After the last NHL lockout, the league put an emphasis on trying to take trapping out of hockey, saying that fans didn’t want to watch a team trap for three periods. So the league tweaked some rules and did what it could to put some more speed into the game. And for the most part [...]

The timing of the announcement of a proposed new arena for the Islanders is unfortunate, coming right on the heels of the City of Glendale needing to kick in another $25 million to keep the Coyotes. Glendale has little choice, though. While the Coyotes are bleeding money, the city needs the team to occupy Jobing.com [...]

Logos courtesy of Versus I’m OK with the NHL going with NBC/Versus for the next 10 years. Versus telecasts are still very much a crap shoot, but on the whole, they’ve gotten much, much more watchable. And even though NBC seems to love having 12 analysts covering a game, the productions are fine. But I [...]

Is NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman finally submitting to the idea of moving the Coyotes out of Phoenix? It’s hard to say what Bettman is thinking, but his public language seems to be softening. He’s gone from calling the situation in Phoenix “fixable” to admitting that time is running out for the Coyotes to stay in [...]

Photo by bridgetds Yesterday the New York Rangers traded defenseman Michal Rozsival for Phoenix Coyotes forward Wojtek Wolski, straight-up. In addition to clearing cap space, the move brings some experience to the Rangers forward corp. Decimated by injuries, the Rangers were in danger of starting to look like an AHL team. Rozsival was a fan [...]

The more I think about the structure of the NHL, the more I think it needs to be more of an international institution. We have six NHL teams starting the season in Europe this year: The Hurricanes and Wild are in Helsinki, the Blue Jackets and Sharks are in Stockholm, and the Bruins and Coyotes [...]

I’m not going to even pretend to really understand the finances of the NBA or the NHL. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I’m not even going to pretend to understand my personal finances. Mostly I just barter for what I need. Having said that, I believe Ted Leonsis when he says the NHL is [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]