by Sports Xchange

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and Leafs president and general manager Brian Burke were part of a sports management seminar in Toronto on Nov. 9, speaking on the topic of pro sports franchise relocation.

While relocation and expansion are not on the NHL's radar, the intense interest generated by the attempts to move the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton, Ont., seems to make a second team in Southern Ontario inevitable. Daly said such a team would be a certain revenue generator with potential to help league revenue sharing.

"You could rise the tide for all boats," Daly said. "I don't think it would make the Leafs any less successful."

In hoping to stop the Coyotes move, Burke went to great pains to say that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. wasn't objecting to the notion of a new team coming a few miles down the highway as much as the way maverick businessman Jim Balsillie was trying to force the issue.

"MLSEL has never said once we're unfalteringly opposed (to another club)," Burke said. "If a business case is made (it must be looked at)."

Daly said the Leafs don't have veto power to block a new team and must abide by a majority vote of teams.

The Leafs will play a home-and-home with the Blackhawks this weekend -- Friday at Chicago and Saturday at Toronto.

WILD 5, MAPLE LEAFS 2: The Maple Leafs couldn't stand the taste of success and were halted in their quest for a third straight win with one of their worst home games of the year. They took too many penalties to stretch their league-worst killing unit to the maximum and were too slow around netminder Jonas Gustavsson.

It didn't help that one of the best in the business was at the other end -- Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom made 37 saves as Toronto failed to get a point for the first time in eight games. Laboring after losing defenseman Mike Komisarek, Toronto faded once and for all after Alexei Ponikarovsky made it a 1-1 game. Phil Kessel scored a late goal to make it 4-2 before ex-Leaf Owen Nolan added an empty-netter.

"We played soft in our end. We lost a couple of battles below the goal line," coach Ron Wilson said. "We're not good enough to get full of ourselves after we've had a couple of good weeks."