Jerry Reinsdorf

October 11, 2009—that's the day news broke that Quebec City mayor Regis Labeaume and others were interested in possibly reviving the NHL in Quebec, and ever since that day I, along with very few other B/R writers, have followed their attempts to do just that through monthly articles.

Yesterday's news out of Glendale, Ariz., changed most of that when Gary Bettman and his cronies, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and Owner Matthew Hulsizer went against the will of the people to keep the NHL franchise in a place it never belonged in the first place—the desert.

You might have heard that a little over two weeks ago, the fans of a would-be team in Quebec City, Quebec had a massive rally on the Plains of Abraham that drew anywhere between 50,000-100,000 supporters.

Winnipeg?

In May, 2010, the city of Glendale, Arizona assured the NHL it would pay up to $25 million to the league to keep the Phoenix Coyotes in the city for the 2010-2011 NHL season. The NHL currently owns the Coyotes, and that money would be used to cover all operating losses incurred by the Coyotes for the upcoming season.

The roller coaster is back. The team the NHL just won't let die, the Phoenix Coyotes, nor their annoying wannabe buyers, Ice Edge Holdings are at it again.

5,143.

That's roughly the number of days Winnipeg Manitoba has went without hockey since their beloved Jets were forced to move to Phoenix, Arizona following this loss , April 28, 1996 in the first round of the playoffs, of all places.

Bits of information are coming out this week that should be interesting to say the least concerning the future of the Phoenix Coyotes franchise in its current state. Here is the latest.

A pawn. A patsy. A placeholder. Bettman's b*tch.

Whatever you want to call him, its starting to appear that prospective Coyotes owner Jerry Reinsdorf may be acquiring the team as a courtesy to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and his clueless cronies as a pawn in the game they are playing.

It wouldn't surprise me.

After all, this is the same group that thought southern expansion would be a good idea.

People are starting to doubt whether that NHL's return to Winnipeg, Manitoba, could actually happen. In reading numerous editions of the Winnipeg Sun , Winnipeg Free Times , and ESPN and Phoenix Coyotes message boards from all the above sources, this now seems to be the newfound underlying current.

Did we think it could happen?

Sure.

J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets!

Okay, so they're not exactly the battle cry of NFL football team from New York but unlike the former, the NHL team is a version I could get used to and ultimately cheer for.

For those of you who read my columns, I've been doing the best I can to provide you with updates when possible concerning the NHL's on-again-off-again courtship with its former Canadian markets most notably Quebec City and Winnipeg, and Hartford in the United States.

Will the Phoenix Coyotes rise up like a mythical sacred firebird from ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Phoenician mythologies?