conference names. Wales Conference Eastern Division: MTL/TOR/BOS/BUF/DET/OTT/FLA/TB Mideast Division: PHI/PIT/NYI/NYR/NJ/CAR/WAS/CMB Campbell Conference Western Division: ANA/LA/SJ/PHX/VAN/EDM/CGY Midwest Division: CHI/DAL/COL/MIN/WPG/STL/NAS Simple, clean, reasonably descriptive, nothing wrong with that, and all it takes is freeing up the word "Eastern."

A hand, certainly. Schedule creation has to be one of the hardest parts of a season from an administrative standpoint, though. About half the teams in the league aren't their building's primary anchor tenant, so they have to negotiate with the other team, there are one-off events, you have to balance travel days, nights off, making sure you don't require back-to-back cross-country flights, TV broadcast issues, arena maintenance work, that sort of nonsense. It's got to be more rigid a process than people think it is. There's also the alternate possibility that the league recognizes that Detroit and Buffalo have much less reason to dislike each other than any other team in that division not based in Florida (who are just kind of screwed on the rivalry front), and wants to gin up some hatred.

Detroit: Jewel of the Atlantic Ocean, by Gary Bettman

It's hard to blame them for choosing Sabres/Red Wings, since they only have three games to choose from that night, and one of the three starts at 10 PM EST. Toronto/Philadelphia might have been the more logical call (the other game being Anaheim/Colorado), but NBC carries exactly one Toronto game this year, and it's the Winter Classic, which is being broadcast on NBC, CBC, and RDS. Makes me think there's a broadcast rights issue. For that matter, NBCSN carries only four games all season that include even one Canadian team, and only one (the Heritage Classic between Ottawa and Vancouver) that doesn't include the Montreal Canadiens. Given that NBC/NBCSN are only broadcasting 5 games featuring even one Canadian team between them, again, I'm fairly certain there's a broadcast rights issue that's keeping the games locked to US teams only. To watch the Canadian teams in the US, the options are local team broadcasts, NHLN, Center Ice, or less savory internet-based options.

Not sure, since there are a good number of games that are functionally over by the third period, just as there are a number of games where the GWG really is irrelevant. What I'd probably put the most stock in is GWG with 1 goal Margin of Victory. Not every player pots those regularly, and I'd be interested to see what players consistently pot winning goals in tie games. That's pretty much the ultimate "clutch goal" stat.

The only explanation I have is that perhaps he figures for this year and next, Lecavalier will be the unquestioned #2 center, but perhaps in that last season, Couturier's development and Vinny's decline could result in the two of them switching positions on the depth chart, and the long-term contract he could get as the Flyers' #2 center would be superior to the deal he'd get the year before as our #3.

I'm not sure why they wouldn't. They still own the WFC (and operate another 50 arenas beyond that), and it makes sense to own the anchor tenant as well. The bigger concern is whether or not they would spend the needed amount if that were to come to pass. If they were to sell out, it seems likely that the Harris group would get first crack at buying the team and the arena, and they'd probably be offered to the other two sports ownership groups thereafter. If all of those turned down the opportunity, then we'd be looking at owners from outside Philadelphia, unless there's a hockey-mad billionaire around here that I'm unaware of.

At least now we know why they seemed willing to make Holmgren available for this; he's not going to have anything else to do fairly soon.

That's great to hear, behnam. No rush on this from our end; take care of your family first. We can wait.

Even if he's not, Homer's definitely on a hotter seat than Dean Lombardi. The same position here is a lot closer to the big chair than it is out in LA.

Provided, of course, the decision to add Hextall was entirely Homer's decision, and not "suggested" from on high. I wouldn't be shocked if Homer was considering stepping down at some point, or perhaps even getting promoted within the organization (though I'm not sure what layer of bureaucracy exists between Homer and Luukko to put him into anyway), and Hexy was the designated successor, but if Snider gets peeved at any point, we're going to have a new GM, come hell or high water, and he's already under contract.

It would be fitting if they both went in together, but the odds of that happening next year are slim, slim, slim. Hasek and Modano are absolute 1st ballot guys for me, so we then move to the second tier. Recchi, Forsberg, Lindros, Blake, Andreychuk, and Roenick are probably that next set, with Tkachuk, Mogilny, Brind'Amour, Kariya, Weight, Rafalski, and Nolan in the third tier of "If someone has a particular liking for them" candidates. It'll also be interesting to see if Chris Osgood's resume can overcome the sense that Manon Rheaume would have won multiple Cups playing behind that Red Wings team.