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One of my favorite days, and best stories, covering the NHL was Dec. 11, 1992, 22 years ago this Thursday as a matter of fact. It was at the elegant, old money Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Fla. My memory is a little fuzzy now, but I seem to recall there was only a handful of media there, not a large gathering by any means. We were standing in an opulent meeting room, awaiting the daily briefing from then NHL president Gil Stein when league employees Gary Meagher and Dave Keon Jr. came into the room carrying a big, green garbage bag. There was just a small table set up at the front with four chairs behind it. Ill always remember Meagher and Keon rather unceremoniously dumping the contents of the bag onto the table. A bunch of empty VHS video cassette boxes spilled out with a clatter as well as two big plush dolls - Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Keon went about setting up a little pyramid of videocassette boxes and Meagher was, with some difficulty, trying to arrange Mickey and Minnie so they were sitting upright on the table, holding Blockbuster videocassettes in their hands. We asked Meagher and Keon, What the %&# are you guys doing? If I remember correctly, Meagher responded, Expanding. Moments later, NHL president Stein strolled into the meeting room, sat down at the table with Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall and introduced Disney chairman Michael Eisner and Blockbuster Video magnate Wayne Huizenga and -- pretty much out of the blue, catching everyone by total surprise -- announced the NHL was officially expanding to Miami (Florida) and Anaheim. To the shock of all, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Florida Panthers became the 25th and 26th NHL franchises that day and began playing games 10 months later. By the way, one day later, Dec. 12, 1992, the NHL introduced Gary Bettman as its first commissioner, though Bettman wouldnt officially take over the post until the following Feb. 1. And so here we are, 22 years later. Bettman is still the commissioner, the NHL board of governors is meeting today and tomorrow, this time in Boca Raton, Fla., but no, theres not going to be a formal expansion vote or announcement. At least that is what Bettman tells us. And if there were, unlike being gobsmacked in 1992, it should come as a surprise to absolutely no one. From the moment the last NHL lockout ended, in January of 2013, expansion has been at the forefront of discussion and anticipation. Bettman hasnt done a single news conference of any consequence since then where he hasnt been asked about expansion. The answer Bettman provided on opening day of this season is typical of whats hes been saying and has continued to say: Were getting lots of expressions of interest. You and your colleagues seem more fascinated by it than I am or the governors are. Were going to continue to listen to expressions of interest, and thats gratifying that were getting them, but were not ready to go through a formal expansion project. As recently as mid-November, Bettman said much the same thing: All Ill do is continue to report on the levels of interest that are being expressed. Theres no effort crying out for immediate expansion. But we are getting expressions of interest. Even if we decided tomorrow were going to do it, it still wouldnt happen for two, three years. Okay, Bettmans caution flag on expansion is duly noted, and I know from first-hand knowledge to be wary on this stuff because the expansion landscape can shift relatively quickly. A year ago right about now, I said it was my belief the NHLs expansion vision included adding three franchises in the coming years, with a preferred priority ranking of Seattle, Las Vegas and Quebec City, to the tune of well over $1 billion in total expansion fees. Last December, Seattle looked like it was primed to take on an NHL team, but both arena and ownership issues arose in the months that followed, drastically altering that forecast. No one seems to have a sense now when, or if, Seattle will re-emerge but what seemed so hot a year ago has cooled considerably since then. This fall, all the talk has been focused on Las Vegas as the new frontrunner. After an interview with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly in early November, Minneapolis Star Tribune hockey writer Mike Russo reported Daly met with a potential ownership group in Las Vegas in early November and toured the construction site for the new arena being built by MGM Resorts. Larry Brooks reported in the New York Post a week after that the NHL had gone so far as to have chosen William Foley and the Maloof family as the designated owners of a Las Vegas expansion franchise when or if the NHL gets around to committing to expansion, and that the franchise fee would be $400 million. Amid the Russo and Brooks reports, I speculated that the NHLs tentative master plan had gone from adding three teams (with a priority ranking of Seattle, Las Vegas and Quebec City) at the same time to perhaps doing a one off to Las Vegas, with a potential start date possible as early as the beginning of the 2016-17 season. In the ensuing weeks, there has been a constant buzz on the NHL grapevine about expansion, suggestions that it is an absolute given the league will in the days, weeks or months ahead announce formal plans to go to Vegas and possibly Seattle and/or Quebec City, although it was also suggested Quebec City may be reserved as a potential relocation site, with a lesser transfer fee instead of an expansion fee. Since then, the talk has only ramped up. As recently as last week, it was suggested to me the NHL will, at some point in the very near future, bestow a conditional expansion franchise to an ownership group in Las Vegas. That is, if certain requirements (including selling a designated number of season tickets) are met, an NHL franchise could be operational in Vegas as early as the fall of 2016. None of these suggestions on the nature or timing of expansion could be ascertained as fact. At least not by me. They most certainly couldnt be reported as hard news. The NHL has continued to stick to the party line about listening to expressions of interest but otherwise remaining non-committal, only going so far as to say expansion may be discussed at todays or tomorrows B of G meetings but that there wont be a vote or an announcement. Fair enough. But we all know its coming at some point in some form. If I were a betting man (see what I did there?), I might wager on Vegas as early as the fall of 2016 or 2017, but whenever and wherever it may be, unlike in 1992, no one should be caught off guard by anything this time around. We may have a better sense of it all in the next 24 to 48 hours. As a postscript to the Mickey-Minnie/Blockbuster green garbage bag expansion announcement of 1992, earlier that day in the Breakers, I saw a guy in the lobby wearing Hush Puppies with orange souls, dress pants, a bizarre, ugly green hockey jersey and a red ball cap with Goofy on it. He was sweating profusely, muttering to himself, pacing back and forth near the front desk. If youve ever been to the Breakers, well, lets just say he didnt fit in with the crowd (neither did I, now that I think of it) and I was curious to see if security might ask him (or me) to leave. As it turned out, it was Disney chairman Michael Eisner and he was wearing that exact same get up when he was introduced as the new owner of the Mighty Ducks later that day. So if any of my media colleagues in Boca for the meetings happen to see Penn and Teller or a tiger or Celine Dion or a Cirque du Soleil troupe in the hotel lobby, just know the green garbage bag, and expansion, may not be far behind. Cheap Nike Shoes Womens . Playing in his fourth major league game, Polanco broke a tie in the 13th inning with his first homer, helping Pittsburgh to an 8-6 victory over the Miami Marlins after the Pirates had a ninth-inning meltdown. Nike Shoes Cheap Online . 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The team said Saturday that the 36-year-old Robidas is expected to miss four to six months, jeopardizing his return this season. He was injured when he slid hard into the boards in the second period of a 2-1 shootout loss to Chicago on Friday.PHOENIX - NFL officiating chief Dean Blandino says the inspection of the footballs by referee Walt Anderson before the AFC championship game was handled properly.Blandino also said Thursday the process of checking the footballs and security surrounding the inspections will be enhanced for Sundays Super Bowl.As the leagues investigation into the Patriots use of under-inflated footballs moves along, Blandino made it clear the officiating crew for New Englands win over Indianapolis did its job.My major concern is did we follow proper protocol? Blandino said. Everything was properly tested and marked before the game. Walt gauged the footballs himself; it is something he has done throughout his career.Officiating is not part of the investigation.Super Bowl referee Bill Vinovich and his staff will be looking over a lot more footballs this week.Normally, 12 balls per team are brought to the officials locker room before a game, where they are tested and marked by the referee. This week, each team gets 54 footballs — many are given to charity after brief game usage — and all of them will be taken into custody by the NFL on Friday after the Seahawks and Patriots have prepared them.The footballs will be inspected by Vinovich three hours before kickoff, and Blandino said there will be added security because of the environment we are in for this game.It will not quite be like (protecting) the Stanley Cup, but there will be added security, he said.Bears head equipmentt manager Tony Medlin will be charged with guarding the footballs from Friday until he brings them to the stadium for Vinovich to inspect.ddddddddddddJust before kickoff, the footballs will be given to ball boys working the game. The host team for the Super Bowl, in this case the Cardinals, supplies the ball boys, along with one from each of the participating teams.Blandino also promised the league will look into any changes of the specifications for the balls and how they are handled for games. The air pressure is not logged after inspection; the balls simply are marked as having passed, and ones that dont are put aside.Its not unusual for a ball to be removed from circulation, he said.Rules concerning how much air pressure should be in the footballs date back to the 1930s. The league will consult with the manufacturer, Wilson, about the range of air pressure during the off-season.Many of the current procedures were put in place years ago because the league found footballs were being manipulated for the kicking game. Thus, the K-balls that are used only for special teams were introduced to avoid over inflation that helped with the lift on kicks.Blandino understands the furor that has surrounded the deflation issue.Its something thats a good story, he admitted. The NFL is being scrutinized and were at the pinnacle of our game, the Super Bowl, and everything will be magnified.___AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL ' ' '