Wow, the day before the sale's finalized. I guess we should all feel blessed he bothered to do it at all. I have a ton to write tonight, but I'll probably have a story up on SBNATL on this later, so I'll edit this to include a link (EDIT: here you go.). I just thought that those of you who missed C-Viv's tweet would like to read this and then go punch your computer screens.

Unsurprisingly, C-Viv tweeted this today: "Craig Ramsay will NOT be coach of Winnipeg franchise. Was informed Monday." In other news, the sky is blue.

Rick Dudley is no longer the GM of the nascent Winnipeg NHL franchise. Various Twitter reports say his four year extension will be bought out over the next eight years. Winnipeg Sun reporter Ken Wiebe speculates on the possible hiring of Blackhawks asst GM Kevin Cheveldayoff by True North to the now-open position.

Now that the sale's final, the alcohol's been drunk at various wakes around the city last night, and we've all woken up this morning to the prospect of a hockey-free Atlanta market, the Thrashers' fans have to figure out what to do next. The sale might be final - but it - and the relocation - is final pending board of governors approval. So why not show the BOG that we care? Sure, Winnipeg's having their ticket drive. But our drive for signatures is free - which automatically makes it better. Go to this petition and put your name down. It takes literally 2.5 seconds. Let's see how many we can get to show the BOG that we do love our team.

Spot on and perfect. This should be required reading for every member of the BOG.

From my other home... just a reminder that when things seem the darkest, weird stuff happens. Hell, the Blues have almost been sold and relocated just short of what feels like 20 times, and they're still there. Stuff like this (and the incompetence of the Canadian media) is why some teeny atom of hope is still floating around out there.

A great idea over at ThrashFan: why not email members of the Board of Governors and let them know how much we want the team to stay? They've got a list of the members over there, but it's time to crowdsource something better: find the email addresses of the members, post them here, and we'll create a form that will email each member all at once. Let's get started, people!

Complete with a minute and a half of video (also from Saturday's meet and greet at Brandsmart), Thorburn spoke to 11 Alive news. They got a bit more than Fox5, including this gem in regards to Bettman: "You'd like to see the guy at the head of the league present. So it's kind of discouraging," I should be at the whatever's going on at this weekend's meet and greet with Boulton at the Brandsmart in Kennesaw. I'll see if he's ticked off too - my money's on a big yes.

Well, now that the excluisivity agreement's ended, now's the time for some random mystery investor to pop up and buy all three teams, right? This whole thing is fishy. The agreement's in place just long enough to mess up the sale of the Thrashers - since most interested parties wanted all three. TNSE's two seconds away from buying the Thrashers, and this agreement ends. Is Gary Bettman in a damn coma?

You have to admit, these guys are just the gifts that keep on giving: "It’s a tough one, when we won the division we lost 20 million dollars. It’s not just the performance to succeed, it’s the support in the community."

As Zontar poste in the comment section of the post regarding the Balkan, this doesn't sound good at atl for Smith's prospects of buying the team. Nashville fans can probably really relate to this point in the saga. Methinks Kincade got taken for a ride.

Break out your inner Gussie Mausenheimers, people. I (as is always par for the course) can't make it, but I wanted to pass the info on to those of you who might be able to.

Either the NHL's just simply covering their bases, or the speed with which this's been carried out so far is for a good reason. Seems like the league's been expecting something to go down. I can't blame them for doing this, but it doesn't make it any less insulting.