SB Nation User Blog: TD O'Dell

The Entry Draft, Argentine Mistresses, Jon & Kate, Iran and Jacko

TD O'Dell — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:49:30 -0000

There have been plenty of distractions over the past few days, so nobody seemed to notice that Judge Redfield T. Baum's deadline to submit an offer for the Coyotes came and went on Friday.

Chalk up a few more lies for Bettman, as his many offers failed to materialize. I guess the owners of the Argonauts were too busy figuring out how to pay for their football expenses without the B.C. Lions as personal bankers. Imagine my surprise when they did not submit a US$200M bid like Gary told us they would. And whatever happened to that mystery group from Arizona who didn't want to reveal their identity? I coulda sworn Gary assured us that they existed.

Oh well. Everyone was getting tired of Balsillie, so why don't we just hand the team to Reinsdorf, whose bid was in the offing since last November, or at least since February. He finally managed to file the thing at the last minute and he claims that he has no plans to move the team to Kansas City, so let's blindly accept that.

It's not as if a Chicago team owner ever lobbied to place an NHL team in Missouri. Oh wait. What I meant to say was that it hasn't happened for over 40 years. Meh. I'm sure Reinsdorf wouldn't do that to Phoenix fans. He's a good guy.

So how about that offer he made? It may be $65M less than Ballsillie's offer, but $148M is nothing to sneeze at. After all, the creditors will be taken care of, right? Oh, right. Nevermind.

Had I known that they were accepting no-cash bids and that all I had to do was assume $118M in debts for a team that actually owes hundreds of millions, then I wouldn't have let myself get distracted by Jon & Kate all month. If it's zero-down and low monthly payments, I'm usually all over that.

"I am Canadien$", brothers announce

TD O'Dell — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:40:27 -0000

via www.lib.uwo.ca

In January 2008, Craig Leipold used the proceeds of his sale of the Nashville Predators to purchase the Minnesota Wild for $260 million. The purchase price was an NHL record, bigger even than Jim Balsillie's $220 million offer to Leipold in May 2007, and certainly bigger than the $193 million that Leipold finally accepted from the group headed by David Freeman and William "Boots" Del Baggio III, a few months later.

Today, that record was broken by a margin that makes Wayne Gretzky's 92 goals over Phil Esposito's 76-goal campaign seem like Roger Maris' mere one-upsmanship of Babe Ruth's mark.

Jean-Francois Bégin of La Presse reported this afternoon that George Gillett will announce the sale of the Montreal Canadiens, the Bell Centre and Gillett Entertainment Group to brothers Geoffrey, Andrew and Justin Molson. The estimated purchase price is said to be between $507 million and $537 million, according to Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal. This would essentially double the existing record price paid by Leipold, less than 18 months ago, for a team in a hockey-mad market of over three million people. I find this astounding, given the supposed sorry state of the economy since the Wild changed hands.

The Ballad of Abd al-Qadir عبد القادر الجزائري

TD O'Dell — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:33:28 -0000

via cache.daylife.com

With the impending return of Datsyuk and/or Draper, does the Glorious Amir get exiled to the Press Box?

Born in the Kingdom of Michigan, to the immigrant son of a Jordanian Shaykh, young Justin was educated by the local mudarris at Michigan State. After proving himself on the battlefield of the Frozen Four, Abdelkader was recruited into the tribal army by Shaykh Ibn Holland.

After loyal service to the Berbers of Grand Rapids, Holland summoned Abd al-Qadir to the front, to help in the resistance against the French (Talbot, Letang and Dupuis). Surprisingly, Justin was also instrumental in defeating the heavily armoured defences of Fleury on two occasions, using his well-honed guerilla tactics and his mighty Tiger-esque chip shots.

Though sent into exile, following a failed third campaign, Abd al-Qadir continued to display the chivalry and humility that made him a national hero to the people of Michigan. In fact, soon after a young Illinois politician took office in the White House, the exiled Justin was honoured by the American President for his accomplishments.

His legend lived on for centuries.

Canada vs. Russia: Olympic Gold Preview?

TD O'Dell — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:54:53 -0000

Haven't seen much coverage, but this year's IIHF World Hockey Championship is about to wrap up soon.

Considering that the Olympics are just around the corner, I implore anyone with insight to break this year's tourney down for us. Without the likes of Ovechkin, Malkin and Datsyuk, or Crosby, Staal and Getzlaf, it would be hard to draw anything conclusive about next February's matchups, but don't let that stop you.

Possible Olympians Heatley and Spezza, along with St. Louis and Stamkos have shone so far. Sweden and the U.S. fared pretty well. Finland managed to beat Team Canada in a meaningless shootout (redundant?) during the round-robin. Latvia made the Top 8, while Germany took a step backwards. The two Czechoslovakian teams made few waves.

Six weeks after Matt Duchene leads the Juniors to their 6th straight title, how do you guys think the newest wacky Olympic tournament will unfold? Remember that the Super Six no longer enjoy the privilege of automatic berths into the QF's, so do we see as many upsets as in Turin? Next year's edition will feature an even more inclusive format, meaning that a Latvia or Belarus stand a better-than-ever shot at playing in a medal game. You might even see a Slovakia or Finland in the Finals.

Meh, who am I kidding? It'll be Canada vs. Russia....agaiiiiin.