NHL Board of Governors to vote on Seattle expansion
SEA ISLAND, GA. >> Seattle is one step away from landing an NHL franchise.
Team and city executives have already secured more than 30,000 season-ticket deposits, got an arena plan passed through local government and wowed the executive committee of owners. It all pays off Tuesday when the NHL Board of Governors is expected to approve Seattle as the home of the league’s 32nd franchise.
“Seattle’s one of the fastest-growing cities in the country,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said recently. “It gives us a geographic balance. It creates a nice geographic rivalry with Vancouver. I know Vancouver’s particularly excited about the possibility. The ownership group, the plans for the arena — it’s all of the above. It’s never one factor. If you’re going to have a successful expansion application, all of the bases need to be touched and all of them need to be checked off as being appropriate and right.”
Timing is the only question.
Renovations to the downtown arena that will be the team’s home are scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2020. The uncertainty could lead the NHL to leave the door open to a 2020 or 2021 start or push it back just to be safe.
“Right now everything we’ve done is kind of geared toward 2020,” Seattle Hockey Partners senior adviser Dave Tippett said. “If we can do it in 2020 (we will), but the other thing is you don’t want to start it being a month on the road or something, either.”
DUCKS 6, CAPITALS 5 >> Pontus Aberg scored twice in the third period, giving Anaheim the lead with 5:05 remaining, and the Ducks stopped Washington’s seven-game winning streak a 6-5 victory Sunday
The Ducks trailed 5-1 in the second before rallying for their fourth consecutive victory. Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and two assists and Rickard Rakell had a goal and an assist in the finale of a five-game trip.
Ryan Miller stopped 19 shots, and Andrew Cogliano and Hampus Lindholm also scored in Anaheim’s highestscoring game of the season. JETS 4, RANGERS 3, SO >> Mark Scheifele started Winnipeg’s third-period comeback and scored the deciding goal in the shootout against New York.
Jack Roslovic and Bryan Little also scored in the third as the Jets erased a 3-0 deficit and won their third straight. Jacob Trouba had two assists, and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 16 shots. FLAMES 3, BLACKHAWKS 2 >> Sean Monahan and Elias Lindholm each had a goal and an assist and Calgary beat Chicago to take the Pacific Division lead.
Derek Ryan also scored, and Mike Smith made 22 saves for the Flames. Jonathan Toews and Dylan Strome scored for struggling Chicago, which dropped its fourth straight and lost for the sixth time in seven games. The Blackhawks fell to 3-8-2 since Jeremy Collition replaced fired coach Joel Quenneville. AVALANCHE 2, RED WINGS 0 >> Semyon Varlamov made 24 saves for his 24th career shutout and first of the season and Colorado beat Detroit to stretch its points streak to 11 games at 9-0-2.
Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist, and Gabriel Landeskog also scored.
Jonathan Bernier stopped 27 shots for Detroit. SHARKS 3, CANADIENS 1 >> Martin Jones made 40 saves and San Jose beat Montreal to snap a four-game skid.
Justin Braun, Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski scored to help San Jose improve to 13-10-5. Jones is
7-1-0 in his career against Montreal. Jeff Petry scored for Montreal, and Carey Price made 26 saves. The Canadiens dropped to 1210-5 overall and fell to 1-3-0 on their current five-game homestand.