Thursday, May 24, 2007

WTF, over ?

with all the ducks v. wings action and with the sens beating the slugs in 5, there is really fuckall news about the other stuff going on in the NHL... but really ? most of it is like "oh, big shocker, the caps have signed backstrom," or "how can the avs WANT leopold for another two ????" so you learn to not really pay attention, so much...

well it's a good thing i've got a mole in nashville.

i found this little note in my inbox today, and i truly do not have a clue what to make of it:

"So - was just curious as to your thoughts on our latest news. Heard this evening that Leipold sold the Preds to BlackBerry owner Jim Balsillie. They said the team would be in Nashville for at least next season but no promises after that. That's not what I want to hear. I'm sure we'll hear more over the next few days...but we were a bit surprised after all of Leipold's statements of reassurance that the team would stay here. Weak."

HUNH ???

how is it that i watch sports channels and read hockey news and blogs all the time and was totally unaware of this ??!?!

is ol'jimmy gonna try to move the worst jerseys in the league to KW ? maybe to the hammer ? or (OMG) WINNIPEG ??? or is it reasonable to think that my roommates cousin (rich peverley, if anyone is paying attention) might spend the remainder of his career in nashville ???

thoughts ??

5 comments:

Steal Thunder said...

I read that on TSN when I got into work this morning... not sure what to think of it right now...

I sure didn't see it coming though, as I didn't even know that the Preds were up for sale (not that I could afford to buy them anyway)...

Anonymous said...

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for crap southern hockey markets. Nashville was never going to work. Winnipeg or KW would probably work, but the best chance for success in Canada is adding another team in Toronto. It's a joke that the Leafs are the only team here.

Anonymous said...

I think there is still a bunch of red tape obviously but since the Preds drew under 14,000 a game last year it exercises some clause that, pending league approval, makes it easier to move them from Nashville (for a fee of course) unless the city coughes up cash. The old owner (I can't think of his name now) has been losing money for ten years and was originally looking for a local minority owner but with no luck which shouldn`t come as a surprise. I`d head back to school for five years if KW had an NHL team, but I cannot see the Preds in KW ... Steeltown or the Winterpeg would be cool. Any thoughts on a second team in Toronto ... are there enough Leaf-haters there. Realistically it would be equally as hard to place a team in Hamilton as it would be to put another one in Toronto. You would still have to get get Buffalo and Toronto to get on board ($$$).

-t.

walkinvisible said...

my friend in nashville is sick about it... sounds like they'll move:

""...to sell his team to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie, the same man who pulled out of a deal to buy the Pittsburgh franchise in December after the NHL insisted he commit to not moving the Penguins... NOT looking good since the NHL made no insistence that the team stay here in Nashville."

leanne said...

I'd heard this late last night when I got home.

I'm surprised the deal was completed so quickly and quietly. While the media has been darkly hinting that changes might come to Nashville's ownership, nobody was looking at Mr. RIM.

I don't think there's any doubts Nashville will end up moving. While they have a fantastic core for their team, they don't have a star quite like Sid (bah, who else does??) which the NHL will try to keep in the glare of the American media.

You have to feel bad for the Nashville fans out there...

If they do move, I guess the Flames will no longer be the only team that moved north. I wonder how many fans of the original Atlanta franchise are still kicking around...