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We’ve all heard about Detroit’s bankruptcy as bleeding-heart “economists” plead for a bailout from Uncle Sam. Yet, the city of Detroit intends to move forward with its contribution to the Redwings’ new hockey arena. According to CNN, the city plans to spend $444 million of Michigan taxpayers’ money on the facility, despite hour-long police delays and shutting off 40 percent of its street lights to save money. To borrow from The Simpsons character Mr. Burns, Detroit plans to use taxpayer funds to help a billionaire build a private playground for millionaires. Team owner Mike Ilitch is only worth $2.4 billion...

For all of us hockey fans who are tired of NFL murder stories and MLB drug stories, I offer some off season hockey news. Here are some of the team rosters of the countries who look to be contending for Winter Olympic medals.

Seth Jones, the hockey-playing son of former NBA forward Ronald “Popeye” Jones, a Maverick from 1993-96 and again in 2002-03, was selected fourth overall by the Nashville Predators. Jones, ranked No. 1 among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting, surprised many by slipping down and going fourth to the Nashville Predators. "First of all, I’m going to worry about myself and trying to get better and try to make Nashville next year, and then second of all, I’m going to try to make -- in a good way, though -- those teams regret not taking me," Jones told TSN....

BOSTON (AP) -- An NHL-record unbeaten streak to start the lockout-shortened season. Three straight victories to clinch the title. From beginning to end, the Chicago Blackhawks skated away from the rest of the league. Bryan Bickell and Dave Bolland scored 17 seconds apart in the final minutes and the Blackhawks rallied to win Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final 3-2 on Monday night to clinch their second NHL championship in four seasons. < snip >

Blackhawks defense determined to keep east coast freepers up all night ... Bruins finally score

This shows one of the very best renditions of both the Canadian and American National Anthems. At a hockey game. In Vancouver. No mangling allowed.

How bad are things going for Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby? Not only do the Penguins trail the Boston Bruins 2-0 in the Eastern Conference final, in part because Crosby’s high-octane game has been stuck in neutral, but now the young star is being openly mocked by people outside the hockey industry. The pilot of the JetBlue flight transporting members of the Boston media from Pittsburgh to Boston got into the act Tuesday, asking if “Sidney Crosby is in the back of the plane” after hearing a baby crying on the flight. The pilot’s comment was tweeted by a couple...

Halifax Mooseheads goaltender Zachary Fucale turns away a shot with the help of defenseman Austyn Hardie as Portland Winterhawks center Brendan Leipsic presses sduring the first period of a junior hockey Memorial Cup game Saturday, May 18, 2013, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Liam Richards) Jazz singer Alexis Normand garnered a penalty before a Saturday hockey game in Canada after slashing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” SI.com reports. Normand delivered an unforgettable version of America’s national anthem during a Memorial Cup round-robin game between the Halifax Mooseheads and the Portland Winterhawks in Saskatoon. According to SI.com, Normand made it through...

The family of the late Derek Boogaard has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the NHL. The former enforcer for the Minnesota Wild and New York Rangers died in May 2011 from a lethal mix of alcohol and oxycodone. He had become addicted to painkillers while dealing with concussions and other injury issues during his six-year NHL career. From the New York Times: "To distill this to one sentence," said William Gibbs, a lawyer for the Boogaards, "you take a young man, you subject him to trauma, you give him pills for that trauma, he becomes addicted to those pills,...

NEW YORK -- The National Hockey League today announced the dates, times and national broadcast information for the 2013 Stanley Cup Conference Quarterfinal round, which begins Tuesday, April 30th. Information on the U.S. broadcast networks for games later in the round will be released as it is determined.

The Detroit Red Wings honored Gordie Howe on his 85th birthday Sunday as players wore jerseys with Howe's retired No. 9 during warm-ups and "Mr. Hockey" was on hand at Joe Louis Arena signing autographs. [...] Former Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, who won seven Norris Trophies, was in from Sweden for the occasion. Also on hand were Red Wings Hall of Famers Ted Lindsay and Alex Delvecchio...

They walked into a Manhattan hotel, knowing they were running out of time to save their season. After 16 hours of tense talks, the NHL and its players finally achieved their elusive deal early Sunday morning, finding a way to restart a sport desperate to regain momentum and boost its prominence. Ending a bitter dispute that wiped out a large part of the hockey season for the third time in less than two decades, the league and its union agreed to the framework of a 10-year labor contract that will allow a delayed schedule to start later this month.

The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players' Association reached agreement on the framework of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement early Sunday morning. After a marathon 16-plus hour negotiating session at the Sofitel Hotel that began Saturday afternoon, the sides announced an agreement in principle shortly after 6 a.m. Sunday. The League did not announce the start date of the season or the number of games each team will play. Those details will be announced soon. The deal, agreed to at approximately 4:40 a.m., was announced jointly by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr...

It took 16 hours of talks in New York on Saturday, with concessions from both sides. It took 113 days. A total of 625 regular-season games were sacrificed, or over half the 2012-13 season. It took months of bitter sniping, petty politics, false hope and broken hearts.

Greg Jamison says he hopes to close the purchase of the Phoenix Coyotes in January, and while the usual doubters point out this is simply the latest in a long line of such predictions, they are giving him full marks for creativity in his hunt for investors. This is due to Jamison’s novel but failed attempt to find investors through the Immigrant Investor Program of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Two sources familiar with his investment plans said Jamison, the former president of the NHL’s San Jose Sharks, tried to raise at least some of the $170-million (all currency...

The NHL could be one step away from canceling another hockey season because of a labor fight with the players. In the latest round of cancellations, the NHL on Thursday wiped out all games through Jan. 14. More than 50 percent of the schedule has been lost, and the rest is now in great danger, too. “I don’t want to characterize what today’s cancellations mean or don't mean,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an email. “I will stand on the announcement that was made.” So far, 625 regular-season games have been called off, including nearly...

Through New Year's Eve, your friends at Puck Daddy fondly recall the Year in Hockey for 2012, such as it wasn't. The NHL All-Star Game's Breakaway Challenge competition has become the League's home for prop comedy, and Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane didn't disappoint. With Eminem's "Superman" playing over the ScotiaBank Place speakers, Kane put on a cape and Clark Kent glasses (in complete violation of the character's rules, mind you) during one of his shootout attempts — a concept he came up with 24 hours before the event in Ottawa. Yet when it comes to the Top 10 most...

For many Canadians, the prospect of a lost–or even delayed–National Hockey League season is heartbreak enough. Now it turns out, it also might high-stick the country’s economy. Associated Press Montreal Canadiens’ Colby Armstrong, left, and Ryan White take a break during an informal training session last month at the team’s training facility in Brossard, Quebec.From his desk at one of Canada’s big banks, economist and hockey fan Doug Porter has been crunching numbers, as labor strife between players and owners threatens to scupper the NHL season. Mr. Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, figures a canceled season would...

EDMONTON—With a deadline looming to complete a deal to build the Edmonton Oilers a new arena, the team’s brass turned up the heat on city councillors by paying a visit to Seattle. Oilers owner Daryl Katz, team president Patrick LaForge and president of hockey operations Kevin Lowe were in Seattle on Monday for meetings about a possible relocation to the city, the Oilers said in a statement. “The Katz Group has been listening to proposals from a number of potential NHL markets for some time,” the statement read. “After more than four years of trying to secure an arena deal...

NEW YORK – The clock struck midnight, and the NHL turned into another sports league closed for business. Unable to reach agreement on a new labor deal, the National Hockey League locked out its players at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, the third major pro sport to impose a work stoppage in the last 18 months, behind the NFL and NBA. The action also marks the fourth shutdown for the NHL since 1992, including a year-long dispute that forced the cancellation of the entire 2004-05 season when the league successfully held out for a salary cap. That fight ended with the latest...