nhl
TAMPA, Fla. - Four games deep in the Stanley Cup Final, all that's clear is just how little separates the Chicago Blackhawks and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
These two conference champions have two victories, nine goals and 24 penalty minutes apiece, while Chicago has outshot Tampa Bay 107-104.
Neither team has led by more than one goal at any point in the Final's first four games, which have all been decided by one goal apiece for the first time since 1968 and just the third time in NHL history.
The Lightning stayed overnight in Chicago after Wednesday's 2-1 loss before heading home to prepare for Game 5 on Saturday night at Amalie Arena.
They traveled with the knowledge they missed early opportunities to get Chicago in serious trouble in this series - and they know the fate of other opponents who failed to put the Blackhawks away.
"I think you're looking at two very equal teams, for starters. Both teams have elite skill, elite speed. What we lack in their Stanley Cup experience and gold medals at the Olympics, we make up for in our youthful enthusiasm and speed," Lightning associate coach Rick Bowness said Thursday after the team returned to Florida.
Game 4 received well
NEW YORK - Game 4 has drawn the third-largest audience for the Stanley Cup Final on NBCSN.
The Chicago Blackhawks' 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night averaged more than 3.9 million viewers.
NBC said Thursday that was up 16 percent from the nearly 3.4 million for last year's Game 4 between the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers, which was a potential clincher.
The only two games with bigger audiences came in the 2013 series between the Blackhawks and Boston Bruins.
Arizona Coyotes begin to map out NHL future
GLENDALE, Ariz. - The Arizona Coyotes are used to having an uncertain future. Unlike the four years of waiting for a new owner to step forward, the team has gone on the offensive in the latest twist to this ongoing saga.
The Coyotes on Thursday began mapping out their response to the Glendale City Council's decision to dissolve an arena lease agreement with the team. It will include a variety of legal maneuvers, but no immediate plans to relocate the team and certainly no renegotiation of the existing agreement.
"Our view is they've done their action and we're moving forward with our legal options," Coyotes co-owner Anthony LeBlanc said during a conference call.
The Coyotes signed a 15-year, $225 million lease agreement for then-Jobing.com Arena with the city of Glendale in 2013, just a few months after IceArizona bought the team from the NHL. Last year, Philadelphia hedge fund manager Andrew Barroway purchased a 51 percent stake in the team, strengthening it financially, and the organization also agreed to a nine-year naming rights deal for what is now called Gila River Arena.
But, as usually seems to be the case with this franchise, the fog of uncertainty began to stir.
Last week, some Glendale council members raised concerns about where the $15 million the city pays IceArizona to operate the arena was going. LeBlanc and Barroway met with city officials Monday and thought they had clarified that issue, only to be surprised when a vote was called Wednesday night to cancel the arena lease agreement.
Despite strong opposition from local businessmen and Glendale residents during the public forum portion of the meeting, the council voted 5-2 to end the lease agreement, citing an Arizona conflict-of-interest law. The statute allows an entity to cancel a contract if a person who worked on the deal later represents the other party, which councilmembers say happened when former city attorney Craig Tindall began working for the Coyotes as general counsel in 2013.
"This is to protect the taxpayers," Mayor Jerry Weiers said during the meeting. "I believe they violated the law."
LeBlanc and attorney Nick Wood, who both spoke on behalf of the team, had a quick response, much of which revolved around legal action.
LeBlanc said the Coyotes have started working on seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the city from ending the deal and a lawsuit that Wood said would reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Aiding the Coyotes will likely be a wave of high-end lawyers hired by the NHL.
"The National Hockey League stands by, and will fully support, the Arizona Coyotes in their efforts to vindicate their contractual rights in response to last night's outrageous and irresponsible action by the City of Glendale," the NHL said in a statement. "We continue to proceed on the basis that the Coyotes will remain in Glendale and will be playing their home games at Gila River Arena."
The threat of the Coyotes leaving has been an issue, real or perceived, since former owner Jerry Moyes took the team into bankruptcy.
Even after IceArizona purchased the team, speculation that the team would move did not end. The largely Canadian ownership group insisted the lease agreement include an out clause if the team loses $50 million after five years, which added to conjecture that IceArizona would eventually move the team that originated in Winnipeg.
The council's vote has intensified the relocation speculation, particularly with a long list of potential suitors waiting in the wings, including Seattle, Portland, Oregon, Las Vegas and a Canadian city.
"Everyone talks about the out the clause and if we wanted to pack up and leave. Guess what? We have an out clause now and we're going the other way," LeBlanc said. "We're doing nothing but working aggressively to make sure we can stay in what we feel is our rightful home here at Gila River Arena."
The Coyotes likely face a lengthy and expensive legal battle ahead, though LeBlanc said there are no plans to alter the hockey budget. He added that Glendale has not given them any indication that the team will be asked to vacate the arena and the team will continue to operate normally there unless something changes.
If the Coyotes are unable to work out their differences with Glendale, there might by a viable option just down the road.
The Coyotes spent their first seven seasons in Arizona sharing a downtown arena with the NBA's Phoenix Suns and a Phoenix city council member has already raised the possibility of another downtown alliance.