Unless, you're talking about her current role as Alexis Davis on "General Hospital" where her pairing with William deVry has created the "Julexis Army"- which, as a group, you should never make angry by disparaging their behavior in any way.
But, she is a native of Skokie, Illinois and had to train for a celebrity shot from center ice at a recent Blackhawks game against the Dallas Stars. She was one of a handful to pull the trigger and try to put the puck in that really small hole in the center of the plywood that no one can ever shoot it in to successfully...
Unless you get a little pre-shoot help from Bobby Hull...
Here's the look from the rafters at the United Center from her Facebook Page
The HQ has always held Grahn as a Top Five since her days on "Santa Barbara," but we'll challenge her allegiance to the Blackhawks to our LA Kings any time...
Andrew Barroway was introduced as the new majority owner of the Arizona Coyotes in Glendale Friday.
IceArizona bought the team for $170-million, but group owner-ring leader Anthony LeBlanc recently valued the franchise for a little over $300-million... (of course, he did...)
But the franchise can leave Arizona if they lose more than $50-million over the first five years of IceArizona's ownership. The larger question is: Just how much money have they lost already...? There's talk that the number is already close to $30-million after only two seasons...
Barroway is committed- for now... he is denying that he is buying the team to flip the team...
NBC's Pro Hockey Talk and James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail reported as far back as November that Barroway wanted to flip the franchise and was the only one in line to purchase the team- moving them to someone who wants to put a franchise in Las Vegas.
Here's the introduction
Barroway's addition gives the Coyotes a little more American ownership- which is huge for the small market/small budget squad that needs league assistance and Barroway's infusion of capital to get off the league salary cap floor...
The HQ will admit that we like the idea of hockey being played outdoors and having it count in the standings...
This year's Winter Classic was in Washington, DC for the Caps and the Chicago Blackhawks.
There was actually talk that players would wear sunglasses to combat the sunshine that would be present at Nationals Park before 2:30 eastern time- the time of day that the sun would drop behind the home bleachers. But, as a bit of a make-good, the NHL decided to make the teams change ends in the first period at the half-way point in addition to the third period switch.
The winner went to Troy Brouwer, but not without some consternation and questioning of a late penalty call.
Here's the highlights
Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews was asked about the loss- and the stuff that happened late
((HT: CSN Chicago))
So, now it's back to playing hockey indoors until the Outdoor Classics come back in a little while...
Jordin Tootoo and Robert Bortuzzo decided to go after each other as a reminder of the Jarmoir Jagr check from the last time the two teams met.
Admittedly, the thought that two guys would go at it twice in a game is odd in today's NHL, but if it was going to be two guys- the HQ would think that it would be these two.
MGM is building a new arena in Las Vegas, the HQ knows this...
The NHL Owners Meetings in Boca are now are kicking the tires on the the idea of going to that new Maloof Brothers arena and housing a franchise in that city- whether it's as a relocation or an expansion franchise.
Here's Strombo, Kypper, and Friedge after Evanka Osmak sets the introduction to discuss
The HQ has looked at the landscape and it appears to be going in three directions- Las Vegas, Quebec City, and Seattle.
It would make more sense to relocate ailing franchises in Phoenix and Florida to two of those cities and expand to Seattle and a 32nd city. But, with the idea of fellow owners getting over $30-million if two franchises are added, there's going to be a push in the next few years for the watering down of a product instead of strengthening what you already have.
Money in hand always trumps money down the line...
And it might mean another phone call from the league office for what happened at the 35-second mark
Korbinian Holzer might get a hearing over the punch, but anything is possible in the appeal- considering the idea that "Holzer didn't know what he was hitting at the time" would be his defense...
This isn't the first time that the HQ has floated this story, but the idea is that the WorldWideLeader is already looking at the story and may be shooting a "30 for 30" with the Maloof Brothers.
Without an arena and a team...
But...
Vegas Chatter is saying that the "Birth of a Franchise" story is already being shot with the development of the new AEG arena front and center. The arena, set for opening in spring of 2016, would be the apparent home for a new sports franchise- when its completed.
Las Vegas is intriguing, Daly admits. In fact, out of curiosity, Daly queried a bunch of service industry folks — bartenders, waiters, drink servers, dealers, pit bosses — last weekend about whether they felt a professional sports team could thrive there.
“I got a variety of different responses,” Daly said. “The demographics of the market are pretty good in terms of average annual income. Las Vegas natives earn good salaries, good livings. I think they genuinely like sports. It’s a nighttime city, so it would have to be uniquely scheduled in terms of focusing maybe on industry nights as opposed to your typical Thursday-Saturday nights where everybody would be working.
NESN's "The Instigators" think Seattle and Quebec City are better ideas...
The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without forward Pascal Dupuis for the next six months after it was discovered that he is out with blood clots in his lungs. The clots were found in his legs and it moved up into his lungs.
Penguins physician Dr. Dharmesh Vyas is not sure if the ailment will end Dupuis' playing career.
Here's Dupuis discussing the diagnosis.
The clot is Dupuis' second in less than a year. It was found Monday when he missed practice after complaining of pain in his chest. Dupuis was diagnosed with a blood clot back in January- a few weeks after tearing his ACL in a game against Ottawa. Dupuis will be on blood thinners to determine the status of his clots and, hopefully, get rid of them.
He has been cleared for physical activity just not any kind of contact.
It appears the National Hockey League is ready to grow.
And like the early U.S pioneers, they are working under the credo "Go West Young Man".
How else to explain the report that the league is looking two teams for their Western Conference.
And the reason this is newsworthy? Well, one of those teams may very well be the 1st pro sports team to base in the gambling capital of North America, Las Vegas.
The New York Post reports the NHL has already chosen owners for the Vegas franchise, billionaire William Foley and Vegas mobsters-hoteliers/former NBA owners, the Maloof family.
Oh, wait, did we just say that?
The team would play in the new 20,000+ seat arena being built on or near the MGM Resort and be admitted with a roughly $400 million expansion fee.
The story doesn't mention another franchise location, but the reason the league would need 2--to balance things with the Eastern Conference which has two more teams.
Our bet: Seattle. The league and the NBA have already flirted with Chris Hansen and others looking to bring the NBA and/or the NHL to Seattle. And they've proposed building an arena to house one or both.
We could be wrong, but either way, look for the NHL to make an announcement at some point. Our guess would be maybe after the 1st of the year, but we could be wrong too.
There's a new book out on the troubled life of NHL enforcer Derek Boogaard- the HQ encourages picking it up...
The Boogey Man's dad, Len, went on "Prime Time Sports" for the first time to discuss what he thinks happened to his son through the eyes of the National Hockey League...
Bottom line- he thinks his son's problems, mounting as he continued to play, were left and not addressed in a timely fashion... Brett Popplewell addressed Boogaard's last days in the premier edition of Sportnet Magazine back in 2011.John Branch wrote in his book on Boogaard as Sportsnet reports:"Within a year, Derek would have teeth knocked out and be prescribed vast amounts of painkillers by team doctors.In another year, he would be in substance abuse rehabilitation. In another year, he would be in New York, rich and miserable and alone. And in another year, he would be dead."
Boogaard was diagnosed, after his death, with CTE and his father went on to do his own investigation surrounding his son's passing.
Scott Hartnell is no fan of Jordan Nolan and the LA Kings in their early contest today with Columbus...
The HQ will stipulate that Nolan is a pest. It is something he is very good at...
Like today...
Watch for it...
The HQ suspects there may be a talking-to from Messrs. Pronger and Shanahan for both Nolan and Hartnell.
But, regardless of the numbers, stick swinging is too dangerous at any moment...
Last thing we need is another one is these incidents...
Depending on who you talk to these days, either the Phoenix Arizona Coyotes are either half-way to their $50-million loss figure for the escape clause to kick in or everything is fine, the team is losing money, and they're staying anyway.
Either way, this seems to be the league approach to keeping a team there when the league could be served better someplace else
Coyotes president Anthony Leblanc values his team around $300-million and he is selling 51-percent to Philadelphia hedge fund guru Andrew Barroway for something in the neighborhood of $152.5-million.
The Ice Edge guys had an escape clause built into their new deal with the city of Glendale that specified if the team was hemorrhaging money they could leave. Glendale agreed last year to pay the Coyotes $15 million annually to manage the arena- and that isn't helping, either. Revenue from parking and concerts paid to the city in return has so far fallen short of projections. If Barroway's name is familiar to you, it should be. He has had interest in both the Islanders and the Devils before getting this deal.
Reason being- and the HQ has witnessed this first hand- the Glendale City Center is a mixed-use development that has fallen well short of occupancy in the business and residential aspects of the project. It takes far too long to get there from the Phoenix downtown area under normal circumstances and, Gawd forbid, you work in Phoenix and thought you would live in Glendale.
It's just not a feasible suburban location for something to work...
Ice Edge's financing issues came to the fore again just before the season started when it was disclosed that they were sending Max Domi back to juniors so they wouldn't have to pay his entry level salary instead of keeping him up with the parent club so the team could have another scoring threat.
Oh, well...
Here's The Bettman discussing everything Arizona
Apparently, having Barroway involved gives the Coyotes a better interest rate with the NHL credit lines and gets them to wipe out a debt with a previous investment group and, also, may give the team an extra $9-million- which might bring Domi back to the parent club sooner rather than later.
But the HQ still believes that the Coyotes would be better served in the pacific northwest and the Florida Panthers would be better served in Quebec City.
But, that's just us thinking about relocation instead of the poo-pooed expansion talk from the Commissioner earlier this week.
Michael Grange is reporting that Steve Moore and Todd Bertuzzi have agreed to an out-of-court settlement a little less than a month before their civil trial was set to begin.
Here's the incident that started it all- 10 years ago...
((HT: Hockey Webcast))
Bertuzzi apologized, but he eventually pleaded guilty to criminal assault causing bodily harm for the hit and was sentenced in 2006 to one year probation and 80 hours of community service.
((HT: BCTV))
Moore then filed a multi-million dollar civil suit against Bertuzzi and the call to settle the case was called after mediation in early August.
He, contrary to what Bertuzzi wished in the press conference above, has not fully recovered- as put forth in the anniversary back in March.
