Bleacher Report - Articles by Martin Avery

Forget About Phoenix: Are Sean Avery And The Stars Moving To Toronto? (Satire)

Martin Avery — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:31:35 -0400

Will Sean Avery wind up playing for the Toronto North Stars in the NHL?

As I sat on the shore of Lake Ontario at the Colonel Samuel Smith Park yesterday, missing the Penguins-Hurricanes game in the Stanley Cup semi-finals, I had a vision.

We were watching the lights along the margin of the bay of the cross-border region called "Tor-Buff-Chester". In case you never heard of it, Tor-Buff-Chester is the big urban area which stretches from Toronto through Buffalo to Rochester.

I had a vision of Sean Avery playing for the Toronto North Stars in the NHL.

Meanwhile, Malkin and Crosby were making life miserable for the 'Canes goalie, Cam Ward, winning 6-2.

Who are you calling hockey-mad?

My friend showed me the park. She said The Smith is one of Toronto's newest and largest waterfront parks. It's located in the community of New Toronto, just west of the downtown core.

Smith Park is almost 200 acres and it was created from lake fill in front of the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital.

This park with cobble beaches and protected wetland blending into the lawns of the former hospital grounds is known as "the jewel of the Lakeshore", Amy told me.

She was worried I might be obsessed with hockey and with one hockey player in particular. She thought it would be good for me to see the tranquil, waterfront sanctuary of wetlands, woods, shore and meadow, and to get away from hockey for a while.

The park turned out to be a short drive from downtown Toronto, where the Leafs play at the Air Canada Centre, below the CN Tower, and beside the domed home of the Toronto Blue Jays. From the park, we could see the brightly lit towers of Toronto, including the dome and the tallest free-standing structure on land in the world.

On the day Crosby, Malkin, and the Penguins won Game 3 of the NHL semi-finals and pushed the Canes to elimination, we made a pilgrimage to the place many believe the Stanley Cup belongs. And then it hit me...

What if the Dallas Stars filed for bankruptcy, right after the Phoenix Coyotes, and moved up north? Instead of the Coyotes moving to Hamilton, the Dallas Stars could become the Toronto North Stars. And what if Sean Avery had to rejoin the Stars and play hockey in his old stompin' grounds?!

We met at the Pickering Public Library, where I was Writer In Residence, and we traveled from Avery's old hometown up to the new urban area north of Toronto to see “Karshed”: Yousuf Karsh Selected Portraits at The McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg.

We stopped at a new library in Markham, north of Toronto, where she worked. They decimated the Dewey decimal system and replaced it with a system that actually makes sense.

“Karshed” featured a collection of thirty rare, limited edition, portraits by Karsh, including Muhammad Ali, Winston Churchill, Jacques Cousteau, Ernest Hemingway, Helen Keller, Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, and many more shown exclusively at the McMichael.

Amy wanted to see Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Gertrude Stein. I wanted to see Muhammad Ali and Ernest Hemingway.

It reminded me of the Woody Allen routine that goes: "I was in Europe many years ago with Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway had just written his first novel, and Gertrude Stein and I read it, and we said that is was a good novel, but not a great one, and that it needed some work, but it could be a fine book. And we laughed over it. Hemingway punched me in the mouth."

After three hours in the McMicheal, we felt karshed, so we had dinner in a restaurant in Kleinberg called Chartreuse. I said I wanted to go to Warren 77, the new restaurant in Manhattan, and watch Sean Avery punch somebody in the mouth.

The Chartreuse was a fine dining establishment with linen tableclothes, lace curtains, fresh roses, light classical music, and no big screen TVs showing the hockey game. We talked about Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein and how Woody Allen said she punched him in the mouth.

After dinner, we drove down to Lake Ontario and that's when I had my vision. We watched the lights come on around the bay, in Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, St. Catherine's, and all the way to Port Dalhousie in the U.S.A.

We noticed that, away from the bright lights of the big city, you could see all the way across Lake Ontario to the lights of Rochester. After it got dark, we drove through downtown Toronto, along Lakeshore Drive, and then back to Pickering.

We saw a lot of sports bars with the big game on the big screen, but not many Torontonians were watching as there are no Canadian teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It felt all wrong to fly around the hockey hot-bed without seeing any signs of Stanley Cup fever at this time of year. In this part of the world, this year, people are more interested in the prospect of another NHL team moving to the Toronto area than watching Cam Ward trying to stop Crosby for the Carolina Hurricanes.

We look forward to the 2010 Olympics, when Crosby and Ward will be on the same team, and wonder if Team Canada will have a Sean Avery.

We worry about the war of words between the NHL and the groups that want to move a team from the American sunbelt to the country where hockey is a religion.

Everybody in Canada follows the battle between the BlackBerry billionaire Jim Balsillie and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, if not this year's Stanley Cup playoffs.

There is little coverage of the story about the Phoenix Coyotes moving to Hamilton, Ontario, in the American media, but there are constant updates in Canadian media. The owner of the Coyotes is fighting for his team in bankruptcy court in the Arizona desert.

When the NHL and the owner got sent to mediation, I heard Balsillie on The FAN 590 say he saw it as a very good thing. Hockey fans north of the border struggled to share his optimism.

The latest news was that New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are calling on the National Hockey League to ice the potential move of the Coyotes to Canada.

They sent letters to Bettman saying another hockey team close to Buffalo could cripple the health of the Sabres as the team relies on 20-percent of its revenue coming from fans living between Hamilton, Ontario and Buffalo.

The feeling shared by many hockey fans in southern Ontario at the moment is that Balsillie or another group will probably get another NHL team, eventually, but we won't see the Coyotes playing in Hamilton. A location north of Toronto looks more likely.

Hamilton is halfway between the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres, on the highway from Toronto to Detroit. There are fears an NHL team in Hamilton would be so popular, it would destroy the fanbase of the Sabres.

Also, it would interfere with the Red Wings desire to move into the Eastern Conference of the NHL and who knows how it would effect TV coverage on Hockey Night In Canada.

The proposed site for an NHL team just north of Toronto is in a city called Vaughan, which is growing fast. It was a small city when Wayne Gretzky played there for the Toronto Nationals of the now defunct Tier II Junior A league of the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League.

The 14-year-old Gretzky went against the wishes of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to sign with the Nationals. He played two seasons with the team, scored 63 goals and got 132 points in just 60 games. The Nationals won the 1977 Metro championship, led by Gretzky with 75 points in 23 playoff games.

Now Vaughan is the home of Canada's Wonderland, the 330-acre theme park, as well as SkyDivers, the trampoline club, and Ritmika Rhythmic Gymnastics Club, which have produced national champions and Olympians, including Karen Cockburn, Jason Burnett, and Alexandra Orlando, on the trampoline and in rhythmic gymnastics.

I wrote books about Cockburn and Orlando and wanted to show my friend where they trained. Vaughan is now part of the Greater Toronto Area, or GTA.

The GTA is getting swallowed up by the Greater Golden Horseshoe Area, which will be one urban region wrapped around Lake Ontario from Rochester through Buffalo and Niagara Falls to Hamilton and Toronto, as well as Pickering and Oshawa. It will go north to Vaughan and then beyond.

Vaughan has grown so much it is ready to engulf the town of Kleineburg, the home of the The McMichael Canadian Art Collection, which has a great collection of paintings by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven and Inuit artists.

At the McMicheal, we saw the pictures by the Canadian photographer who became the most famous and accomplished portrait photographer of all time. As I stared at his famous photo of Ernest Hemingway, I read about his time at the Toronto Star and noticed that the picture first appeared in LIFE magazine.

And who is featured in the current issue of LIFE? It's the hockey player so many love to hate, the superpest who got dumped by the Dallas Stars but made a big comeback with the New York Rangers this year. It turned out to be one of the best stories coming out of the NHL this year.

Hemingway would have loved it. Avery went to hell and back but now he is living the life of Riley in New York City.

Avery's former team, the Dallas Stars, is reportedly next in line for bankruptcy and relocation, after the Coyotes. Avery-haters will probably blame him for that, too.

The Stars, as hockey fans recall, were the Minnesota North Stars for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. They made the NHL playoffs fifteen times, including a couple of appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals. In 1993, the franchise moved to Dallas, Texas, and became the Dallas Stars.

Maybe the Stars will move to Toronto, whether or not the Coyotes move to Hamilton. The Dallas Stars, relocated in Vaughan, north of Toronto, could be called the North Stars, again, changing the name to the North Toronto Stars or the Toronto North Stars.

The Stars are still on the hook for half the salary of Sean Avery, since they dumped him, but how can they pay it if they are bankrupt? It looks like he may have to leave New York City and go home to lead the new rivalry between North and downtown Toronto.

Anyway, that was the vision I had at the Smith Park by the old Lakeshore Psychiatric Institute on the shore of Lake Ontario in TorBuffChester while Toronto and Canada missed the Stanley Cup playoff semi-finals and finals.

Don't tell my friend that's what I was thinking of while we were at the new park watching the lights come on around Lake Ontario. She might make like Gertrude Stein and pretend I'm Ernest Hemingway, or Woody Allen, and punch me in the mouth.

(Good thing she's a pacifist and has never punched anyone!)

NHL Semifinals: Balsillie and the Tigers Versus Bettman and the Coyotes

Martin Avery — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:12:47 -0400

As the Stanley Cup semifinals get under way—with Chicago and Detroit in an Original Six matchup and the Hurricanes taking on the Penguins—all eyes are on NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the Phoenix Coyotes versus Jim Balsillie and the Hamilton Tigers.

Or is it the Hamilton BlackBerries and the Winnipeg Jets?

It's business, but it appears to be personal, too. This confrontation promises to have some of the nastiness hockey fans like to see on the ice during the playoffs.

In a nutshell, this is what the Phoenix-Hamilton series is all about: The NHL is trying to block the sale of the Coyotes to Balsillie while Balsillie is trying to strike down the NHL's franchise relocation rules so he can move the Coyotes to Hamilton.

Balsillie may also be trying to make the move without paying the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs for placing a team in their territory.

The headline in the National Postsaid "NHL resistance may be personal, Balsillie says."

Sean Fitzgerald of the Postreported that Balsillie has fired back at the National Hockey League, alleging that, should his latest attempt at ownership be denied, it will be from "an effort to block competition in the Toronto area or a dislike of Mr. Balsillie personally."

Bettman uses his radio show to make his case, according to Bruce Dowbiggin of the Globe and Mail.

Every Thursday, Bettman hosts his own show called The NHL Hour on Sirius XM Radio. He's using it as a bully pulpit, Dowbiggin says, claiming that "with Jim Balsillie at the door, Bettman has used the unfettered radio access to talk over the heads of conventional media to fans."

The headline in the Winnipeg Free Press said, "Here's hoping Bettman truly is a spiteful little man." The sub-head read, "It could be Winnipeg's best chance for return to NHL."

Balsillie's core argument appears to be that, since he already had NHL approval for an earlier attempt to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins, his run at the Coyotes should be approved quickly and the NHL should also move quickly to process the application to move the Coyotes to Hamilton.

Bettman's team said they would rather see a team in Winnipeg—the former home of the Phoenix franchise—than in Hamilton with Balsillie.

Balsillie hit back, according to Fitzgerald, in the National Post.

He quoted documents filed with the bankruptcy court saying, "Instead of selling the Nashville Predators to [Balsillie], the team was sold to William (Boots) Del Biaggio and other local owners at a considerably lower price, apparently because the then-owner believed the NHL would not approve Mr. Balsillie as the new owner of the Nashville team, presumably based upon discussions with the NHL Commissioner."

The filings also allege that "Mr. Del Biaggio was recently charged with fraud in acquiring the Nashville Predators with Ponzi-scheme money, which a thorough due diligence inquiry like the one previously conducted on Mr. Balsillie likely would have exposed."

The score is Balsillie three and Bettman two, but Bettman has home ice advantage.

If only Balsillie had a Sean Avery on his team...

It would be great if the NHL won this series.

Prediction: Detroit and the Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. Bettman and Balsillie in seven.

Why Wayne Gretzky's Phoenix Coyotes are Wanted as the Hamilton Tigers

Martin Avery — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:49:47 -0400

It's time for the National Hockey League and the Hamilton Tigers to return to Hamilton, according to millions of Canadians, and other hockey fans.

The NHL is buzzing about Wayne Gretzky's Phoenix Coyotes moving to southern Ontario.

Most of the Tigers fans are from Hamilton or nearby in southern Ontario. They are buzzing about BlackBerry billionaire Jim Balsillie's bid to bring the Phoenix Coyotes to the Copps Coliseum.

The story of how NHL hockey moved from Hamilton to New York in 1925 proved to be the single most important franchise relocation in league history, according to Myer Siemiatycki, a professor at Ryerson University.

Siemiatycki wrote an opinion piece for the Toronto Star as a fan of the Hamilton Tigers. He says it was a "distress sale" that took the Tigers away from Hamilton more than 80 years ago and paved the way for the NHL to make it big in the United States.

Founded in 1917 as a four-team Canadian league, the NHL had its first expansion in the 1924-25 season. A second team was added in Montreal (the Maroons), and the addition of the Boston Bruins brought the first American city into the league.

After the 1919–20 season, the NHL took back the Quebec Bulldogs franchise and sold the team to the Abso Pure Ice Company of Hamilton. The club was moved to Hamilton for the 1920–21 season and renamed the Hamilton Tigers.

In 1920, Hamilton was the fifth-largest city in Canada with a population of 114,200 when Toronto had half a million.

After four years, things started to come together for the Hamilton Tigers in the 1923–24 NHL season. They signed four players from the Sudbury Wolves of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA): Red Green and Shorty Green, Alex McKinnon, and Charlie Langlois.

The Hamilton Tigers roared off to an impressive 10–4–1 start in the 1924–25 NHL season. Halfway through the season, they had more wins than any other season in their NHL history.

The team finished first overall with a record of 19 wins, 10 losses, and one tie, just ahead of the Toronto St. Patricks. The Hamilton Tigers had a chance at winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since they won it as the Quebec Bulldogs in 1913.

The Hamilton Tigers lost their championship chance in March 1925, when the league president disqualified the club from the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was the only time in NHL history that an entire team was disqualified and all its players suspended.

The Hamilton Tigers players went on strike to protest unfair salary treatment. The NHL schedule grew from 24 to 30 games but the hockey players were paid the same.

They were not pleased about playing 25 per cent more games with no additional salary. Also,the players got no share of playoff game revenues.

At the end of the regular season, all Hamilton players served notice they would not suit up for a playoff game unless paid to play. The NHL's first president, Frank Calder, had the Hamilton Tigers players terminated.

After the season's final game, the Tigers' players went to their general manager, Percy Thompson, and demanded $200 pay for the six extra games they played that season. He refused.

The Montreal Canadiens were declared league champions and each player on the Hamilton Tigers was fined $200.

The Canadiens went on to play the Victoria Cougars for the Stanley Cup but lost. That marked the last time that an NHL team had lost the Stanley Cup to a rival league.

Fearing the start-up of a rival league in the U.S., the NHL began looking to move south in the 1920s.

In the summer of 1925, New York's most prominent Prohibition-era bootlegger, "Big Bill" Dyer, purchased the NHL's top team—the Hamilton Tigers—and took them to Manhattan.

Thomas Duggan of Montreal, owner of the Mount Royal Arena, held two options for expansion teams in the United States. He sold the first of the two to Boston. He sold the second to "Big Bill" Dwyer.

Dwyer purchased the Hamilton players and wanted to keep them in Hamilton, if Abso-Pure built a new arena.

Dwyer bought the rights to the Tigers' players from Thompson for $75,000, and gave the players raises, some as high as 200 percent. Dwyer's team was known as the "New York Hamilton Tigers" but was changed to the New York Americans.

They played in a new 18,000 seat arena called Madison Square Garden.

The new building needed to maximize bookings and the NHL was looking for prime American locations.

In the summer of 1925 the Hamilton franchise—complete with players, equipment and uniforms—was sold to New York buyers.

The Tigers played the 1925-26 season in New York as the Americans. Hockey has been a fixture at Madison Square Garden ever since.

The New York Americans' success on in New York City inspired other American cities that hockey was for them, too.

The NHL expanded quickly to other U.S. cities. The next year, the NHL was a 10-team league, with six clubs in the U.S., including a second team playing out of Madison Square Garden called the New York Rangers.

The Hamilton Tigers have been called the best NHL team never to win the Stanley Cup. They were the first-place team following the 1924-25 regular season.
Twenty per cent of the roster from what were then ten-player squads made it into the Hockey Hall of Fame: Billie Burch and Shorty Green.

William Burch, born in Yonkers, New York was the first American hockey player in the NHL. He played for the Hamilton Tigers, New York Americans, Chicago Black Hawks, and Boston Bruins.

Although he was born in the USA, Burch moved to Toronto, at an early age, where he grew up playing hockey and football.
Burch was the second person to win the Hart Memorial Trophy (1925) and the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (1927). He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1974.

Cecil Henry "Babe" Dye was born in Hamilton.He played 11 seasons for the Toronto St. Pats, Chicago Black Hawks, New York Americans and Toronto Maple Leafs.

He was the NHL's top goal scorer of the 1920s and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

He also played professional baseball with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League and played football with the Toronto Argonauts.

Dye was known for his hard and accurate shot. He won the Art Ross Trophy as top scorer in 1923 and 1925, and finishing second in goals scored in 1921–22 and 1923–24.

Over his first six seasons in the NHL, Dye scored 176 goals in 170 games. Dye was loaned to the Hamilton Tigers for that team's NHL debut in the first game of the 1920–21 season.

Dye scored two goals in the game and then returned to the St. Pats for the rest of the season.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1970. In 1998, he was ranked number 83 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.

Wilfred "Shorty" Green, from Sudbury, Ontario, played 4 seasons for the Hamilton Tigers and New York Americans. Shorty was captain of Tigers when they went on strike in 1925 during the playoffs.

Shorty also scored the first goal in Madison Square Garden after the team moved to New York. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962.

Joseph "Phantom Joe" Malone, from Quebec, played for the Hamilton Tigers and scored the second most career goals of any player in major hockey's first half-century.

Phantom Joe played for the Quebec Bulldogs when the team was relocated to Hamilton for the 1921 season. Malone finished fourth in league scoring with 28 goals. He finished fourth in scoring the following season as well.

Malone was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1950, and is also a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
He was ranked number 39 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.

Hamilton had another Tigers hockey team. The city's senior amateur OHA Senior A League team was also named the Tigers and wore the same colors.

The Senior A Tigers were just as popular as the NHL team. In fact, when the newspapers reported about "the Tigers" it was usually in reference to the amateurs. The NHLers were called "the Professionals."

The senior Tigers continued into the 1950s, winning the OHA championship in 1919, 1931, 1934, 1942 and 1944–1948. The team won the Allan Cup in 1919.

The Tigers name was revived as a professional team in the Canadian Professional Hockey League in 1926. The professional Tigers survived until 1930, including a time in the International Hockey League.

Now the NHL is a 30-team league with just six Canadian clubs.

The Phoenix Coyotes' filing for bankruptcy and Jim Balsillie wants to relocate the team to Hamilton. A poll in the Hamilton Spectator proved the name Tigers is the most popular.

Malcolm Gladwell Explains Why "CrackBerry" Balsillie Will Win Coyotes

Martin Avery — Sat, 16 May 2009 19:28:44 -0400

Jim Balsillie, billionaire and co-CEO of BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion, had the bestselling author of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell, as his college roommate. In his new book, Outliers, Gladwell explains the success of elite hockey players, The Beatles, Microsoft's co-founder Bill Gates, and various Americans living in New York City.

Maybe he could explain why his buddy Balsillie is a billionaire and why he will win his battle over NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman—eventually.

Gladwell's book begins with his research on why a disproportionate number of elite hockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year.

The answer, he points out, is that youth hockey leagues determine eligibility by calendar year.

Children born on Jan. 1 play in the same league as those born on Dec. 31 in the same year. Adolescents born earlier in the year are bigger and more developmentally advanced than the others.

They are often identified as better athletes, leading to extra coaching and a higher likelihood of being selected for elite hockey leagues.

Outliers asserts that success depends on the idiosyncrasies of the selection process used to identify talent just as much as it does on the athletes' natural abilities.

Gladwell noted that "the biggest misconception about success is that we do it solely on our smarts, ambition, hustle and hard work." He shows there are a lot more variables involved in an individual's success than society cares to admit. He wants people to "move away from the notion that everything that happens to a person is up to that person."

And then there's Gladwell's theory about ten thousand hours. Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule", claiming that the key to success in any field is simply a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of 10,000 hours.

The Beatles performed live in Hamburg, Germany over 1,200 times from 1960 to 1964, amassing more than 10,000 hours of playing time, therefore meeting the 10,000-Hour Rule.

Gladwell asserts that all of the time The Beatles spent performing shaped their talent, "so by the time they returned to England from Hamburg, Germany, 'they sounded like no one else. It was the making of them.'"

Gates met the 10,000-Hour Rule when he gained access to a high school computer in 1968 at the age of 13, and spent 10,000 hours programming it.

Gladwell says, "It's not enough to ask what successful people are like. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't."

Balsillie was born in Seathforth, Ontario, Canada, population 2,000.

This tiny town is the birthplace of many famous people, including:
* author John Melady Canadian
* Richard Nesbitt (born 1955) current CEO of the Toronto Stock Exchange
* Howard Hillen Kerr (1900 - 1984) first principal of what was then Ryerson Polytechnical Institute
* Charlie Mason (1912 - 1971) NHL forward
* Colonel Anthony Van Egmond (1778 - 1838) first farmer in the Huron Tract, participant in Upper Canada Rebellion
* Cooney Weiland (1904 - 1985) NHL forward
* Boyd Devereaux - Professional hockey player, Toronto Marlies, American Hockey League
* Kathy Devereaux - Former hockey player in the NWHL with the Brampton Thunder
* Ian Doig - Professional Golfer, Canadian Professional Golf Tour
* Scott Driscoll - National Hockey League Linesman,
* Arden Eddie - (born 1947) former Iron Man participant, team owner and manager in the Intercounty Baseball League
* Lloyd Eisler - Former Professional Canadian figure skating star
* Mike Kelly - Professional hockey Play-by-Play Broadcaster, Springfield Falcons, American Hockey League
* Dave McLlwain - Professional hockey player, Kölner Haie ("Cologne Sharks")
* Pat Murray - Former Professional former NHL hockey player
* Rem Murray - Professional hockey player, for HC TWK Innsbruck in the Austrian Hockey League
* Derek Nesbitt - Professional hockey player, San Antonio Rampage, American Hockey League
* Cal O'Reilly - Professional hockey player, Milwaukee Admirals, American Hockey League
* Mike Watt - Former Professional NHL hockey player

That's a crazily high number of professional athletes, especially hockey players.

Balsillie calls Peterborough, Ontario, his hometown. Peterborough is well known for its junior level hockey team, the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League.

The 'Petes' have become the longest continuously operating team in the league. They have participated in the Memorial Cup tournament nine times in their history and won it once.

The Petes have produced a record number of National Hockey League (NHL) players, including Eric Staal, Jordan Staal, Mike Fisher, Cory Stillman, Chris Pronger, Steve Yzerman, Bob Gainey, Mike Ricci, Larry Murphy, and Tie Domi, and coaches such as Scotty Bowman, Roger Neilson, Mike Keenan, Gary Green and Dick Todd.

The Petes have also graduated 96 players who have played 100 or more games in the NHL. The goalie Pete Peters once played for the Peterborough Petes.

Corey Perry, one of the big stars with the Anaheim Ducks, was born in Peterborough.

After high school in Peterborough, Balsillie went to the University of Toronto. At Trinity College, he met Gladwell and lots of the sons and daughters of the people he read about in a book called The Canadian Establishment.

After the U of T, he went to Harvard for an MBA. From the Harvard School of Business, he worked as a chartered accountant at investment banks in Boston and New York.

When he returned to Canada in 1989, he took a job with a little contracting company in Kitchener, Ontario.

He was impressed with one of its suppliers, a company developing computer software for portable communication devices.

Balsillie became the co-Ceo of the company, called Research in Motion. RIM introduced the BlackBerry a few years later, setting Balsillie on a path to Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires.

The BlackBerry is so popular, it has been nicknamed the "CrackBerry."

Balsillie grew up with a love of hockey and never lost it. He spent a lot of time working on deals to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins and then the Nashville Predators. Now he is working on a bid to rescue the Phoenix Coyotes.

If you add up all the hours Balsillie has spent on buying an NHL franchise, it would probably add up to ten thousand hours, soon.

Will Jim Balsillie Take The Phoenix Coyotes Back To Winnipeg?

Martin Avery — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:10:11 -0400

Will Jim Balsillie buy the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes out of the Arizona desert and move the team back to Winnipeg? Does the hockey team belong up north, where the desert is frozen?

The NHL is now saying they prefer Winnipeg to Hamilton. Balsillie has said he wants to bring a seventh NHL franchise to Canada, but he has southern Ontario in mind.

The NHL would consider moving the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team to Winnipeg, but not to Hamilton, according to reports published today, the Winnipeg Free Press reported.

The Phoenix Coyotes were originally the Winnipeg Jets. Many Winnipegers would love to see the team return. Hamiltonians will be devastated.

The Toronto Star also reported that Gary Bettman would prefer to see the Phoenix Coyotes move to Winnipeg than Hamilton, according to court documents filed as part of the NHL team's bankruptcy.

Bettman indicated the NHL would not support the move because the arena in Hamilton is over 30 years old, the Winnipeg newspaper said.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty isn't ruling out the idea of using taxpayer money to fix up Hamilton's Copps Coliseum to attract an NHL team, according to CBC News.

Yesterday, Jim Balsillie said he would be happy to see the Phoenix Coyotes stay in Arizona for another year, to give the Toronto Maple Leafs time to adjust to the situation, for Hamilton to renovate Copps Coliseum, and make Phoenix happy.

The Sporting News said, "Billionaire tech mogul Jim Balsillie is willing to keep the Phoenix Coyotes in Arizona for a season before moving the team to Hamilton."

Organizers of a "Save The Coyotes" rally in Phoenix requested that attendees bring their BlackBerry phones to be destroyed in protest, according to the Phoenix New Times.

Documents filed with the Coyotes' bankruptcy hearing in Phoenix claim Jerry Moyes' sole intention is to sell the Coyotes to the highest bidder, according to Chris Johnson of the Canadian Press, and they also accuse the league of getting in the way of that process with a reported offer from Jerry Reinsdorf, who owns the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox.

The National Hockey League acted fraudulently in its bid to try and take control of the Phoenix Coyotes, Moyes said in a court, according to the Globe and Mail.

The Ottawa Citizen noted that "after saying there was no problem in Phoenix, Gary Bettman now has to contend with Jim Balsillie and a firestorm over the future."

Bankruptcy court Judge Redfield Baum is scheduled to rule Tuesday on the cluttered issue of who technically owns the Coyotes: Jerry Moyes or the NHL, according to the Citizen.

Moyes said he stands to lose more than $300 million if the NHL blocks the sale to Balsillie, according to the Globe and Mail.

BlackBerry Billionaire Becomes Latest, Greatest Captain Canada

Martin Avery — Sat, 16 May 2009 11:58:02 -0400

Captain Canada is not just a cartoon character or the name given to the captains of hockey teams representing hockey-mad Canada. It's also the name given to Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau when he was as popular in Canada as President Barak Obama is in the USA.

And now the name has become attached to the BlackBerry billionaire who wants to buy an NHL franchise for Canada.

Captain Canada was a comic book character created by Newfie broadcaster Geoff Stirling, a separate comic book character created by Gary Dunford appearing in Fuddle Duddle magazine and, I believe, by Margaret Atwood, drawing under the pseudonym of Bart Gerrard in Kanadian Kuture Komics. There is also a cartoon character called Captain Canuck (www.captaincanuck.com).

The name Captain Canada is given to any athlete who is named captain of a Canadian national team. It is used by many but it is owned by hockey player Ryan Smyth, who holds a Team Canada record for most games played at 78.

His nickname is "Captain Canada" as he was named captain of Team Canada for the World Championships from 2001 to 2005 and also played for Team Canada in the 2006 Winter Olympics. He won five gold medals at the world junior championships, Winter Olympics, World Championships, and the World Cup.

Other Captain Canadas include Bobby Clark, Denis Potvin, Larry Robinson, and, of course, Wayne Gretzky. The impressive list also includes Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, and Joe Sakic.

Steven Nash, the Canadian basketball hero, is also called Captain Canada.

A politician named Brian Tobin was so named for his role in the 1995 Turbot War and 1995 Quebec Referendum.

Captain Canuck, the superhero, first appeared in Captain Canuck No. 1 (July 1975) and was a cross between Captain America and Flash Gordon.

Johnny Canuck was another Canadian cartoon hero, created as a lumber jack national personification of Canada as a younger cousin of the United States' Uncle Sam and Britain's John Bull.

Now Balsillie's name can be added to the above list, according to John Allemang, a feature writer for the Globe and Mail.

RIM CEO Jim Balsillie played in the Champions Alumni Game at the 2008 IIHF World Championships in Quebec City.

Allemang describes Balsillie playing hockey with his buddies and failing repeatedly to find the upper corner with his shots at the same time the National Hockey League has been slapping him down in an Arizona court for trying to buy the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes and move the team to Southern Ontario.

He says, "Mr. Balsillie exudes Canadianness" and lists many reasons for calling him Captain Canada:

1. He calls Peterborough, Ontario, his hometown.

2. He listens to CBC Radio in his car.

3. His favourite vacation was a trip to the Arctic with leaders of the Polar Continental Shelf Project.

4. The meeting rooms at RIM famously are named after Canadian-born hockey stars.

5. He spends hours every day working on his ambitious Waterloo-based Centre for International Governance Innovation (launched in 2002 with $47-million of his own money).

6. He invited the Tragically Hip to play at his birthday party.

7. His beer of choice is Molson's Export.

8. His dog is one of only four existing indigenous Canadian breeds—a Nova Scotia duck-tolling retriever, or toller.

9. His devotion to the national game is so intense that for years he organized a one-man August training camp that had him skating laps at the Kitchener Auditorium at 5:30 AM.

10. He is one of the country's richest, most famous citizens, and he plays pick-up hockey.

Allemang also describes him as a hyperkinetic businessman and a high-flying CEO who strives to be grounded.

Here are 10 more reasons he gives for calling Balsillie 'Captain Canada'.

1. His two teenage children attend public schools.

2. He helps to coach his son's basketball team.

3. He likes to sit at the floor level of Toronto Raptors games and bark at the players and the refs.

4. He is a self-made man and a perpetual student.

5. He developed his skills as a triathlete to the point where he was happy to ride with Lance Armstrong and former Canadian Olympic cyclist Steve Bauer.

6. He hired a former Junior A hockey player to coach him at his crack-of-dawn workouts.

7. At the age of 12, he was reading Peter C. Newman's The Canadian Establishment as a guidebook or cautionary tale.

8. He made his way to the University of Toronto's elite Trinity College in 1980 as a scholarship student.

9. He maintains he's much the same person who emerged as a studious, fun-loving, business-minded jock in Peterborough—even if he was the only graduate at his high-school reunion to offer his classmates a ride in his corporate jet.

10. He went from Trinity College and Harvard Business School not to Bay Street or Wall Street but to Waterloo, where he joined a small construction company before hooking up with RIM founder Mike Lazaridis in 1992.

The list leaves you wondering if Jim "Captain Canada" Balsillie will go into politics after he finally gets another NHL team for Canada and become the next Trudeau.

Canadian Billionaire Offers To Keep Phoenix Coyotes in Arizona Desert

Martin Avery — Sat, 16 May 2009 09:50:06 -0400

Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie's bid to take over the Phoenix Coyotes and move the NHL team to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, changed into an offer to keep the team in Arizona. His lawyer, Richard Rodier is emerging as a key player in the saga of the Arizona hockey team.

Balsillie is willing to own the Coyotes and let them stay in Phoenix for another season—with some provisos, according to the Toronto Star, if he is allowed to purchase the team through bankruptcy proceedings, according to documents filed late Friday night.

Coyotes fans in Phoenix hope a rally today will show their team ain't dead yet, according to the Globe and Mail, but owner Jerry Moyes continued to do everything in his power to kill it. Moyes says twelve years in the desert have shown Phoenix isn't a viable market.

Meanwhile, the NHL is taking direct aim at Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie, calling his bid an attack on the league.

"Lawyers for Balsillie's PSE Sports and Entertainment painted the company as accommodating businessmen in pleading with judge Redfield Baum to consider the $212.5 million (U.S.) offer on its merits," the Toronto Star reported.

"Calling themselves "good faith" purchasers caught between conflicting stories over who actually controls the financially troubled franchise."

The Star story quoted an affidavit by Richard Rodier, Balsillie's long-time lawyer and now senior vice-president of PSE.

Rodier says Balsillie is willing to make a deal with the NHL, which may become necessary should the judge side with the NHL in the bankruptcy proceedings.

Both Moyes and the NHL claim they are in control of the Coyotes. Rodier went to great lengths in his affidavit to distance himself and Balsillie from any possible Moyes' wrongdoing, according to Kevin McGran, a sports reporter with the Star.

Rodier suggested to the judge that Balsillie would have no problem being accepted as an owner by the league's board of governors since he already passed once, when he attempted to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"I did not `engineer' the bankruptcy case," Rodier told the Star. "I explained to (the Moyes camp) that the only way I could see out of Phoenix, given that the team was already bankrupt and also due to the long-term lease with the arena with no provision allowing early termination, was for some sort of bankruptcy proceeding."

Jim Balsillie: Canadian Folk Hero or American Joke?

Martin Avery — Sat, 16 May 2009 08:58:47 -0400

Coverage of Jim Balsillie's bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes is quite different in Canada from what it is in the USA. North of the border, Balsillie is elevated to the status of billionaire folk hero, but in the States, it looks as though his offer is not taken seriously.

The Las Vegas Review Journal joked about it, saying hell must have frozen over if an American NHL team is going back to Canada. "Remember when no one wanted a Canadian nickel and some of our northern neighbor's sports teams flocked south of the border?" the Las Vegas newspaper asked.

"NHL teams in Winnipeg and Quebec were exported to the United States in 1995," the paper reminded readers in a small item buried under a NASCAR story. "The U.S. economic climate is so bad that a reversal of the migration could be coming."

The scenario could not have been imagined a few years ago, they added. "It looks as if Satan is lacing up his skates, because hell could be about to freeze over."

The Review Journal made no mention of the Coyotes coming to their town, but the Globe and Mail described a scenario that would have the NHL taking control of the Coyotes and moving them to Las Vegas, cutting Balsillie out of the action completely. It's a complicated story involving MGM, the owner of the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Bulls, and a move from Phoenix, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Las Vegas is the home of the Wranglers of the ECHL, who were just swept by the Alaska Aces. The Aces expected a tougher test than what they got, according to the Alaska Daily News.

The ECHL is the league formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League and is the level below the American Hockey League. The Wranglers play in the Pacific Division with the Bakersfield Condors, Stockton Thunder, and Ontario Reign (from Ontario, California).

The only Canadian team in the league is the Victoria Salmon Kings, an affiliate of the Manitoba Moose and Vancouver Canucks.

Across Canada, newspapers are reporting enormous support for the Balsillie bid Americans ignore. The Pembroke Daily Observer, for instance, did an online poll, and their voters agreed that Balsillie should get an NHL franchise.

The Hamilton Spectator is full of stories about the Balsillie and the Coyotes, calling it "The NHL's power play." The Spectator reported that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League are happy that the Coyotes may come to town as the Hamilton Tigers.

And the Toronto Star may have even more stories about Balsillie and "The Hammer," as Hamilton is known, as Canada's biggest newspaper invited Balsillie into the publisher's boardroom for an hour-long interview.

"What's not to like about Jim Balsillie's bid to bring another NHL team to southern Ontario?" the Star asked after the interview.

212 Reasons The NHL Should Take Basille's Offer For the Phoenix Coyotes

Martin Avery — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:58:11 -0400

The amount offered by Jim Basille for the Phoenix Coyotes has not been questioned or commented on.

Why would he offer $212.5 million for the team?

Why not $200 million even?

The number does not seem to be related to any estimated value about the team or its losses. It is a much bigger number than the one offered by Basille's rivals.

It might be symbolic. You know what they say; at 211 degrees, water is hot, but at 212 degrees, it boils. "And with boiling water, comes steam. And with steam, you can power a train."

At www.just212.com, there is a lot of information about two twelve. It looks like a movement and its slogan is "One extra degree = Exponential results."

But the Balsillie offer isn't $212 million, it's $212.5 million. Maybe that's how you get to be a billionaire. If it's that one extra degree gives exponential results, why not go 1.5?

Maybe there is another reason for that dollar amount.

Two Twelve is a New York City-based graphic design firm that seeks sustainable solutions to problems of wayfinding, information and visioning. David Gibson of Two Twelve created The Wayfinding Handbook.

Dialing 555-1212 is the number for directory assistance in many places.

Area code 212 is a telephone area code in New York City. New York was originally given 212 when area codes were assigned in 1947, because it is the fastest area code that could be dialed with a rotary dial given the numbering plan.

Today, only the borough of Manhattan retains the 212 area code. The makers of the BlackBerry understand area codes.

The 212 area code is one of the most-recognized American area codes. Among some Manhattanites, it is considered a "prestige" code.

The 212 code was parodied in an episode of Seinfeld, "The Maid".

How much is 212 million dollars?

Virginia's Mega Millions lottery has reached $212M.

The European Commission approved under EC Treaty state aid rules a €212 million German film support scheme.

Registered users of the eBay auction site have risen 26% to 212 million.

Nokia made a 212 million dollar deal to expand into Thailand.

Burundi got 212 million euros in aid from the European Development Funds.

Brazil exports 212 million pairs of shoes.

Tesco hoped to secure at least €212 million from the sale of Golden Island shopping centre in Athlone and Artaine Castle shopping centre.

Indonesian produces 212 million metric tons of coal in a big year.

The Baby Photo Digital Search Engine Database allows you to search 212 million infant baby pictures.

The Xerox 212 Multifunction Printer once reported a $212 Million profit.

The World Bank approved $212 million worth of credits for Tanzania to use in programs that promote growth and governance.

In hockey 2-1-2 describes a very aggressive offensive pattern. It means you send two wingers in deep to forecheck and keep the center in the slot. The New York Rangers used a 1-2-2 offense under coach Tom Renney, but changed to a 2-1-2 when John Tortorella took over.

Balsillie tried to buy two other NHL teams by playing conservatively and following all the rules of the NHL's board of governors. That didn't work, so now he's trying a more offensive approach.

The 2-1-2 is often used late in a game when you are in need of a goal or at specific instances that will allow you to take advantage of your opponents' positioning or weaknesses, such as a bankruptcy.

No Canadian Teams in Stanley Cup Playoffs, So Canucks Cheer for Crosby's Team

Martin Avery — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:27:52 -0400

Hockey-mad Canadians are obsessing over the possibility of Jim Balsillie bringing a seventh NHL franchise to Canada and are claiming to be the homeland of hockey at a time when no Canadian teams are in the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Pittsburgh Penguins play the Carolina Hurricanes for the Eastern Conference championship, and the Detroit Red Wings face the Chicago Blackhawks in the West.

The Blackhawks eliminated the Vancouver Canucks in the second round of the playoffs.
The Calgary Flames were eliminated by Chicago in the first round.

The Montreal Canadiens were swept in four games by the rival Boston Bruins, bringing a miserable end to their disappointing centennial season.

Montreal was the last Canadian team to hoist the Stanley Cup, back in 1993. Since then, the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators have all advanced to the Cup final, but have been unable to break 15 seasons of American dominance.

This year, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Toronto all failed to make the playoffs. So did the Phoenix Coyotes, who could become the Hamilton Tigers.

The Chicago Blackhawks have 21 Canadian players; the Detroit Red Wings, 9; the Carolina Hurricanes, 12; and the Pittsburgh Penguins, 13.

Even though they have the most Canadian-born players, after beating out Calgary and Vancouver, the Blackhawks are not likely to be considered Canada's team. That distinction will likely go to Pittsburgh.

The Penguins have the best Canadian player in the NHL this year, one of the best in many years, and one of the best players from anywhere on the planet, Sidney Crosby.

Jim Balsillie Gets Back-up With Coyotes' Bankruptcy on Hold

Martin Avery — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:08:17 -0400

Bankruptcy court gave the NHL and Jerry Moyes of the Phoenix Coyotes two weeks to figure out who's in charge of the team.

The NHL will argue its case in court on May 15, according to the Calgary Herald. Moyes will make his case May 17, and both will face the judge on May 19.

Meanwhile, a letter from Moyes appeared in The Arizona Republic saying, essentially, "I still own the team." And Jim Balsillie got back-up in the form of major corporate sponsors for the Coyotes if they move to Canada.

The NHL claims Moyes has been removed from any positions of authority with the team. On the front page of the sports section of The Globe and Mail this morning, there was a long list of claims made by the NHL called "A Season Of Contradictions".

Balsillie, the co-CEO of Blackberry maker Research In Motion, says Labatt Breweries and Home Hardware are the first "anchor corporate partners" to support his bid or to put pressure on the Phoenix Coyotes to move to Ontario.

Basillie’s also launched a "Make It Seven" website, aimed at bringing a seventh professional hockey team to Canada and sent an e-mail to his 120,000 registered fans, saying, "I am more optimistic than ever that we are one step closer to bringing another NHL team to Southern Ontario and to Canada."

A "Save the Coyotes Rally" will be held Saturday at the Native New Yorker restaurant in Glendale, the suburb of Phoenix where the Coyotes’ arena is located. The City of Glendale has filed a legal objection to the proposed sale of the Coyotes.

Basillie’s website also features Make it Seven clothing for sale, with net proceeds donated to minor hockey programs.

“Labatt has a long history of supporting grassroots hockey in Canada,” Charlie Angelakos, vice-president of corporate affairs for Labatt Breweries of Canada, said in a statement issued by the Balsillie group.

“Like many Canadians, we love NHL hockey and we want more of it here. Let's get behind Make it Seven and let's make it happen.”

“A new franchise will be a source of pride for all Canadians and we are excited by the possibility of creating more opportunities for Canada's best players to play on their home ice, in front of hometown fans,” added Paul Straus, vice-president and CEO of Home Hardware Store.

BlackBerry Billionaire's Rant About Canada, the NHL, Coyotes, Tigers

Martin Avery — Fri, 15 May 2009 07:27:13 -0400

Jim Balsillie's quotable quotes about his reasons for wanting to buy the Phoenix Coyotes are becoming as famous as the "I am Canadian" rant that was incredibly popular a few years ago.

Everybody in Canada and many American beer-drinkers remember Joe Canadian from the I am Canadian commercial, with the maple leaf of the Canadian flag projected on the background behind him.

The commercial premiered during the Academy Awards, which featured Robin Williams singing the song "Blame Canada," a satirical song from the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.

"The Rant" by Joe Canadian was used by Molson Canadian Beer from 1994 until 1998 (via ad agency Maclaren Lintas and then MacLaren McCann), and between 2000 and 2005 (Bensimon Byrne).

The ads aired in both English Canada and the United States until Molson's merger with American brewer Coors and Molson announced that it was retiring the "I am Canadian" slogan.

It was performed by actor Jeff Douglas and directed by an American, Kevin Donovan. The commercial won an advertising industry Gold Quill award in 2001. Douglas moved to Los Angeles after his career took off in the wake of the commercial's success.

I believe the persona of Joe Canadian was based on a character created by Joe Costa, formerly of the comedy musical group called Corky And The Juice Pigs.

Recite it with me:

Hey,
I'm not a lumber jack
Or a fur trader
And I don't live in an igloo
Or eat blubber
Or own a dog sled
And I don't know
Jimmy, Jally or Suzie from Canada
Although I'm sure they're really really nice
I have a Prime Minister not a President
I speak English and French not American
And I pronounce it about not "a-boot"
I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack
I believe in peacekeeping not policing
Diversity not assimilation
And that the beaver is a truley proud and noble animal
A toque is a hat a chesterfield is a couch
And it is pronounced "zed" not "zee" -- "zed"!
Canada is the 2nd largest landmass!
The 1st nation in hockey!
And the best part of North America!
My name is Joe and I am Canadian!

The ad was a remarkable success, spawning a number of parodies and copycats, including I Am Not Canadian, which focused on a Quebec sovereignist, and a version by William Shatner.

Shatner, who is Canadian, performed his own variation on the idea in a Just for Laughs appearance. He announced to the world: "I am not a Starfleet commander...or T.J. Hooker."

The Muslim American Society created a video called "I Am A Muslim" which takes many lines from the Molson advertisement and applies them to Muslim stereotypes.

The Balsillie version might go something like this:

Hey,
I'm not a lumberjack,
I'm the BlackBerry billionaire
I don't live in an igloo
but I tried to get one for the
Pittsburgh Penguins
I want another NHL team in Ontario.
I believe it's the right thing for the fans,
I believe it's the right thing for the game.
I believe it's the right thing for the league.
And I believe it's the right thing for
Hamilton, Ontario, and Canada.
And it's what I want to do.

We're the source of the game,
the players, the money, and
I think we should have a seventh team.

I spent five years looking for a front door
into the NHL.
We couldn't find a front door.
I found a side door.

I take on entrenched interests.
It's my character quirk.
I don't quit and I don't get scared.

I love the NHL,
I love hockey
and I believe this is part of our soul
as Canadians
and we don't feel we have enough stake
in our own soul

My name is Jim and I am Canadian!

A Closer Look at the Billionaire Who Wants to Buy the Phoenix Coyotes

Martin Avery — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:53:35 -0400

"We're the source of the game, the players, the money, and I think we should have a seventh team. I don't quit and I don't get scared. I love the NHL, I love hockey and I believe this is part of our soul as Canadians and we don't feel we have enough stake in our own soul. And it's what I want to do." -- Jim Balsillie

It's time for a closer look at Jim Balsillie, the BlackBerry billionaire who wants to buy the Phoenix Coyotes for Canada.

Some news sources characterize Balsillie as the co-CEO of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion who has twice tried to buy an NHL team (Pittsburgh and Nashville) and move it to southern Ontario.

Balsillie very recently tried to set the record straight about that and other issues in the publisher's boardroom at the Toronto Star during an on-the-record briefing on his bid to take over the Phoenix Coyotes and move the NHL team to Hamilton.

Balsillie came out swinging, the Toronto Star reported. Balsillie said his attempt to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Canada is about the "passion Canadians feel for the game of hockey."

The NHL contends that Balsillie cannot buy the Coyotes out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Balsillie's offering more than $212 million for the Coyotes and says the offer, which is conditional on moving the team, goes the furthest in "satisfying creditors' claims."

Keven McGran, writing in the Toronto Star, says Balsillie began his quest for an NHL team when the NHL asked him to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins. That deal fell apart over the relocation issue but Balsillie insists he would have left the team in Pittsburgh.

At that time, Mario Lemieux was ready to walk away from the Penguins because he couldn't reach a deal with the city to build a new arena.

The NHL insisted he sign non-relocation clauses but Balsillie wouldn't do it because he wanted leverage to threaten to move the team to get the arena built.

That's the same leverage Lemieux ultimately used.

When problems in Nashville emerged, Balsillie said he was willing to buy the team and give Nashville a fair chance to keep the team where it was.

There was talk about moving the team to Kansas City. Balsillie thought about moving the Predators to Hamilton, but the NHL said 'no'.

When the league told Balsillie he couldn't do what he wanted, it made him want to do it more, McGran says.

Also writing for the Toronto Star, Damien Cox describes Balsillie as brilliant and as the Waterloo businessman who "alternates between being plain spoken My-Name's-Joe-And-I-Am-Canadian and a charismatic, futuristic shaman channeling the late great Jim Morrison with a little Tony Robbins mixed in."

Cox goes even further to say "He is like the Illuminati of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, betrayed centuries ago and now dedicated to toppling the walls of the Vatican."

He said he sounds Dylan-esque and is "as disarming as Bruce McNall, as infused with intellectual energy as Ted Leonsis."

Rangers' Sean Avery Honored by Career Gear's Second Chance at Life Event

Martin Avery — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:05:20 -0400

In Sean Avery's exit interview at Madison Square Garden, after the New York Rangers lost Game Seven of their playoff series with the Washington Capitals, he told reporters his plan for the summer was to have more fun than you can imagine.

Since then, the Capitals have lost to the Penguins and Avery has been to Jamaica and back, gone to the New York City Ballet, given his suits away, and gone on radio to say he's looking forward to next season with coach John Tortorella, who challenged the team to show up in better shape after this summer.

The New York City Ballet held its spring gala at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch theatre and Avery joined the mix of true balletomanes and newbies, according to Women's Wear Daily. He joined Deeda Blair, Nina Griscom, and Fe Fendi, as well as Ed Norton and DJ Sam Ronson.

Avery donated some of his formal wear to Career Gear's "Capital PerSuit" for their 10th Annual and Celebrity “Capital PerSuit” awards dinner held by Career Gear, according to Trend Hunter magazine.

The dinner, which follows a nine day online auction in June is part of a Career Gear program that offers struggling men the opportunity to wear business attire and obtain career counseling for a second chance at life.

The “Capital PerSuit” event will honor New York Rangers forward Sean Avery. Eric Bana, Jimmy Kimmel, Kevin Spacey, and Patrick Dempsey all have donated autographed ties for the auction.

Avery will be the guest host of the hour-long Ice Breakers show on Sirius XM Radio this Thursday former Ranger Ron Duguay and former New Jersey Devil Ken Daneyko.

Steve Zipay quoted Avery in his Blue Notes column on Newsday.com saying, “Tortorella's told us it’s gonna be a different training camp, a different mentality, and it’s going to be different to be a Ranger,” Avery said, predicting that conditioning will be a priority.

Battle Between Bettman and Balsillie Heating to a Boil

Martin Avery — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:10:31 -0400

The latest motions by the NHL mark the fiercest attack yet on Jerry Moyes and Jim Balsillie.

The league says that Moyes cut a secret deal with Balsillie that flies in the face of the NHL's rules.

The NHL called the deal between Balsillie and Phoenix Coyotes' majority owner Moyes “a sham,” it has been reported by many sources.

Balsillie responded by insisting that his attempt to buy and move the Phoenix Coyotes is about the "passion Canadians feel for the game of hockey," according to the Globe and Mail.

The NHL claimed Moyes and Balsillie “are attempting to use the court to eviscerate the NHL's fundamental right to decide who will be members of the venture and where franchises will be located,” the Globe reported.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix Coyotes are trying to find out if the NHL’s deal to sell the team to the Chicago White Sox's owner Jerry Reinsdorf is a legitimate offer or just the league crying wolf, according to Eric Morath of The Wall Street Journal.

In Toronto, a member of Provincial Parliament from Hamilton got consent from all the members of the Ontario legislature to wear a t-shirt promoting the idea of moving the Phoenix Coyotes to Ontario.

A tiger image on the back of his jersey symbolizes the long ago Hamilton Tigers, while a coyote image stands for the team Miller hopes will move to Hamilton from Phoenix.

Penguins' Crosby, Coyotes' Balsillie: Most Popular Canucks Since Gretzky

Martin Avery — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:43:22 -0400

It's hockey icon night and day in Canada, thanks to Sidney Crosby and Jim Balsillie.

Sidney Crosby, captain and leading scorer of the Pittsburgh Penguins, is enormously popular in Canada, and his popularity is soaring after his performance in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Crosby scored two goals, aded an assist, and his Penguins beat Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals 6-2. They chased rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov form the Caps net.

The Penguins are enormously popular in Pittsburgh these days, too, but a few years ago the franchise was in trouble and Jim Basillie offered to buy the team and move the Penguins to Canada.

To think it might be Sidney Crosby and the Hamilton Penguins heading for the Stanley Cup finals this year—and last year, too.

Now Balsillie is about s popular as Crosby in Canada for trying to move another NHL team north of the border. An incredible outpouring of support has met his attempt to turn the Phoenix Coyotes into the Hamilton Tigers.

Balsillie wants to bring Wayne Gretzky back to Canada, as the coach of the franchise, and re-name the Hamilton arena after another Canadian icon, the coach's father, Walter Gretzky.

When Sidney Crosby and the Penguin's play Wayne Gretzky's Hamilton Tigers at the Walter Gretzky arena, it will definitely be hockey icon night in Canada.

If that happens, Balsillie could not be more popular in Canada if he gave everybody in the country a free BlackBerry.

Toronto Maple Leafs Vs Hamilton Tigers and Tamil Tigers

Martin Avery — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:31:49 -0400

Toronto is too busy dealing with protests over the Tamil Tigers to worry about the Phoenix Coyotes turning into the Hamilton Tigers and playing in their lucrative territory.

Protesters in Toronto have blocked downtown streets and an expressway to draw attention to the genocide they say is taking place in the their homeland. The U.N. recently demand the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka stop fighting and allow tens of thousands of civilians being used as human shields to leave the war zone.

The leader of the federal Liberal Party, Micheal Ignatief, ended a protest blocking the Gardeiner Expressway in Toronto by promiising to have the Tamil situation discussed in the Canadian parliament in Ottawa.

While Toronto is distracted by Tamil Tigers protests, the Toronto Maple Leafs were named the worst franchise in the NHL. Sports Illustrated recently ranked Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. as the worst owner in the NHL, according to a feature on their website SI.com.

The Leafs' ownership was called the "worst" for a combination of high prices and poor performances. The Leafs are considered the most valuable franchise in the NHL, but the team has not made the playoffs for half a dozen years or won the Stanley Cup for over four decades.

Meanwhile, down the highway in Hamilton, halfway to Buffalo, plans are being made to set up an NHL franchise in Leafs' territory.

Hamilton hopes a bid by BlackBerry billionaire Jim Balsillie will bring the bankrupt Hamilton Coyotes to Canada.

Hamilton's biggest newspaper has already named the team the Tigers, after an NHL team that played in the city in the 1920s.

The original Hamilton Tigers became the New York Rangers. The current Phoenix Coyotes could become the new Hamilton Tigers.

At a time when the rest of Canada is buzzing about the Hamilton Tigers, Torontonians have been forced to pay more attention to the Tamil Tigers.

Twenty Years For Balsillie And Hamilton Coyotes

Martin Avery — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:06:09 -0400

The mayor of Hamilton says he will give Jim Balsillie a twenty year lease if he can bring the Phoenix coyotes to Copps Coliseum. Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger also said he would not even talk to other groups that plan to get an NHL franchise for Hamilton until it's determined if Balsillie's deal with Phoenix is dead or alive.

It's clear the mayor, the people of Hamilton, southern Ontario, and Canada want a seventh NHL franchise north of the border in the very near future. Balsillie is seen as the one who can make it happen.

The big to buy the bankrupt Coyotes, if that is what they are, has brought a lot of attention to Balsillie and his company, Research In Motion, makers of the popular BlackBerry.

A poll in the Hamilton Spectator has alread re-neamed the team the Hamilton Tigers. The Ontario city is the home of the Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League and had an NHL team in the Twenties called the Tigers.

It was the Hamilton Tigers that inspired the NHL's success in the USA, as they were moved to New York City and renamed the Rangers.

The Coyotes were once the Winnipeg Jets. Many Canadians say Hamilton deserves the former Canadian franchise as payback for sending theirs to New York almost a century ago.

Crosby—Ovechkin: Penguins Win Classic NHL Playoff

Martin Avery — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:17:58 -0400

The Quarterfinal series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals had the feel of the Stanley Cup finals and was even greater as it featured a match-up between the top two superstars who are destined for hockey immortality.

The Penguins-Caps series was a classic, comparable to the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls in Round One of this year’s NBA playoffs. The excitement generated by Crosby and Ovechkin was even better than the Sammy Sosa-Mark McGwire 1998 home run chase, as they did it without steroids.

Ovechkin is a couple of years older than Crosby and Crosby has the third leading superstar of the NHL, Evgeni Malkin, on his side.

The Penguins upset the Capitals, coming form behind, after losing the first two games in Washington, to win three in a row—two at home and one on the road—and then the Caps tied it up so it all came down to Game Seven, which the Penguins won in Washington.

Crosby had two goals and an assist in Game Seven to take the lead in scoring over Ovechkin, who had just one goal.

Ovechkin ended with 21 points, on 11 goals and ten assists.
Crosby had 21 points, with 12 goals and 9 assists.

Ovechkin and Crosby were tied in points but Crosby had more goals.

Most importantly, Crosby had more victories, as the Penguins beat the Capitals 4-3 and move on to the Stanley Cup semi-finals.

Who won the war between Crosby and Ovechkin? The NHL and the millions who watched this series won big time. Ovechkin lost points with fans for violent play. Crosby is still playing.

And so, after all this, I think we can safely say that "Sid The Kid" finished ahead of "The Great Eight."

Ryan Dixon, writing in The Hockey News, pointed out that "This little thing Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin have going has illuminated the league and sport in places previously unaware of its allure."

To prove his point, he reported that on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, Mike Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser debated whether the Caps—Pens series eclipsed the classic seven-game battle waged by the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls in Round One of this year’s NBA playoffs.

Not to put too fine a point on it, he also added, "And they did it during the show’s first segment, not at the end of the telecast, where hockey usually resides—unless Sean Avery has done something truly off the charts."

Or, as Bruce Arthur said in the National Post, "this is what hockey should be. And for nearly two glorious weeks, we could say it was what hockey was."

Brian Burke Kills Luke Schenn Trade Rumors

Martin Avery — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:28:59 -0400

Brian Burke, president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, went on The FAN 590 today to kill the rumor that defenseman Luke Schenn will be traded in an attempt to get John Tavares in the NHL Entry Draft.

Yesterday, Sportsnet reported that if the Leafs wanted to move up to No. 2, the deal would have to include Schenn and defensemen Tomas Kaberle.

Burke said that trade was never made by him or discussed with him. He also said, "Luke Schenn isn't going anywhere," and tabbed Schenn as a future captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

He also pointed out it would be like paying $17 million to get the second pick in the draft.

"Toronto has cash and cap space," he said, "but that would be crazy."

Gary Bettman vs. Jim Balsillie Brawl

Martin Avery — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:16:35 -0400

Instead of battling in bankruptcy court, Gary Bettman and Jim Balsillie should "man up" and brawl in a hockey rink.

That's something we'd all like to see on ESPN or Hockey Night In Canada. Some might even pay to see it on Versus.

Picture this: a staged fight between periods at a hockey game...

In one corner, at over 5'0", born in the U.S.A., Gary "The Count" Bettman.

And in the other corner, wearing his hockey equipment and uniform, representing the Great White North, it's Jim "BlackBerry" Balsillie.

If I were a betting man, my money would be on the billionaire. But man, you have to hope it's not like a hockey fight, with one punch and a jersey pulled over a head.

Imagine the play-by-play: "Balsillie takes three strides, three more, and launches himself in the air like Alex Ovechkin..."

"He hits him in the head with a flying elbow smash that rearranges his orbital bones. It looks like Bashear and Blair out there..."

“Wait a minute! What's this? It's a bench-clearing brawl!”

The NHL GMs leap over the board, coming to Bettman's rescue.

Hold on a second—Balsillie's making a call on his BlackBerry. The NHL GMs' BlackBerries are all going off at the same time!

Oh! He's texted them with an offer to buy the Toronto Maple Leafs and move them to New Mexico!

Ladies and gentlemen, it's the New Mexico Maple Leafs! Santa Fe has the newest NHL franchise in that hockey hot-bed called the American Sunbelt.

Bettman is now kissing Balsillie!

And I'm outta here!

Hamilton Has a Tiger by the Tail as NHL Fever Grips the City

Martin Avery — Wed, 13 May 2009 07:45:31 -0400

Hamilton is going NHL hockey crazy even though it appears the NHL has drawn a line in the sand of the Arizona desert and Wayne Gretzky is reportedly on the side of Chicago sports czar Jerry Reinsdorf, who may already have a deal with local Phoenix politicians.

News of Hamilton's hopes for an NHL team made headlines from Edmonton to Montreal this morning. Joanne Ireland of the Edmonton Journal reported that BlackBerry mogul Jim Balsillie has southern Ontario buzzing with hope.

However, Kevin Werne, of the Ancaster News, close to Hamilton, reported that Hamilton politicians failed to reach a lease agreement with Balsillie to house a potential NHL franchise at Copps Coliseum.

Also, John Kernaghan of the Hamilton Spectator says Balsillie will seek more than $120-million in federal and provincial handouts to renovate the arena in Hamilton.

Meanwhile, it's believed Reinsdorf has already negotiated an agreement with Glendale politicians. Damien Cox, writing in the Toronto Star, claimed "sources indicated yesterday that Wayne Gretzky is "supportive" of the plan presented by Chicago sports czar Jerry Reinsdorf to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and keep them in Arizona."

Cox claims Gretzky would stay with the team as head coach under the ownership of a group of investors headed by Reinsdorf that would offer an estimated $130 million (U.S.) for the Coyotes.

Hockey fans in Phoenix are rallying but NHL fever has Hamilton in its grip. A popular poll in the Hamilton Spectator aimed at renaming the Phoenix Coyotes has the Hamilton Tigers in first place.

Meanwhile, the Huffington Post says it's time Basillie and Bettman stopped brawling like hockey players.

Diane Francis, editor at large for the National Post, has a piece in the Huffinton Post saying, "The Phoenix Coyotes hockey team should move to southern Ontario and BlackBerry billionaire, Jim Balsillie, and the NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman, should both head for the showers."

She points out that Bettman opposes any move—which is unjustifiable. And Balsillie has been high-handed and has attempted to make this a patriotic issue to stir up Canadian public opinion.

Phoenix Coyotes Fans Rally Live and Online

Martin Avery — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:52:52 -0400

Fans of the Phoenix Coyotes are responding to the "Make It Seven" movement of Jim Balsillie with a "Keep It Six" movement of their own.

Make It Seven, at www.makeitseven.ca, has a press release from Jim Balsillie, a petition, a claim they have over 115,000 sign-ups, and a promise to sign more information with the launch of another website.

The website www.savethecoyote.com is all about helping the species, but www.savethecoyotes.com has lots of information about the fan movement to save the Phoenix Coyotes, with a tee-shirt, up-dates on rally plans, suggestions for lawn signs, and avatars for Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and blogs.

A group of local media members and fans called the Save the Coyotes Coalition are planning an event called White Out 2009. It's a Save the Phoenix Coyotes Rally scheduled for this Saturday, but the exact location is still to be arranged.

The Save the Coyotes Coalition is asking fans to dress in white, similar to the famous Coyotes “White Outs” at hockey games in the past.

The FAN 1060 will be broadcasting live from the event, apparently.

"It is time to show the world that the words ‘non-traditional market’ mean absolutely nothing," it says on their website. "When it comes to the love of hockey we are just as passionate, involved, and committed as any fans have ever been."

The “Keep it Six” tee-shirt refers to the number of NHL franchises in Canada and their desire to keep it that way as well as Balsillie's desire to make it seven.

Wayne Gretzky Blamed as Dark Phoenix Saga Continues Amid Coyotes Bankruptcy

Martin Avery — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:36:04 -0400

Will the Phoenix Coyotes rise up like a mythical sacred firebird from ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Phoenician mythologies?

Or will the story about moving the team up north be more like "The Dark Phoenix Saga" with the X-Men from Marvel Comics Universe, ending badly for a former hero?

The saga takes more twists and turns each day than a soap opera.

The back-and-forth legal jousting between the National Hockey League and Phoenix Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes continues, according to Darren Dredger of TSN.com.

The latest, he says, is that the NHL filed an objection with the U.S Bankruptcy Court following Moyes' attempt to force the NHL to disclose other offers to buy the Coyotes.

According to Paul Waldie of the Globe and Mail, the NHL is trying to block that shot.
Moyes wants a bankruptcy court judge in Phoenix to force the NHL to provide information about its discussions with Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls, Waldie reports.

The league says it was close to a deal with Reinsdorf.

The NHL argues that the court has to first determine who controls the Coyotes.

This saga began with word the Coyotes were struggling financially and would miss the playoffs for the sixth season in a row.

When Moyes declared the team was bankrupt, Jim Balsillie made an offer to buy the team, if he could move it to Canada.

Balsillie's hunt for the Coyotes set up a faceoff with the NHL.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman challenged the Coyotes bankruptcy, saying Moyes no longer controlled the team and the NHL did.

The NHL said Moyes gave up control for financial help and the NHL controls the Coyotes, so they want the bankruptcy filing denied.

The NHL said they had a rival bid for the Coyotes, but wouldn't reveal who it came from and would not reveal it without a fight.

The NHL balked at producing documents related to a rival bid for the franchise, according to the Toronto Star, and asked the court to dismiss the request for disclosure of information about the the sale of the Coyotes.

The Coyotes won a court motion that "will force the NHL to tell all it knows" to a Phoenix bankruptcy court about Chicago White Sox and Bulls Chair Jerry Reinsdorf’s interest in buying the team, according to the Wall Street Journal.

You are now up-to-date on the legal issues. But this story has plots and subplots.

A national survey was carried out across Canada and discovered there was a lot of support for the idea of having a seventh NHL team in Canada.

Shortly after that, fans in Phoenix planned to rally in support of Coyotes.

However, according to Mike Sunnucks of the Phoenix Business Journal and Craig Harris of the Arizona Republic, Westgate City Centre said "no" to the rally.

They reported that rally organizer Greg Esposito said a rally will occur at a yet to be determined site near the arena on Saturday.

Westgate is owned by former Coyotes owner Steve Ellman.

Meanwhile, there are reports that coach Wayne Gretzky, ticket sellers, and more than 400 others have not been paid, including Keith Gretzky, Wayne’s brother, who serves as the Coyotes’ director of amateur scouting.

There is one more surprising twist: Mike Ozanian, national editor of Forbes magazine, says Wayne Gretzky stabbed Bettman in the Back and he is to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman what Brutus was to Caesar.

He says Gretzky shafted Coyote fans with a lousy hockey team and a bloated payroll packed with cronies.

"The NHL lent the money-losing team a small fortune to help keep them afloat," Ozanian wrote, and then while Bettman was busy working on the league’s credit facility, to help teams during the current recession, "Gretzky, along with majority owner Jerry Moyes, dumped the Coyotes into bankruptcy court without notifying the NHL."

Ozanian also says "the guy Gretzky wants to sell to is Jim Balsillie."

Until Ozanian's claim, there had been no word on where Gretzky stood on the issues in this saga.

NHL Dogfight in the Arizona Desert Upstages Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Igloo

Martin Avery — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:44:43 -0400

The Pittsburgh Penguins fans had a white-out at The Igloo, but the home team lost in overtime to the Washington Capitals, and even though that was a very exciting game, it was upstaged by the dogfight in the desert.

Penguins fans wore white tee-shirts and waved white towels, so it looked like a snowstorm inside the arena known as The Igloo. In the end, the home team surrendered to the visitors, 5-4, in overtime.

David Steckel scored 6:22 into overtime to give Washington win over Pittsburgh and a 3-3 tie in their Eastern semifinals. Viktor Kozlov scored twice for the Capitals, Alexander Semin added a goal and an assist and Tomas Fleischmann also scored for the Caps. Alex Ovechkin had three assists and Simeon Varlamov had 38 saves.

Sidney Crosby got a goal and an assist for the Penguins. Bill Guerin, Mark Eaton, and Kris Letang also scored. Evgeni Malkin had three assists for Pittsburgh.

While the game was on, I surfed the net for news on the fight for the Phoenix Coyotes. The Fan 590 said the NHL had lied about who was in control of the team in Arizona.

"The outcome of Jim Balsillie’s effort to buy the Coyotes out of bankruptcy protection is the first legal test of a professional sports league’s right to determine who can buy a franchise," according to the Phoenix Business Journal. "It’s an issue that sports, legal and financial executives are watching closely."

Who will win? Some say bankruptcy laws favor the highest bidder, so Balsillie will get the franchise. Others say the NHL constitution will protect the league’s right to approve any potential new owner.

It's like cheering for Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in their Quarterfinal series against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. Crosby scores! Game Six is going into overtime!

The Caps won that one, and now their seven game series is down to just one game, winner take all, with the Penguins on the road.

Research In Motion CEO Jim Balsillie offered to buy the Coyotes for $213 million and move the team to southern Ontario. The NHL and the city of Glendale wants to block the sale.

The NHL is working on a sale to Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says the NHL requires league approval of any team sale or movement.

Meanwhile, the Canadian city that hopes to get the Coyotes is prepping plans to revamp its stadium, according to another story in the Phoenix Businss Journal.

The upgrades needed to make Copps Coloseum in Hamilton NHL-ready could be done in five months, apparently.

The NHL is having a great year on the ice, if not in the desert.

Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin, One More Time...and the Kid Wins

Martin Avery — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:50:36 -0400

Heading into Game Six of the Stanley Cup Quarterfinals, Alex Ovechkin is a little ahead of Sidney Crosby, but Crosby's team is ahead of Ovechkin's.

Ovechkin was climbing in the popularity polls during the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but he lost points for the way he has played in the second round, injuring Sergei Gonchar and hitting other Penguins in a way some say is unsportsmanlike.

The Pittsburgh Penguins lead the Washington Capitals three games to two. Ovechkin leads all goal-scorers in the NHL Playoffs with 10 goals and 17 points. Crosby is one behind in both of those categories, with nine goals and 16 points.

Ovechkin and Crosby each have seven assists. They are tied at seven in the plus/minus category, too. They both have eight penalty minutes. They each have three power play goals.

However, Ovechkin has played 12 games and Crosby has only played 11, as it took the Penguins six games to beat the Philadelphia Flyers but the New York Rangers took the Caps to seven.

Another category in which Ovechkin leads is age. He was born in 1985. Crosby was born in 1987. Compare Crosby in two years to Ovechkin today, or Crosby today to Ovechkin two years ago...

Gary Bettman's Popularity Plummets in Ontario, Canada

Martin Avery — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:14:55 -0400

The Arizona Republic compares NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to The Count, the Sesame Street character based on Dracula, but Bettman must be much more popular in the sunny home of the Phoenix Coyotes than he is in the hockey hotbed of Ontario.

Bettman has been making headlines for his third or fourth battle with Jim Balsillie, the BlackBerry billionaire, and other groups determined to bring the Coyotes, the Atlanta Thrashers, or other teams to Southern Ontario.

Here's a sampling of recent headlines from Ontario, across Canada, and in the USA:

"Bettman vs. Canada or Hockey vs. a Rogue?"—New York Times

"Gary Bettman, Do Your Job! Allow the Coyotes to Move to Ontario!"—by Mat Tompson for Bleacher Report

"Why Canada Hates Bettman"—About—News & Issues

"Battle over Coyotes has 'us vs. them' feel"—Toronto Star

"Bettman's vision has ruined NHL"—Niagara Gazette

"Clock running out on Bettman"—Winnipeg Sun

"Bettman needs to abandon Phoenix venture"—Canada.com

"Country supports seventh NHL team but doubts Balsillie bid will succeed"—The Canadian Press

"Canadian prime minister backs Coyotes move north"—Bizjournals.com

"Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty voices support for more NHL in Ontario"—CTV.ca

"Balsillie: The barbarian at the gate"—National Post

"Canadians back bid for 7th NHL team: poll"—CBC.ca‎

"Hockey foes should quit brawling and get down to business"—National Post

"NHL commissioner Gary Bettman living in a fantasy world"—Globe and Mail

"Balsillie violates code of the lunkheads"—National Post

"Club of rogues"—Edmonton Sun

Mayor David Miller May Want Three NHL Teams in Greater Toronto Area

Martin Avery — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:56:20 -0400

Toronto mayor David Miller strongly supports the plans to bring NHL franchises to the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton, Ontario. That could mean three NHL teams in Southern Ontario with two new ones to compete with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On The FAN 590 radio, Miller said, "As a Canadian, I think it's time we stepped up and brought another NHL franchise to the GTA and created a great rivalry between hockey teams in Toronto and Hamilton."

He compared Toronto to New York City, as the New York area has three teams: the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, and New Jersey Devils.

"Southern Ontario is the hockey hotbed of the whole world," he said.

There are different groups determined to get NHL franchises for North Toronto, specifically Vaughan, and for Hamilton.

The population of Toronto is around two million, the GTA has four million, and the Greater Golden Horseshoe, including all the urban and suburban sprawl from Oshawa through Pickering and Toronto to Burlington, Oakville, and Hamilton, has over six million.

Twenty percent of NHL players come from the Ontario Hockey League and Ontario hockey players also take other routes into the NHL. This is where two of the greatest hockey players in history got their start: Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr.

Ontario gives the NHL many of its top 10 draft picks year after year, and hockey players from around the world, including Russia and the USA, move to Ontario to play in the OHL with hopes of getting into the NHL.

The Toronto Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup in 1967, Canada's Centennial year, with a victory over the Montreal Canadiens. The Toronto franchise is the most valuable in hockey.

The Air Canada Centre, home of the Leafs, is always packed, no matter how bad or good the home team is on the ice. However, fans complain about ticket prices at the downtown arena.

Canadians outside Toronto love to hate the biggest city in the country the way hockey fans love to hate Sean Avery. Many Southern Ontario hockey fans drive to Buffalo to see the Sabres instead of going to downtown Toronto.

Southwestern Ontario fans cross the border to see the Detroit Red Wings home games.

In addition to moving NHL teams to North Toronto and Hamilton, there has been lots of talk in recent years about having a franchise in Waterloo, Ontario.

Kitchener-Waterloo, the twin cities, is the home of the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL and is also the headquarters of billionaire hockey fan Jim Balsillie's company, RIM, which makes the BlackBerry.

How about four NHL teams for Southern Ontario, with two in Toronto, one in Hamilton, and one in K-W?

And what about Northern Ontario? It's another hockey hotbed that has supplied the NHL with great hockey players for decades.

Could Ontario support he Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Hamilton Steelers, North Toronto Leaf-Mulchers, the K-W Blackberries, and the Northern Ontario Polar Bears?

As they used to say on CBC TV's Canadian Air Farce, "You betcha!"

Would NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman consider the concept? That's a completely different question.

After Three Strikes, Balsillie Is Up to Bat Again

Martin Avery — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:50:02 -0400

Jim Balsillie has struck out three times, trying to get another NHL team for Canada, and now he is up to bat again.

It's Jim "BlackBerry" Balsilllie versus Gary "The Count" Bettman on the mound.

Strike One: Balsillie tried to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Strike Two: Balsillie tried to buy the Nashville Predators.

Strike Three: Balsillie talked to Buffalo about buying the Sabres.

Now he's up to bat again. This time he's butting heads with NHL Commissioner Bettman over the Phoenix Coyotes.

It's Balsillie 0 and Bettman 3, but the BlackBerry billionaire is loaded and the NHL Board of Governors has players stranded in at least three franchises in baseball territory.

Who's on first? The Coyotes.

What's on second? The Atlanta Thrashers.

Third base? The Florida Panthers.

Balsillie's pitch is not coming out of left field. He has a deal with the Coyotes owner, but Bettman is playing the part of the cut-off man.

Bettman made a short stop in Toronto earlier this year, to say moving franchises is not part of the game plan for the NHL.

There's no joy in Mudville wihile Balsillie's up to Bettman.

He's waiting for the pitch. He wants to hit it out of the park and bring another NHL team to Canada. That's Ballsillie's field of dreams.

Thinking Outside the Box with Balsillie's Bid to Bring NHL to Canada

Martin Avery — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:47:30 -0400

Jim Balsillie struck out two or three times, trying to bring an NHL franchise to Canada. What's a billionaire to do?

The BlackBerry billionaire followed the rules the first few times, trying to bring the Penguins, Predators, or Sabres to Canada. After striking out three times, he did what one of the best baseball players would do.

Some say Balsillie cheated by making a deal with the Coyotes owner when he declared bankruptcy in Phoenix. Others say he merely bent the rules a bit.

Maybe it's time the B.B.B. changed the rules of the game or took the ball and went home.

Hockey fans who remember the WHA and watched Russia set up a hockey league to rival the NHL must be thinking: What if Canada did that, too?

Russian and European hockey players, including Jaromir Jagr and Alexi Radulov, jumped from the NHL to the KHL.

What would happen if somebody started a rival league up north? What if Canadians took the Stanley Cup and went home?

Picture the NHL without Canadians and Russians. Need I say more?