June 23, 2011, NHL Board of Governors meeting story for Metro NYC Newspaper
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It has been 5,588 days since Winnipeg could last claim a NHL franchise as its own.
The day was April 28, 1996, and the Winnipeg Jets lost a playoff game and series to the Detroit Red Wings.
Come October, the drought will be lifted as the NHL Board of Governors unanimously voted to approve the sale and relocation to Winnipeg at the New York Westin yesterday afternoon. The executives met for six hours to vote on an expansion of Rules 41 and 48, a proposed increasing of the salary cap and the sale among myriad topics.
The Thrashers will be the fifth NHL franchise to relocate under Gary Bettman’s stewardship, and the first since the Hartford Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes after the 1996-97 season. It is also the first NHL franchise since the Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary in 1980 to move from the United States to Canada.
It will start without any executives and coaches from the franchise’s tenure in Atlanta. Don Waddell, who represented the Thrashers yesterday, told reporters in a conference call last month that he will not relocate to Winnipeg. Rick Dudley was recently replaced as general manager by Kevin Cheveldayoff, and Craig Ramsey learned Monday that True North, the Winnipeg ownership group, would not retain him as head coach. Reports state that Blackhawks assistant Mike Haviland and former Columbus coach Claude Noel are the front runners for the job.
“Those guys are good hockey men and they’ll get other jobs,” said Waddell of Dudley and Ramsey. “(True North) has reasons they’re doing things. I can appreciate that. There [are] a lot of good hockey people out there and they hired a good one in Kevin Cheveldayoff.”
Gary Bettman praised the response to the Winnipeg franchise from the public and private sectors. 13,000 season tickets were purchased the first hours after season tickets were made available to the public.
“People have noticed very clearly what Winnipeg has accomplished in a very short period of time; selling out 13,000 season tickets in record time and having somewhere in the vicinity of a quarter of a million expressions in interest in having season tickets for a franchise,” said Bettman. “The initial response by the corporate community has been outstanding as well. Sometimes it’s not just the size of the market. Sometimes it’s the function of the intensity of the market.”
Newly appointed NHL czar of discipline Brendan Shanahan announced a change in the language to Rule 48 along with the creation of a two-minute minor on-ice penalty. The impetus to implement Rule 48 was to eliminate blind side hits on defenseless players while Rule 41 penalizes boarding.. Rule 48 was passed late in the 2009-10 regular season following Matt Cooke’s hit on Marc Savard and was employed during the 2010 playoffs.
There were criticisms that the league did not employ stringent punishments for those who violated the rule. The criticisms came to the forefront following Vancouver Canucks’ defenseman Aaron Rome’s hit on Boston Bruins right wing Nathan Horton in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. Rome, who was ejected for interference, was suspended for the remainder of the series. Horton did not play in the final four games, although he was in the TD Banknorth Boston Garden for Games Four and Six, traveled with the team to Vancouver for Game 7 and participated in the Bruins Championship parade.
Shanahan said that the Rome hit and Zdeno Chara’s hit on Max Pacioretty were not factored in when modifying the rules as neither “fell under Rule 48.” He stated that he had heard pleas from players and management to increase penalties for offenders.
Executives confirmed that a cap increase will happen, pending acceptance from the players association, which seems likely. TSN reported Monday that the salary cap would increase next season to $64 million and the cap floor would be raised to $48 million. It was $59.4 million this past season. Bettman said the reported number “was in the ballpark” but “would have to finalize it with the players.”
Glen Sather and Scott O’Neil were in attendance for the Rangers, while the tandems of Charles Wang and Garth Snow and Jeff Vanderbeek and Lou Lamoriello represented the Islanders and Devils, respectively.
“Sorry boys, have to go to the office to catch a plane,” Sather said when asked for comment.
http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/896996--nhl-approves-winnipeg-amends-roughing-rules-on-defenseless-players--page0
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 10:07 PM
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