Jim Balsillie, the would-be owner of the Phoenix Coyotes and Eugene Melnyk, the Ottawa Senators owner dropped the gloves in the ever-widening Phoenix Coyotes wrestling match turned blood sport.The fans of NHL hockey would be OFFside if they thought this legal argument would avoid becoming public and ugly.The 38 pages of Balsillie dissertation on why he should be an NHL owner was reviewed yesterday. Most of it seemed logical, straight forward and fair. Any hockey fan would agree with most of it. The document challenged previous NHL assertions that seemed rather weak in comparison at best.Airing LaundryThe document also spilled the beans on the last minute conditions added by the NHL when the Pens were to be sold to Balsillie. If true, it would have forced Balsillie to turn over arena negotiations to the NHL after just 45 days and be bound by the results financially or otherwise including a 7 year non-relocation clause.And of course it detailed the problems between Leipold and Balsillie regarding the Nashville sale flame-out. It is somewhat unclear as the $10 million purchase deposit may or may not have been at Mr. Balsillie’s option in order to keep exclusive negotiation rights to the Predators.Consider this talking outside of school on the scale of multiple hundreds of millions of dollars. If true, Balsillie has shown the NHL to be hardball negotiators and also very much in the right to “lockout” Balsillie from their club for making public their private dealings. If false, Balsillie is sure to enrage the NHL leadership and 29 other owners by his allegations. Either way, Balsillie’s decisions in an Arizona courtroom alienates him further from NHL inclusion.While it was an interesting read, very little of it will have any use in a court of law. Clearly Balsillie is also trying to win the court of public opinion by airing all the laundry from the past.Crooked Accusations . . . more »