Around the Rink 12.08.06

Mark December 20th down on your calendar Pens fans. That's the day it will be decided whether or not Isle of Capri will win the slots license and saving the Penguins in one fell swoop. New prospective owner Jim Balsillie met with the Board of Governors to give an update, but a vote on the transfer of ownership of the Penguins will take place this next week.

The big issue, aside from transfet, is the Isle of Capri bid. If that wins, then they will build a new arena; thus saving the Penguins from moving. If they don't win, the question of whether the Penguins will stay in Pittsburgh is re-visited. During the meeting with Balsillie, the conversation was pretty much having to do with exhausting every resource out there before even thinking about moving the team. The saga continues.

Also, if Isle of Capri fails and the city's plan "B" falls through; look for Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario (Balsillie's home) to be a frontrunner in getting a new team.

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The Board of Governors couldn't come to an agreement on what the schedule and playoff format should be in the upcoming season. Of course, we all know that this problem won't go away just because a consensus isn't reached at this caucus. You can bet this will be brought up again and again and again until something is done about it to benefit all teams involved.

Also at the BoG meeting, it was revealed that the Salary Cap will be raised again, possibly up to $46-$47.5M for next season. Though attendance is down, ticket prices are up, new sponsors and deals are being made, and merchendising is up. All of that, along with linkage, boost the Cap number. The thing that I want to know is how much teams will scurry if the Cap takes a drastic turn the other way.

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My AHL rant wasn't real worth of it's own post or to be published...but here's the long and the short of it. I was looking at the Hockey News and flipping through the pages and I saw the San Jose Sharks uniform. When I looked at the article that containted the picture, it was an AHL article and it was the Worcester Sharks uniform-- an exact ripoff of the parent club's uniform.

I'm not a big fan of cloning minor league teams to fit the parent club. Teams like the Houston Aeros and Bridgeport Sound Tigers have recently changed their uniforms to fit their parent club, but had pretty decent uniforms to start off with. I don't see the need or reasoning to have these drastic changes when they are not needed. Luckily, there are teams out there like the Hershey Bears, Chicago Wolves, and Rochester Americans who have kept their own identity through all their years in the league.

Now, I'm all for having some kind of idenitifiable patch or something to let people know that they are affiliated with said teams. However, to completely redo a team's logo, jerseys, and identity is just not needed and more often than not, draws the ire of fans of the team.

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That's all for now, but make sure you check out the FOHS Message Board for all the fun stuff that goes on there, and if you missed a show, check out the FOHS Podcast to catch up on whatever you missed out on.