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In an effort to cross-promote our blogs and create news when there isn't any SBNation has the Summer Fill where we ask questions of another team's writer and let you enjoy the answers. I drew J.P. from Jasper's Japers' Rink and asked him 10 questions about the Washington Capitals. Enjoy! Be sure to check out the questions they asked of us here.

1)  The Coyotes have certainly had to deal with creating fans where there was not a natural market.  Capitals fans have had the same issue with one fan in particular - the first fan.  Is it at all disheartening that despite being far and away the best team in the DC area, the President has still not attended a game (or do the rocking red jerseys selling out the stadium every game negate any bother).

The President ribbed Ted Leonsis recently, telling him that he was planning on attending a Caps playoff game last spring... but the Caps were playing golf before he could. Ouch.

It would be nice for the team and nice for the sport for him to make an appearance, but I'm not sure anyone is too concerned over it.

2) Clearly the Caps are one of the best teams in the league with as much offensive ability as anyone, and they will again be preseason favorites to win the Cup...have they done enough this offseason to address whatever it was that caused them to bow out in the first round to Montreal?

The easy - but legitimate - answer is "I'll tell you next spring." Roster-wise, not much has changed. In fact, in some ways the team looks worse off (with the second-line center position still a question mark and the defense, as a whole, losing a few players all of whom are better than the current #6 and #7 blueliners in the organization).

But more important than the personnel are the adjustments that need to be made at both a strategic and motivational level, and it's going to be awfully hard to gauge those changes in relatively meaningless regular season games.

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Rebekah L. Sanders of the Arizona Republic is reporting via Twitter that Ice Edge Holdings has submitted proof of financing to the City of Glendale. The group had until tomorrow to come up with the financing terms to present to the city, but a spokesman for the group said that it has already been done. 

UPDATE: Ice Edge PR Representative Robert Johnson (of HighGround Public Affairs Consultants) sent this along...

Ice Edge Holdings has submitted the appropriate documentation per the requirement of the Memorandum of Understanding passed by the City Council last week, and now will begin its work with the City of Glendale to achieve expeditious completion of the Arena Management Use Lease Agreement (AMULA).

Ice Edge Holdings also will continue to work closely with the current owners of the Coyotes, the National Hockey League, to complete the purchase of the team. Ice Edge officials outlined their plans to the League earlier this week in New York City. The League has indicated it is comfortable with the timeline as currently outlined and has committed to work with Ice Edge to move this process forward, ensuring a long-term home for the Coyotes in Arizona.

So in what was possibly the most anti-climactic resolution to the negotiations between Ice Edge Holdings and the City of Glendale, the City Council gave the thumbs up to the Memorandum of Understanding between them and IEH. 

While they had previously rejected them for nothing of real consequence, this time they didn't even really discuss much about the deal between themselves. Thankfully they actually remembered all this from the private meetings and from previous sessions. They did a quick powerpoint of what was going to happen if they voted for it, a couple fans addressed the council after CEO Anthony LeBlanc did the same. The council then took a quick vote to approve the MoU which passed unanimously 7-0, thus ending the brief discussion.

There really wasn't a lot of media attention which hopefully means the drama has been taken completely out of the proceedings at this point with the Coyotes staying for both the short term and for the long run. Even the local media seems disinterested at this point with everyone but local independent station 3TV taking a pass on showing up with cameras. 

The most exciting part of the meeting was where a few of the council members got "into it", well for government types, over voting for a new vice Mayor. Thankfully Phil Lieberman didn't get approval and looked all pouty about it.

Personally I'm just happy that we got step one done and over with. There was talk of IEH having issues securing funding, but the City Attorney seemed confident that the group would put a term sheet forward not only within the required 10 days, but by the end of the week. It was also overheard that many of the subsequent documents that have to be completed following the MoU are already prepared for the council. It seems as though Coyote fans will finally get the dream of not worrying about the business of hockey for an extended period of time. Thank goodness.

I know that most of you readers are just as sick of reading about this stuff as we are about writing it, but with all the developments from the last 5 days it's time to check back in with our favorite seemingly neverending saga.  When we last left the rebel alliance, they were hidden away on a base on the far side of Dantooine having just destroyed the Empire's Death Star....oh wait, wrong neverending saga.

Ah yes, Coyotes ownership - so much fun we're doing it back to back offseasons.  So the latest and greatest was that the City of Glendale agreed to cover $25 million in losses for the Coyotes until new ownership was found, no later than December 31, 2010.  The City then moved some money into an escrow account to appease the NHL overlords and prevent them from selling the team to a group in Winnipeg that was going to move the team imminently.  There were three local ownership groups, (1) Reinsdorf had a signed MOU approved by the City Council, (2) Ice Edge Holdings had fan support, was negotiating, but had no formal agreement and was refusing to do more unless and until it received an exclusive window to negotiate for the team; and (3) a mystery third group existed that nobody really knew anything about apart from mere speculation.

Last week, Ice Edge jumped back into the picture with its exclusive MOU with the City of Glendale, one that was approved, theoretically, in an executive session of the City Council on Friday afternoon.

This memorandum of understanding is available to read here.  I think AZVibe does a pretty good job summarizing the MOU here.  That article also mentions the next step which is the Public City Council meeting on Tuesday, June 8 at 7:00 PM where the formal vote will occur on the MOU.  Obviously, this is the one that folks need to attend and show their Coyotes support.

After the jump, the Coyotes urge season ticket holders to make their voices heard at the City Council meeting, a few more comments on the Ice Edge MOU, and we may be down a potential buyer again.

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Christian Petersen - Getty Images

4 months ago: GLENDALE, AZ - APRIL 16: General view of action between the Detroit Red Wings and the Phoenix Coyotes in Game Two of the Western Conference Quarterfinals during the 2010 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Jobing.com Arena on April 16, 2010 in Glendale, Arizona. The Red Wings defeated the Coyotes 7-4 to tie the series at 1-1. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

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In the next "Hooray this might get done someday" step in the morass that has become the sale of the Coyotes, the Glendale City Council will meet today at 2PM local time to get an update on where negotiations are with Ice Edge Holdings and presumably whoever else is out there at the moment pursuing the team. However there are some items being reported by various sources that have yet to be totally confirmed that make it sound as though the guys from IEH have the inside track at his point in time. 

The main thin being reported is that the meeting is basically to get the details on and possibly approve, though that should come later in a public session, a memorandum of understanding between the City and IEH. The bigger part of the news though is that there also seems to be a preliminary lease agreement to be discussed, though details on that have been sketchy.

There are also reports that the MOU has a 60 day window for exclusive negotiating rights for the lease agreement to be worked out should Glendale approve the Memorandum of Understanding. 

There hasn't been a lot out of the IEH crew today other than a few tweets and retweets from Ice Edge's Daryl Jones. Either way we should know more about the City's plans later today. 

So today our most favoritest hockey "writer" Davy Shoalts wrote all about how Council Lieberman was up in arms about this Community Funding District and what it means and how Glendale is in the hole and couldn't possibly put up any taxpayer money for the team. He reportedly said how the didn't understand how this districts were used or made, and that they couldn't be on the hook for any of this.

There's one giant gaping hole in that logic though. You see Phil Lieberman was the only member of the City Council that voted to use these districts twice. That's right. He voted for Jerry Reinsdorf's proposal that had one in it AND for Ice Edge's original proposal as well. What's so complicated about that now buddy? What you're basically saying is that you don't get how this works, but you went ahead and voted for it last time anyhow? Do you somehow have less information than you did the last time you voted for it? I really just don't understand how that's even possible. 

Bob from Western Hockey Exchange does a great job of pointing out the nuts and bolts of what's going on here so I suggest you take a read. But basically only one thing has changed. The Community Funding District would have to be created no matter what and if the City can't get on the ball with Ice Edge then the CFD just pays the NHL while it plays here in Glendale for another season. I don't understand the difference. But then I never understood why one group using the mechanism was alright (Reinsdorf) and then it wasn't alright for another group to use the exact same thing. (Ice Edge)

Basically my point is this. If people go on Tuesday and Lieberman starts going on and on about these districts be sure to point out to him how crazy he is. That goes for the rest of the City Counsel too. 

Christian Petersen - Getty Images

GLENDALE, AZ - MAY 6: Head coach Dave Tippett of the Phoenix Coyotes is shocked, SHOCKED! when the Reinsdorf deal with Glendale 'reportedly' falls through. Robert Lang equally aghast.

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So at this point do we just throw our collective hands up and just ask anyone in Glendale if they have any clue at all what they're freakin doing? Reports coming from ESPN and elsewhere now have the City of Glendale's perfect little plan to get buddy Reinsdorf installed to run the Coyotes (The deal was actually total crap) has fallen apart. AND They've crawled back on their hands and knees back to Ice Edge Holdings to try and get a deal hammered out. 

Basically we can all go back to the Council meeting where they threw out the Ice Edge bid on one line of text but let ReinsDufus' offer go through even though there were already objections by the Goldwater institute and CoG was giving away the farm for it. What a freakin boneheaded move that was just to come back to the same place a month later. 

Daryl Jones of IEH has already stated via twitter that "Ice Edge is not confirming or denying the reports tonight, but we are confirming our bid for Man U has been dropped." AKA, yeah they're probably back in the mix.

AND THAT'S A GOOD THING! They're the guys the fans wanted all along even if the city didn't. They showed up to games, interacted with fans, talked directly to the fanbase and did all the things that a new owner here is going to need to so to make this thing work. I'm sure we'll get 73 different version of what's really going on during the day today, but as of right now I'm glad to have the guys back in it. 

Christian Petersen - Getty Images

4 months ago: GLENDALE, AZ - APRIL 27: (L-R) Vernon Fiddler #38, Daniel Winnik #34, Derek Morris #53 and Ilya Bryzgalov #30 of the Phoenix Coyotes salute the fans following Game Seven of the Western Conference Quarterfinals against the Detroit Red Wings during the 2010 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Jobing.com Arena on April 27, 2010 in Glendale, Arizona. The Red Wings defeated the Coyotes 6-1 to win the series 4-3. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

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I'm at a loss of what to say from the hockey side of things right now. We had a crap game and it ended our run in this year's playoffs. We might break that down a little better in the morning, but at his point all I have is thanks to a whole litany of people, communities and just assorted hooligans who have made this site simply just explode over the past couple months. So here's my pixilated stick lift (twss) to you all. 

First the guys here that help out with the site. Moridin417 or Jordan or whatever you want to call him for keeping up the links and doing all kinds of other stuff to keep the site running on days when I'm running on fumes. We'll even forgive his Flyers fandom ;) GhostofLinkGaetz for being a hooligan of the first order and also for allegedly having thrown a snake that one time. 

Thanks to all those bloggers from other sites on the network that have helped out with the site, directed people here, or helped in any way they could. PPP from Pension Plan Puppets for running the show when I was watching my first playoff series in person. He's crazy compatriot Chemmy that pushed the "Throw the Snake" frenzy to the point it got. Got me mentioned on CBC and TSN, it was crazy. Brad Lee for his posts yesterday too. Great job by all. 

To all those fans of other teams that stopped by to show support for the team, there are too many to name, but I don't know that there's a team not named the Red Wings that didn't have someone stop by to cheer us on. Just of those that I remember I know we had fans of the Maple Leafs, Blues, Canucks, Sharks, Blackhawks, Bruins, Predators, Ducks, Stars, Wild, Capitals, Penguins, Rangers, Canes, and I know there are other teams, but I can't remember if they found their way here. 

I'll even thank those Wing fans that came by and managed not to go all crazy. Discussions are fun even if I can't stand your team for whatever reason, never have. I still respect those fans that had fun and didn't act like jerks. Maybe someday you'll convince me not to hate you guys, but not right now. 

Thanks to everyone with the team that mentioned the site, or was just a good guy. I suppose that's pretty much everyone, but hey. Todd Walsh for responding to fans on twitter with a frequency. Dave Strader and Even Tyson Nash for stopping by the site and at least mentioning us here and there. Even former Color man Darren Pang pugged us on Twitter. 

Thanks to all the Coyote fans, From those that stuck with the team through the brutal summer that was and to those that jumped on the bandwagon. Hey, I know bandwagoners aren't ideal, but i'm not going to be choosey. I hope that the bandwagon people got a taste of what being in love with this game is like. Not just watching on TV, but actually going to games and feeling the game. 

I'm sure I'm forgetting large swaths of people, but that's all I have at 1am. I'm sure there will be more in the links and we'll get up some sort of a recap later (Maybe). Until then I'm just going to be thankful for what we had this year. And for all of you.