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Tonight’s lineup in Toronto looks like this:
Forwards: Kostin, Hirose, Danielson, Fischer, Gettinger, Berggren, Shine, Hanas, Lombardi, Soderblom, Veleno, Kasper Defense: Holl, Chiarot, McIsaac, Gostisbehere, Rafferty, Edvinsson Goalies: Cossa, Lyon
The win in Pittsburgh ended up seeing a lot of intense action in the final frame. There was a lot of fun in the dwindling minutes of the 3rd and the Penguins were giving everything they had. Enjoyed the latter part of that tilt. We’ll see what tonight brings.
If Toronto ices even close to its main season roster this one could be a tough watch. The smacks of a game that has a giveaway at the end. Free bus passes to Grand Rapids for some of the participants. It can be debated all day as to whether Toronto has done enough with their blue line or in net, but up front is a group that Danielson, Kasper and anyone else at the center position is going to have some serious troubles with. If Cossa is in net and shows the same issues he’s been having, I don’t feel confident. Edvinsson is starting to show some signs of a potential 2nd pairing defenseman. Defensively, I’m not sure that he isn’t at the top of tonight’s list and that could be a tough outing. We’ll see.
There is continued talk of expansion in the NHL and if you paid attention during the Ottawa sale or to the Coyotes, you have to be either laughing or disenfranchised. There were 3 or 4 groups in on Ottawa until discovery. When the amount of debt was found to be at the half billion dollar mark, celebrity led groups dropped out immediately. No more Snoop Dogg, no more Deadpool. Instead, an owner from Montreal had to sell some of his stake in the Habs to buy the team and now won’t commit to a new arena.
In Arizona, they’re looking at moving the team to Utah as 2 bond funded arena projects have been rejected. The expansion fee is around 1 billion and the thought that Atlanta could work this team (and that fee doesn’t include an arena) feels like more of the same. Relocation for teams feels a bit more realistic as the league is missing HRR goals by up to 40%. That leads to the final point. Please stop reading now if you don’t want to hear about the broadcasting issue.
Bally Sports has made an ultimatum for the NBA and NHL teams under its current agreement. Either take a 20% discount or go somewhere else. The NHL was shopping around and apparently it didn’t go well because it looks like the 220 million will be missing 1/5th of the income (if the payments are made). Bally has also said it will drop any markets that fail to make a profit (ironic). ESPN has announced (via Bob Iger) that they are moving to streaming and all remaining Fox affiliates are now owned by the same company. Here’s the statement from Bally. The NBA looks ready to switch any affected teams to a stream already:
Diamond Sports has “made a take-it-or-leave-it offer to cut rights fees… to the NHL and NBA in a “last-ditch bid to avoid liquidation,… according to Josh Kosman of the N.Y. POST. A source said that Diamond “proposed cutting the fees to both leagues by up to 20%… ahead of a bankruptcy court-imposed deadline of Saturday. Diamond pays NBA teams about $600M a year in broadcast rights, which could amount to as much as a $120M discount. The source also said that the NBA and NHL are “leaning toward accepting" the reduction, which would “allow Diamond to survive for another year.… Sources said that Diamond “will shut its doors but not until it makes some money from more profitable contracts so the creditors get some recovery,… which would “help the NBA and NHL which are not well prepared for a liquidation.… The first source also said that another possibility is that Diamond "would stop broadcasting games in markets where it is losing money if it cannot reach an overall deal with either the NBA or NHL.… Kosman noted the NBA is “prepared to stream games that Diamond drops in their local markets if a deal is not worked out… (N.Y. POST, 9/28).