The title of this story is one that may be a
bit off, but not entirely. You see, at one
time there was a team in Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Canada, the Jets. You know, where they love
hockey. Well in the infinite wisdom of the
NHL and ownership about twenty years ago they
moved that team to the desert, yup, the desert.
Winter sports with ICE to the desert. That
team became the Phoenix Coyotes, a team that
is easily at least 25 million dollars in debt.
Now NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has done many
good things with and for the NHL, but that was
NOT one of them. Well this week he got the chance
to right a wrong. The GlobeandMail is reporting
that the Atlanta Thrashers are moving to Canada,
and yes they are moving to Winnipeg. No word
yet on the name, but I do hope that like the
Browns of the NFL they retain their name and
once again become the Winnipeg Jets like when
the Browns left Cleveland and became the
Baltimore Ravens, but the new Cleveland team
was once again named the Browns.
It is the right thing to do here. It's Atlanta's
second failed NHL franchise (The Atlanta Flames
are now the Calgary Flames, see a trend here?),
and the fans there wont even know their gone.
So let's hope the Atlanta experiment is now over
with, and perhaps Mr. Bettman will allow the group
that wants to but the Coyotes and move them back
to Canada do that as well. One can only hope.