Thumbs down to the idea that Roberto Luongo isn't a good goalie, that Roberto Luongo has never won anything, that Roberto Luongo will not and should not start in goal for Canada at the Olympics.
These may be popular notions in British Columbia the past three days, but to watch Luongo play on most nights is to know how good he is--to judge players based on their number of Stanley Cup rings is foolish--and to dismiss Luongo from Olympic consideration is wrong and won't happen.
Thumbs up to my ruling on the Phoenix Coyotes bankruptcy proceedings, which Judge Redfield T. Baum is free to apply as his own.
The highest bid for the Coyotes--212.5 million dollars in the name of Jim Balsillie--is hereby approved without hesitation. Slam dunk if you're acting in the interests of creditors.
But as that bid comes with a condition, so is it accepted conditionally.
Balsillie may own the Coyotes, thus granting him entry to the NHL lodge, but he may not move the Coyotes unless his NHL brothers grant him that right.
So the court orders the NHL to vote on Balsillie's proposal to re-locate the Coyotes, which the NHL would never do otherwise because it wouldn't accept him as an owner in the first place.
However, that has already been mandated by the court, so this issue winds up with the NHL board and with Balsillie's chances still slim, but better than they'd be any other way. He would need 16 votes, not the 23 it would have taken to be approved as an owner. If he prevails, it's "Hello, Hamilton", and if he doesn't, he disappears from the hockey scene yet again... probably for good.