Melnyk’s Defense, Captaincy and Green Day Revival?

While last night’s result didn’t go as we hoped, Brady Tkachuk scored the first goal of the NHL season and that MUST be a good sign of things to come.

In this week’s edition of Thursday news and notes, we have some of the usual Melnyk news but also odd NHL partnerships so let’s not waste any more time:

• After news broke that Melnyk was being sued by a Connecticut casino, most people expected this to become even bigger news. In good Melnyk fashion, he is now claiming that the casino didn’t cash in his chips when he was on a winning streak causing him to eventually become indebted by $900K. He is also blaming them for taking too long to cash in the bank drafts which all seems like the usual “I did nothing wrong” attitude from Melnyk./

According to his statement of defence, the casino “failed and refused defendant’s instruction to cash out defendant’s chips during a gambling session at a time when defendant was winning significant amounts of money, but induced defendant to continue to gamble, during which time plaintiff’s conduct caused defendant to incur substantial losses.”

Melnyk also claims the casino waited over five months to cash the bank drafts, a delay that was “unreasonable and prejudicial to the defendant and caused the drafts to become stale.”

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes but I have a feeling the casino may have the advantage here unless Melnyk really does have solid proof they somehow turned his fortunes into a $900K debt in one unfortunate gambling trip. Also, I don’t know much about gambling but couldn’t he have technically stopped once he had lost all his winnings and some more?

• The Toronto Maple Leafs finally announced their Captain at the home opener and shockingly, they actually made the right choice. While Auston Matthews may be the talented phenom on the team, it was always Tavares who fit into that role regardless of the incident. Let’s hope Tavares has a good explanation for why Babcock continues to drag Jason Spezza under every bus he comes across. In what seems to be the trend these days, the Vancouver Canucks will be announcing their Captain in the home opener as well; maybe the Senators will surprise the fans on Saturday?
• In a new attempt to attract new fans, the NHL has decided to partner with Green Day? /

“Green Day is the perfect band for the NHL. Their music fits so perfectly with the energy, speed and power that we witness on the ice and each and every night,” said NHL Chief Content Officer and Executive Vice President Steve Mayer. “We are so excited to start this partnership with the NBC Sports open. It was so much fun to shoot and we think our fans will love it.”

At least it’s not Nickelback and while I was a fan of the Green Day in my high school years (ancient times), I am surprised that the NHL couldn’t find a more compelling choice that would appeal to a larger demographic than the target for Green Day. Sports marketing efforts aren’t always sensible but as long as it’s not controversial it’ll pass, for now.

• Finally, after being ejected from the Sharks final pre season game, Evander Kane has received the automatic 3-game suspension for “Physical Abuse of the Officials”. He will not be appealing the suspension and it makes sense as appealing a rule book suspension may be fruitless if not more damaging. It still baffles me that the “abused official” will face absolutely no consequence after initiating the whole altercation. /