5:35 PM: No deal!  In Arizona bankruptcy court, Judge Redfield T. Baum has rejected both Jim Balsillie and the NHL in their respective bids to buy the beleaguered Phoenix Coyotes...the decision was announced close to an hour ago...

Of particular interest in Baum's 31 page decision, was his throwing out of Balsillie's bid in particular, with prejudice, as in his humble opinion he cannot properly satisfy the NHL's rights regarding relocation.  Yet, he seems to have left the door open for the NHL if they amend their bid - although you'd probably have to be a lawyer to understand all the legalities.  At the very least, you'd have to have a real love of reading...the full document is posted at NHL.com in PDF format if you care enough, or if you're bored...

"In hockey parlance, the court is passing the puck to the NHL, who can decide to take another shot at the sale net or it can pass off the puck."

What this means for the future of the Desert Dogs is not immediately clear - looks like it's back to the drawing board for Balsillie, not to mention Gary Bettman and company...

There's a great cover story in Maclean's magazine this week - I love the headline "Why The Badass Blackberry Billionaire Went Ballistic"...check it out on news stands now (should have been in your mailbox this week if you have a subscription)...or read it at macleans.ca...makes one wonder "Why didn't I think of that?!"

2:57 PM: With the deadline for teams to finalize their rosters minutes away, looks like the top four picks in the 2009 Entry draft are going to make their teams, for now - Tavares, Hedman, Duchene and Kane are all still with their respective teams...also looking like the Islanders' DeHaan, the Panthers' Kulikov and the Avalanche's O'Reilly might make it too...

This morning we learned of yet another Retirement - Mats Sundin, after attempting a comeback with Vancouver during the second half of last season, is hanging up the blades for good. 

Sundin retires, having never won the Stanley Cup in 13 NHL seasons in Toronto, coming closest in 2002 when the Leafs lost to Carolina in 6 games...he will for now hold the distinction of leading all time Swedish Scorer in NHL history - 564 goals, 785 assists, and 1349 points.  Let's not also forget, he did win a Gold medal during the 2006 Olympics.  Drafted in 1989 by Quebec, Sundin played for close to 18 seasons.

One could kind of guess this was coming after watching the Vancouver-Toronto game from Feb 24.  Even though I picked him in my playoff pool last spring, he never really seemed to get his old stride back.

If I had to guess, we'll probably see him resurface as a professional scout or something...too bad, really, maybe he could have been a contestant on "Battle of the Blades"...or perhaps now he can be a full time Campbell's Soup spokesperson...

11:33 PM: On the eve of the regular season, a few eyebrow raising moves to talk about...

First and foremost - after failing to make the Edmonton Oilers for about the umptillionth time, the team put Robbie Schremp on waivers, and he was picked up - by the NY Islanders...interesting, but nice to see he'll get a chance to play.

Final cuts in Edmonton - Theo Peckham was sent down to Springfield, and Liam Reddox, unless somebody picks him up off waivers, will be heading down as well...so it's looking like Ryan Stone and Gilbert Brule will make the team...at least for the foreseeable future...as Pat Quinn likes to say - they're "crusty" players...can't argue that - I can only hope Brule can rekindle some of his Vancouver Giants magic...so far I haven't seen it, but time will tell...

Speaking of former Oilers/London Knights players - nice to see Dany Syvret made the Philadelphia Flyers defensive lineup.  Even though he's pretty good in his own right, I'm certain he can still learn a thing or two from Chris Pronger - the Flyers - look out for them...they're my early season pick to take the East...but as you know I hate having to make those predictions when we haven't even dropped the first Regular Season puck yet...

Now on to the eyebrow raising - in Ottawa, Brian Lee was sent down to Binghamton - but you have to believe the Cap has everything to do with that move - in Bing-ho, Lee is a $62,500 cap hit, with Ottawa he is an $850,000 cap hit...you do the math...

But this one floored me - Christoph Schubert was also cut and sent to Bing-ho...his contract is $900,000 whether he plays here or in the minors...so Schubert goes down, but Picard stays...it might turn out to be a good move...what do I know...

Here's a shocker - the CBC is actually picking the Sens to finish between 5th and 7th - the same CBC that is always dumping on Ottawa actually likes the uncertainty of the new faces...at least there shouldn't be any more distractions with Heatley now gone...

So I guess if the Sens run into injury trouble on D, there is a little depth down in southwestern New York and two players who can step in and hopefully not miss a beat...

In Vancouver, Cory Schneider and Cody Hodgson are among the Canucks' final cuts...which means Hodgson, if healthy, should be a good candidate for the World Juniors in Saskatoon...that is unless he gets called up...

In Calgary, they traded Anton Stralman to Columbus for a 3rd round pick in next year's draft...leaving the Flames with virtually the same roster that finished last season, with, of course, the additions of Jay Bouwmeester, Staffan Kronwall and Freddy Sjostrom.  Nigel Dawes has made the team, as has Mark Giordano it seems.  A familiar face to Canucks fans will be Jason Jaffray.  It's game on Thursday night between Calgary and Vancouver...I still say it's too bad Fleury didn't make it, but you have to hand it to him for giving it a good shot and retiring with integrity - something he always wanted to do.  Good on him...

In Toronto, earlier this week Nazem Khadri was sent back to London - which means Viktor Stalberg makes the team, Tyler Bozak and Christian Hanson are on the bubble - in fact, I believe they too were sent down...Stalberg, rightfully so, makes the new look Leafs...it's very hard to hate this team...especially after all that Burke has done in such a short time...look out when Kessel gets in there...

I find it very funny how six months ago we thought Tomas Kaberle was going to be traded - now all of a sudden he's a valuable commodity and a perfect complement to arguably their biggest acquistion - Francois Beauchemin...always seems the trades you don't make are the best ones...Leaf Nation will fall in love with Mike Komisarek in a real hurry - forget the fact he played for their biggest rival last year...

And then we have the Habs...Ben Maxwell, Tom Pyatt, Yannick Weber, Mathieu Carle and Curtis Sanford (Really!?!) were all sent down to Hamilton....of course, there wasn't a bigger cut in Montreal this week than Sergei Kostitsyn - he too will see action at Copps Coliseum.

And it seems our old friend Patrice Brisebois is calling it a career after 18 seasons...

Apparently Montreal is going to host a Bulldogs game against Binghamton on November 6th at the Bell Centre...if their rosters stay where they are now, aside from the uniforms, you'd swear it was an NHL game...

And now you're up to date on all six Canadian teams...

11:41 PM: Two come from behind wins - Dallas came back and won 4-3 against Tampa, and Edmonton managed the 3-2 win against the Islanders...Penner, Gagner and Souray for the Oil, and it was Calvin deHaan, John Tavares' former Oshawa team mate and 2009 draft partner with the 2-2 goal for the Isles...Souray had the winner, probably the weakest shot he had all game, a backhand, but it worked...

Coyotes-Ducks tied 1-1 last I heard...

Man, did I miss hockey...now we just need HNIC Radio back on Sirius and I'll be all set...

BTW, I want to congratulate Craig MacTavish on getting hired with TSN, and welcome back Mike Comrie to the Oilers....never would have thought I would ever see the latter...perhaps there's still a glimmer of hope for a Ryan Smyth return...someday...

Seems HNIC is going to welcome back Glenn Healy, and Guy Carbonneau will be a new face...

And it seems Bret Hedican is hanging them up after 17 seasons...saying he has "no regrets"...along the way he had stops in Carolina, Vancouver, Florida, St. Louis, and last year finished with Anaheim...1093 games, 55 goals, 294 points...not exactly Bobby Orr, but respectable - but man, could he ever skate...kind of interesting that nobody wanted to pick him up...

Good night all...

10:36 PM: We're just nicely into training camp - a few teams have already played exhibition games.  Yesterday you had the Battle of Alberta, won by Edmonton 4-1.  Tonight, the Oilers are playing the New York Islanders - where John Tavares is seeing his first NHL action.  It's a 1-0 lead so far for the Islanders - originally thought Tavares had scored, but replays show he did not touch the puck - it was...Bruno Gervais?  The goalie for the Islanders, Nathan Lawson, looks pretty good - Oilers started with Dubnyk, but now Deslauriers is in...looking like Lawson is going to get the whole game.  With Biron and Roloson on the roster, doesn't look like he'll play beyond the preseason...but looks like the Islanders have a good one coming up...

Newcomer Jordan Eberle hit two posts...on the same shot...one of those left post to right post and out shots...

Steve MacIntyre vs Joel Rechlicz - pretty good fight...

Sheldon Souray just broke the glass...for the second time in less than 10 minutes...

In other action - the New Jersey Devils beat the NY Rangers 3-2, in a shootout; same score for Boston over Toronto, in regulation; Detroit 3 Philly 1; 2-1 Florida over Ottawa - it was 3-1 for the Panthers last night against the Sens...looks like it's going to be another long season in Canada's Capital...Tampa is leading Dallas 3-2 in the 3rd, and Phoenix is in Anaheim - should be underway by now...

The games themselves mean absolutely nothing...unless you're a player looking to make your respective team...

In case you didn't already know - the new Hockey Video games are finally out as of Sep 15...doesn't look like EA has bothered to release a PC version this year (not surprising really)...surprising that EA didn't yank Patrick Kane's cover photo after the Buffalo cabbie incident...I love that Alex Ovechkin is the cover player for 2K10...I'll be reviewing the Wii version of NHL 2K10 and the PS3 version of NHL 10, once I get a chance to really play with both...and if I can ever figure out the controls I'm sure I'll love the game too...the special edition of the ONLY hockey game on the Wii comes with one of those new Wii Motion attachments...something tells me I'm going to have to invest in a game pad...

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