I love that the NHL owns the Coyotes. Now, whenever NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman talks about the viability of the team, it has the desperation of someone trying to unload a used car they can’t afford to keep for any extended amount of time.
Bettman was in Phoenix this week, just so he knew at least [...]

Wednesday night’s Avs-Coyotes game was a Colorado record for low attendance. Adrian Dater asked fans what happened and he got back some very interesting responses.
According to Dater, a lot of fans reported ticket prices weren’t the only factor keeping them away from the Pepsi Center. Some fans reported problems with the Avs ticket office — [...]

Just some quick weekend notes:

Larry Brooks and Tim Panaccio aren’t happy about the Gretzky backlash. Both feel his time as a player buys him some goodwill with the public. I’ve been curious about the backlash and think a lot of it has to do with economics. Gretzky never seemed to put much work into coaching, [...]

So Wayne Gretzky finally quit as head coach of the Coyotes.
In his resignation statement, Gretzky admitted neither team bidder wanted him to stick around as coach.
The Coyotes promptly hired former Stars coach Dave Tippett to coach the team.
Gretzky was obviously upset. If he cared about what either potential owner wanted, he would have stuck it [...]

The Boston Globe caught up with new Bruins defenseman Derek Morris. It’s a pretty standard summary of his career, but there’s one part that’s especially interesting — Morris’ take on Wayne Gretzky, who coached him in Phoenix:
We used two different systems [with the New York Rangers]. It was different. Much tighter gaps, a lot more [...]

I’m really not horribly interested in all of the Coyotes drama, but I’m more and more impressed by perennial non-owner Jim Balsillie’s ability to get under the skin of NHL owners.
This week, we see Balsillie take on Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk with some good, old-fashioned financial compliance smack talk.
I don’t know who is crazier: [...]

One way you know it was a great game seven is that there just wasn’t much to say about it. It completely spoke for itself. The Penguins were flawless for two periods and strong enough for the third.
Defenseman Brad Stuart, whose turnovers and pinching led to both game seven Penguin goals, says he’d like a [...]

It’s amazing what the struggles of the Phoenix Coyotes is flushing out.
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s report the Panthers are firing TV analyst Denis Potvin to find someone who can give them more bang for their buck, Adrian Dater uses some back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate what the Avs lost this season and says he’s [...]

Last night we saw two game threes go into overtime, with each game ending 3-2.
In Raleigh, the Bruins looked completely out of steam, yet still made it to OT before losing.
In Pittsburgh, the Caps seemed to spend the whole game on the penalty kill. And while the penalty kill was strong, it prevented Washington from [...]

You have to pity the NHL. There were two game threes last night and this morning the big story has got to be the Phoenix Coyotes filing for bankruptcy. Jim “BlackBerry” Balsillie has an offer to buy the team on the table, provided the team moves to Ontario.
The NHL is questioning the legality of the [...]