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| | Ordinary Least Square: The Puck Stops Here - Ice Hockey |
 | | The NHL let small-market Ottawa into the league the year before solely because it was one of only two bidders willing (though not necessarily able at first) to pay a $50 million entry fee -- the powers that be, the very ones crying poverty today, did not look past their greed for one split second. |
 | | The NHL was merrily rolling along, adding a decade of expansion revenue to half a century of holding players under the reserve clause, when the upstart World Hockey Association spoiled all the, um, spoils. |
 | | NHL awards (payment for winning playoffs and trophies) are counted as player costs -- within salary, in fact, even though they are paid by the NHL, not by teams, only to winners. |
| ordinaryleastsquare.typepad.com /dubi/the_puck_stops_here_ice_hockey (16080 words) |
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