Jump to content

NHL Regular Season: 2023-2024


Vertuzzi

Recommended Posts

11 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

I would not want to play Detroit in the first round. They look like they may have some magic to them.

Sucks that they missed the playoffs. Don't lose 7 in a row I guess.

Was a fun 2 weeks of watching them claw back in. 3.3 seconds to save your season (potentially) is incredible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last night was high comedy --  Philly pulled their goalie in a tie game (even though they had just been eliminated literally seconds earlier, coaches didn't know) and immediately gave up an empty netter to lose and put the Caps in the playoffs.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

Last night was high comedy --  Philly pulled their goalie in a tie game (even though they had just been eliminated literally seconds earlier, coaches didn't know) and immediately gave up an empty netter to lose and put the Caps in the playoffs.  

The Flyers’ only playoff chance going into the game was a W in regulation.  I think it was the correct move considering ~3 minutes remained in a tie game.  Like you noted, they weren’t aware they had been eliminated just seconds before.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, VirginiaLonghorn said:

The Flyers’ only playoff chance going into the game was a W in regulation.  I think it was the correct move considering ~3 minutes remained in a tie game.  Like you noted, they weren’t aware they had been eliminated just seconds before.

It was absolutely the correct move given the info they had at the moment, but it really ended up fucking over Detroit, which I thought was awesome.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

It was absolutely the correct move given the info they had at the moment, but it really ended up fucking over Detroit, which I thought was awesome.

The only team I enjoy seeing fucked over is Pittsburgh.  There’s no denying the greatness of Sidney Crosby … but, he’s a sniveling pussy.

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Drool 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/11/2024 at 4:49 PM, Pato del Muerto said:

Why would Utah get the Olympics again so soon?

Because they're the only place in the Americas that could host the Winter Olympics tomorrow, and the IOC is quickly running out of places to put them.

The IOC wanted them for 2030, but hard on the heels of LA 2028 was a no-go for Salt Lake.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, NCMountaineer said:

man having been around when the Charlotte Hornets 1.0 were ripped away from the area by some complete bullshit this gives me all the feels. 

There’s video of a team thank you on the ice and then team/staff picture at center ice.  Sucks for their fans.  No idea what is causing the relo nor whom is to blame. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Pato del Muerto said:

There’s video of a team thank you on the ice and then team/staff picture at center ice.  Sucks for their fans.  No idea what is causing the relo nor whom is to blame. 

The franchise has been completely mismanaged since about 2000 when the team was sold to a group based around a Phoenix area developer and Gretzky as co-owners. Scottsdale was the preferred location for the team at that point, but that fell through and the arena was eventually built in Glendale. The belief there is that the developer was looking to develop the area around the arena in Glendale which he would not have had the opportunity to do in Scottsdale. Said development never happened and shortly after that ownership group sold the team again to Jerry Moyes. They were bleeding money at that point and the league was in talks with Jerry Reinsdorf to buy the team (no idea on if they were planning on keeping the team in the area or not at that point), however Moyes preferred to sell the team to Blackberry CEO Jim Balsillie, who would have moved the team to Hamilton, and declared bankruptcy to try to facilitate that instead. Bettman and the NHL were having none of that and stripped Moyes of ownership of the team with the courts agreeing with the NHL in the following suit. From there it just was chaos: Reinsdorf again tried to buy the team and had approval from the City of Glendale only for that to fall apart. Another group had essentially completed the process only for that to be cancelled after some lawsuits from the Goldwater Institute. They were actually the team that was initially supposed to move (back) to Winnipeg in 2011 until the situation in Atlanta became untenable and the league shifted the focus for that group to buy the Thrashers instead.

Basically a few years after that shit show resolved itself the team was eventually sold to Alex Meruelo for about 300M, who then promptly started to refuse to pay the lease at the Glendale arena and the team moved into ASU's hockey arena temporarily, which only seats about 5K. There was a vote on some land in Tempe that would have been used for an arena district that was rejected after AM basically spurned some union labor for the job to save money and the mis-information campaign the union put out was successful enough to get the locals to vote it down, that space is still a landfill. That ended up being the last hope for the team and the league came to an agreement with Smith out of SLC to buy the team at what's essentially expansion team prices (1 Billion+). No idea how he ended up jumping Fertitta in Houston in priority for that other than the possibility that Fertitta was trying to nickel and dime the NHL and wasn't about to pay up expansion team prices for the frigin Coyotes. Meruelo is still actively involved in a bid for some land out by Scottsdale with the intention of turning it into an arena district but the league had enough at that point so essentially the Yotes are going "inactive" until that gets sorted out and an arena gets built, which no idea how long that will take. The assumption is that IF he wins that bid and they can get an arena project off the ground then he'll be granted an expansion team Cleveland Browns 2.0 style. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

the NHL hoped his deep pockets and reputation for revitalizing distressed assets would finally lift the franchise to stability.

It took just over a year for that optimism to crack. In August 2020, reports surfaced that he failed to pay players signing bonuses. Gutierrez blamed it on their lack of experience owning a sports franchise. As more vendors and employees began cropping up with complaints about unpaid invoices and strongarm tactics, it became clear that it was a feature of Meruelo’s business practices, not a bug.

____

It was a massive misstep. It meant the franchise had no suitable place to play while Meruelo attempted to get politicians, unions and voters behind a $2 billion development plan in Tempe that included a new arena. As he worked to secure that project, Meruelo’s years of hubris came back to bite him. Grassroots organizers pounded his track record and credit rating, citing a financial analysis commissioned by the Tempe City Council. Campaign materials characterized him as “corrupt,” “scandal-plagued” and a “deadbeat billionaire.” Local trade and worker unions lobbied against the plan. And Meruelo didn’t dive deep into his coffers to counteract that negative messaging. He said last week he poured $7 million into the referendum; campaign finance records show that he spent just over $1 million.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...