The Monday Memo (2:00 PM Update)

News and Notes from around the Business World of Hockey...

Couple of things on deck for today.

- The NHL GM Meetings began today in Naples, FL. Scott Burnside of ESPN has the full rundown of all the events, meanwhile Paul Kukla posted a small but more business oriented post just a few minutes ago at KuklasKorner:

"NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly spoke to Scott Laughlin on Hockey This Morning from the GM Meetings in Florida and talked about the agenda for the week. Bill also talked about the Lighthouse project on Long Island, new ownership possibilities in Phoenix, and the trade deadline deals"

Paul also provided this link where you can listen to the above interview between NHL Deputy Commish Bill Daly and Scott Laughlin of Hockey This Morning.

- Speaking of the Lighthouse Project, Newsday attempted to "shine a light" on the project on Saturday by blowing some of the problems out of proportion. From the article in Newsday:

"Fewer cars, more walking. That's the idea.

The reality: The developers will have to overcome a host of challenges before building the complex that would also bring a five-star hotel, restaurants and stores to the Uniondale site."

- In reaction to this, Nick at Let There Be Light(house) once again showed how the project is actually very well planned and will keep the Islanders on Long Island:

"In addition, the SEQR process, which is New York State law, requires that you address what would happen if nothing is done. In this case, no renovated Coliseum = no Islanders in Nassau Coliseum."

The renovation of Nassau Coliseum would be the first major task completed in the project and it would obviously allow the Islanders as a franchise to avoid any sort of movement or (yikes) contraction.

- Any publicity is good publicity, right? Well when Team Canada players from the World Baseball Classic (which started this weekend; USA and Canada both played at the nearby Rogers Centre) asked the Leafs if they could get tickets to Saturday's game, they were told it would be $12,000 for a Luxury Box (Toronto Sun).

"When they said the price was too high, the MLSEL people dropped the number to $7,000. And when the players indicated they would need to purchase an additional 10 tickets for their group, the price leapt to over $10,000, prompting the Team Canada players to say thanks, but no thanks.

"Do you think the Yankees would give us a box if we asked for one?" Burke said. "I don't think so. So why should we?

And if they wanted the tickets, couldn't one of the millionaires have paid for them."

- Finally, a Molson Canadian gem from the lockout season:



Part 2 of the commercial series will come tomorrow. More later.

Update; 2:00 PM EST

- Yesterday's NBC Game of the Week featured the Rangers hosting the Bruins in a 4-3 New York Win. The game reportedly drew a 1.0/3 rating (Puck The Media).

- Last week the NHL Network provided a free preview for certain cable providers across the U.S. I was not able to experience the Network unfortunately, but Puck The Media gives you 8 reasons as to why they are purchasing the Network after the free preview.

More later.