May 19th and hockey is just starting the third round. It's a bit silly but I love the sport and it's been a marvelous Spring so far. Only two sweeps, a ton of game sevens and a fun first game tonight. If Jonathan Willis was watching tonight he's laughing his ass off about Eric Staal's "ability in the clutch."
The lengthy series' and Chicago's big building also has me wondering about whether playoff revenues this year will be quite a bit higher than we saw last year. It's too early to say frankly, but if the third round goes at least six on both sides it may push the cap up for next season only to find a deeper crash (or maybe we all recover and it's been nothing but fear-mongering all along).
The third round of the playoffs and the first round of bankruptcy court. James Mirtle has been following this story very closely and has many fine articles on all of the recent developments. I hope for the fans in Phoenix that the team stays but more and more it sounds like the team will be moving somewhere although they may get one or two more years in the desert (good luck selling seasons tickets). If some other owners start admitting serious trouble this may be the best chance the NHL has in the near future for a significant relocation into Europe. Although it's probably not the direction the league will go, I do think that having eight European teams in a thirty-two team league would serve the overall business interests of the NHL well. Travel costs would be significantly higher but a new European TV contract and merchandise sales would seem to stand a good chance at offsetting those costs. The Players Union have spoken positively about this option in the past though I'm sure they'd want to renegotiate the CBA to get a share of the expansion pie before that happens.
Finally, here's a video of Bill Daly on his way to the courtroom.
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