There's a ton of issues to discuss here...

#1. Who is and isn't involved? I know at first blush everybody wants to name a certain ex-Cap player but are there any other Caps with strong enough ties to Tocchet to be involved? Rumor boy said that a current GM is involved and press accounts claim that an owner is involved too. We know Janet Jones has been caught up in this and apparently Jeremy Roenick has been questioned. Who else is going to be ensared in this?

#2. According to reports, the investigation is just beginning. What are the odds that some of the players involved actually bet on hockey? I think the odds are pretty good we'll find somebody who bet on NHL games through a bookie other than Tocchet. While Las Vegas isn't too high on taking bets on hockey, they do anyway.

#3. Speaking of Vegas, they are a viable option for the Penguins to move to. Or were they?

#4. Back to the players involved, this morning on ESPN, Sportscenter vicously smeared Erica Lindros. They mentioned that the NHL was first "altered" to gambling when a noted South Joisey mafia boss sat in Erica's seats Philly when he played with the Flyers. They went on to say that the mob boss insisted that he got the tickets from a broker and not Erica herself. While yes, this whole thing is based out of South Joisey and Philly and that Erica and Tocchet have strong connections to the Flyers organization, this guilt by association isn't neccessary. Who else is going to be smeared by this?

#5. The NHL was caught with their pants down on this whole thing. Despite the "alert" with Erica, they were clueless about Tocchet. What else are these guys asleep on?

#6. Long term, what are the implications for the NHL? Certainly there is going to be some sort of fallout, especially if it is found out that hockey was bet on by players. This could be a bigger story going forward...

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Everybody Wang Chung......

Please load brain before shooting off mouth.™

Now Phoenix GM Mike Barnett (Gretzky's former agent BTW) is implicated, makes total sense, but personally, I was hoping Bobby Clarke was the GM they were talking about.

Odds are now that either Phoenix Chairman and Governor Steve Ellman or co-owner Jerry Moyes is the owner wrapped up in this.

-------------------------
Everybody Wang Chung......

Please load brain before shooting off mouth.™

Let's Go Caps!
www.washingtonhockey.com

As for the Caps. Thank goodness they are all mostly young guys and probably not caught up in this thing. It seems to be a Phoenix-Philly thing.

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It is possible Gretzky didn't know until Monday but it really is plausible. Wayne has shown a lack of judgement in who he hangs out with before so this shouldn't be too big of a surprise.

As I understand it right now, Tocchet and the Joisey Tooper placed the bets with the mob bookie and then went out to either collect lost bets or to distribute winnings.

If that's the case, that's a far cry from running a bookmaking operation themselves but still pretty dirty.

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Everybody Wang Chung......

Please load brain before shooting off mouth.™

If what you say is what Tocchet was doing then this will turn out to be a huge non-story and just another case of the media (sports talk radio and ESPN) convicting an athlete before all the facts are out and feeding the media's general dislike for hockey. Where did you hear that was Tocchet's role?

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