RALEIGH, N.C. — Although Stan Kroenke and Josh Kroenke are listed as the Avalanche governors, team president Pierre Lacroix — officially an alternate governor — represented the franchise at Saturday’s NHL board of governors meeting in the Raleigh area.
The meeting mostly involved briefings on ownership situations in Phoenix, Dallas, Buffalo and St. Louis, plus on the league’s continuing study of concussions and head injuries. More significant discussions of head injuries are expected at the general managers meetings in March.
Although the league is continuing to run the Phoenix Coyotes as discussions to sell the team to Chicago businessman Matthew Hulsizer drag on, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman continued to emphasize that the first option is to leave the team in Phoenix.
As of Dec. 31, the league had the right to begin considering deals that would lead to a move of the franchise, and that has sparked increased speculation about a possible shift to Winnipeg. Bettman said the team’s fate needs to be decided in the near future because of scheduling and other issues.
“We’ll hang in there as long as it makes sense and as long as we can,” Bettman said. “But time is getting short. . . . I have tried to be as careful as I could be not to raise expectations in Winnipeg.”
SuperSkills.
Avalanche center Paul Stastny was on the winning Team Staal squad that beat Team Lidstrom, with Colorado center Matt Duchene and rookie defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, 33-22 in the SuperSkills competition Saturday night.
“It was fun, hanging out with guys you don’t play with or associate with,” Stastny said afterward. “The red carpet (arrival) was really cool too.”
Fastest skater.
Duchene’s time in the fastest skater competition, 14.779 seconds, was sixth-best among the 12 competitors in the event, won by New York Islanders rookie Michael Grabner. He also was part of the winning Group 2 squad for Team Lidstrom in the skills challenge relay. All three Avs were in the stick handling part of the relay, controlling a puck through a series of pucks placed on the ice.
Shootout.
In the elimination shootout, Stastny and Duchene were knocked out on their first attempts, and Duchene’s came when he attempted a reprise of his spectacular move that worked in the Burgundy-White game last September. “I was hyping it all up, telling all the guys to be ready for it, and he just missed it,” Stastny said of Duchene’s attempt against Carolina goalie Cam Ward.
Shattenkirk was successful against Ward, but was eliminated when he didn’t beat the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist on his second attempt.
Other events.
Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara won the hardest shot competition, at a record 105.9 mph. . . . Washington winger Alex Ovechkin of Team Staal was declared the winner of the breakaway challenge, receiving 38.5 percent of fan votes via text messaging. . . . Anaheim’s Corey Perry of Team Staal won the elimination shootout.
