Well, not the actually lottery, but the announcement of the draft order, kind of how the NBA does it.
Canadian sports network TSN will be broadcasting the lottery results live on Friday afternoon at 4:00 pm, EST. So technically they can still fix the draft, but they are going to at least announce the results live, so will be able to see Glen Sather pretend to be surprised when they announce that the Rangers won the first pick. (I am just playing around.)
I am still bothered by the fact that they will be doing all of this during rush hour on a Friday afternoon in the middle of July.
Mark Everson of the Post writes that there will be chaos come Saturday, no matter what the outcome of the vote is.
Assuming that the players ratify the CBA, the NHL will officially be open for business beginning this Saturday.
John Dellapina of the Daily News reports that Rangers prospect Hugh Jessiman hinted that he might take the next step and turn pro this year. The Rangers 2004 first-round draft pick, goalie Al Montoya, is on the fence about returning to Michigan for another season of NCAA hockey.
Bob McKenzie reports that the NHL competition committee might not recommend a 20 team playoff format that was recently rumored to be one of the changes the NHL was considering. Bob also says that they probably will not increase the size of the nets, and would prefer to try a season with the other rule changes first.
Scott Burnside of ESPN on the players voting on the new CBA.
It seems that there are four major cable companies in discussions with the league for the cable-rights to broadcast NHL games. The companies are ESPN, Comcast, Turner, and Viacom's SpikeTV.
It has been reported that only 200 of the 700 member NHLPA will actually attend the meetings in Toronto, which begin today. The other 500 will vote through the NHLPA's secure player-only website. The vote will conclude tomorrow afternoon, at which time Bettman and Goodenow will hold a joint press conference. The NHL board of governors will meet on Friday, vote on the CBA and the rule changes, hold the lottery results announcement, and then hold a big re-launching press conference . . . during rush hour on a Friday afternoon in the middle of July.
HDH
Posted by Jim at July 20, 2005 07:34 AMeMail this entry!
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