Free Republic

Next to watching Crosby and Ovechkin go at it in game 3, the best fun in the NHL will be tracking how Gary Bettman tries to worm out of letting Jim Balsillie buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move them to southern Ontario. Balsillie has offered far more than the team is worth -- US$212.5 million for a team that filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday after losing US$90 million over three years. The Coyotes have had 12 seasons to make a go of it in Phoenix yet still have one of the lowest attendance records and skimpiest payrolls of the 30...

TORONTO — An audacious bid by tech industry billionaire Jim Balsillie to buy the suddenly bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes has ignited a furious confrontation with the NHL, which is moving swiftly to block the sale and girding to fight any move to relocate the team to Southern Ontario. The Waterloo-based tycoon's third attempt to acquire an NHL franchise — he was rebuffed in previous bids for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators — likely puts him in the strongest position yet to exert a backroom power play on league officials who previously spurned him and recently insisted no franchises will be...