Thanks for Being a Sucker, Ice Chump

It's finally officially over.  Jerry Reinsdorf wins.  Ice Edge loses.

The NHL got what it wanted all along. 

No Jim Balsillie-owned team.  No Hamilton team.  No team even partly owned by Canadians.  No games in Saskatoon.  A team in Phoenix.

There was jubilant joy on the NHL website as Gary Bettman announced the Glendale Council decision on his way to Phoenix to see the Coyotes play Detroit.

Bettman also modestly said that he wouldn't put his name or any of the NHL owners on the Stanley Cup if the Coyotes won it.

The least he could have done was thank Ice Edge for their role in keeping the Coyotes out of the hands of Jim Balsillie.

The outcome was the usual in American business.  Americans never give up anything they get their hands on unless there is a situation like Vietnam or the War of 1812.

Every Canadian, except blinded Winnipeg Jet and despised Hamilton fans knew what the outcome would be, as far back as when Jim Balsillie first announced he would try to buy the Coyotes.

But it turned into a soap opera when Reinsdorf pulled his bid off the table, the NHL got an obliging judge to throw out Balsillie's bid, and then had to buy the team itself.

Reportedly, Reinsdorf's bid is far less than the $160 million the NHL wanted, but all-smiles Bettman says it is virtually a done deal for the Board of Governors to approve it.

Outside of the money the NHL lost operating the Coyotes this season, the two big losers are ex-owner Jerry Moyes, who tried to recoup some his losses by selling the Coyotes to Balsillie, and Ice Edge.  And the NHL hopes to erase its debts, by extracting more cash from Moyes in court.

But Ice Edge was used equally badly by the NHL.  Encouraged by Bettman to resubmit a bid, the NHL probably knew all along had no chance and would probably get rejected by the NHL owners unless they had a gun to their heads, Ice Edge spent countless money and hours, fruitlessly trying to negotiate with Glendale to find a way to make things work.

Meanwhile, the NHL just sat back, kept quiet, and waited for something better to come along.  Who knows if and how much they secretly encouraged Reinsdorf to renew his bid.

Once he was back, Ice Edge could be easily disposed of, without so much as a thank you.

"You've served your purpose. You did a good job, Ice Chump...I mean Edge."

Most Canadians will shrug the shoulders and say,  "See, I told you. The NHL is anti-Canadian."

This episode certainly highlights certain NHL principles:

1.  Keep southern Ontario a monopoly for Buffalo and Toronto.

2.  Punish ex-owners who try to recoup some of their losses.

3.  Encourage sucker bids as dupes until something better comes along.

4.  Do everything in its power to keep to the strategy that Gary Bettman initiated when he was hired:  Place teams in unfamiliar American markets in hopes of getting a large American TV contract, while shunning natural markets in Canada and the northern United States.

5.  Admit to no mistakes about the above strategy.

6.  Preserve Canadian TV money for the existing six teams.

The real question in all this is about Reinsdorf's sanity.  What in the world does he hope to gain by joining such a cabal?  It should also be a lesson to any potential NHL investor.

While the outcome was uncertain, Bettman did a minor retreat.  He made a grand tour of the cities whose franchises he stripped in the 1990s and told them they could have their teams back if they met certain conditions.

So far, only Quebec is attempting to comply, with only partial success.

One of Bettman's conditions is an NHL-size arena of 18,000+.  He has been openly urging Quebec to spend $400 million to build it.

If Quebec finds the money, and fully complies, that will be an even better test of Bettman's and the NHL's integrity.

He had better pay up with a team (and no tricks or opposition), especially if Canadian taxpayer dollars are involved.

If he thinks he's hated in Canada now, imagine how he'll be viewed if government money is used to build NHL arenas anywhere in Canada, and there is no team as a reward.

Maybe there would finally be some deserved retribution from different levels of Canadian government.

Meanwhile, in Winnipeg, where deranged fans claimed they saw Bettman strolling along the streets before awarding them a team, the potential owners of a new Winnipeg franchise, Thomson and Chipman, astutely stayed in the background of the Coyote crisis, only allowing themselves to elevated to "backup plan."

Better that, than being crowned the next Ice Edge stooge.