The Friday Memo

News and Notes from around the Business World of Hockey

Slow day today, and with my first free weekend in a while, I'm not sure how much I'll be around until Sunday.

- One thing I do plan on doing is catching the NCAA College Hockey Tourney on the various ESPN networks. If I was home I would be able catch em all, but ESPN 2 will do for today and tomorrow.

- An updated look at the NHL and Olympic situation (Globe and Mail):

"But Bettman said: “It's not so easy to simply say ‘Let's go to the Olympics'. We shut down our season for two weeks to 17 days and there is a momentum to our season that is lost...it all comes to a screeching halt and we go off to the Olympics.

“No other league stops to go do this. In fact, baseball doesn't do it and it's no longer an Olympic sport. This is hard, it's not always a good experience and the benefits we've sometimes seen were not always worth what we've had to sacrifice."

Personally, I am more for a soccer-style setup where only 4-5 (its actually 3 in soccer) senior-team (top leagues) professionals can play for their country, while the rest are prospects. But we will save that debate for the long days of the off-season.

- Commissioner Bettman re-states that the Coyotes will be staying in Phoenix (ESPN):

"Our goal is to bring in new capital and make this franchise solvent," Bettman said Thursday night while attending the Coyotes game against the Edmonton Oilers. "That's our direction, and at this point moving the franchise elsewhere is not on the table."

The Coyotes have reportedly lost $200 million since current owner Jerry Moyes brought the team in 2001, and are projected to lose another $30 million this season."

- Finally, the NHL takes men and makes them "real men:"