miaowang123: years. Prior to his second stint with Montreal,

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Growing up in Calgary, George Gosbee had a dream. Anthony Miller Bears Jersey . "Every boy wants to play in the NHL," he said. "Once you realize thats not possible, you change your focus and you start to think about owning a team." Not every boy goes right from thinking about being on the ice to overseeing all aspects of a hockey team as an owner, but Gosbee spent decades honing his business acumen and last week finalized the purchase of the Phoenix Coyotes with his IceArizona group. Not far into his ownership odyssey, he called it a "total dream come true." "Everythings on track for what we wanted to do and were making some progress," Gosbee said in a phone interview this week. "So far theres been no surprises." Maybe there were a few surprises. Gosbee arrived at his Glendale office Wednesday to find flowers sent from a fan on his desk. When he was leaving an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game, a police officer stopped him just to say thank you. "Its the first time Ive been stopped that way from a police officer," Gosbee said. "I was really surprised by the outpouring and the thank yous coming in in this community. ... Everybodys just been positive and appreciative of what weve done." To get the deal done, Gosbee and his partners, who include fellow Canadian businessmen Anthony LeBlanc and Avik Dey, had to go through the long process of getting NHL approval, securing financing and finishing up a lease deal for Jobing.com arena. So when the Coyotes asked Gosbee to start using Twitter, he was overwhelmed by the flood of positive responses. "Thats been pleasant because weve been really trying to grind out this deal for the last little while and weve been so focused in on the deal that we lost sense of why we were doing it," he said. In the long-term, Gosbee knew exactly why he was doing this. Through years of successful business ventures, the banker and financier became more and more fascinated with the prospect of owning a professional sports team. Gosbee, 43, calls himself a "live-sports junkie," but at the core hes a businessman. "When this opportunity came up," said Gosbee, who is chairman and chief executive officer of Alberta-based AltaCorp Capital Inc. "I just had to keep putting that out of my head and keep focusing on the financial aspects of it." That wasnt just the focus in buying the team. It remains Gosbee and LeBlancs goal moving forward, as they plan to let general manager Don Maloney and coach Dave Tippett work the on-ice product largely unimpeded. "Im not looking to run a team," Gosbee said. "I think, especially in business, its all about people. We had a lot of confidence in what Don Maloney and Dave Tippett have done with this team, given all the adversity and obstacles and a limited budget. ... "We believe in those two guys and want to provide them with all the financial resources we can and let them do their job." But from an ownership standpoint, Gosbee is drawing from his youth in Calgary and not just his feelings and memories of when the Flames moved from Atlanta. "When the Flames came to Calgary, I was the happiest kid on the planet," he said. "I remember how that group came to be, and it was a group of strong, successful, level-headed businessmen, very strong in the community and successful but not flamboyant. And they were all friends as well. So I took that model and put together a group of friends that were successful and similar to the Flames ownership." Gosbee and Co. can only hope to have the same success. But he concedes that Arizona in 2013 is a much different situation than Calgary in 1980. "Back then you were really on your own when you owned a team," Gosbee said. "Now, we really bought one 30th of the NHL and were managing a team in Phoenix, so its a different concept now with regards to how the league works. Im kind of bullish on the structure, how it works, and that was another reason why I wanted to get into it." Mark Chipman and True North bought into that NHL ownership structure two years ago when the Thrashers moved and became the Winnipeg Jets. And while new ownership gives the Coyotes something of a fresh start, this is a unique situation because its the same team that has played in Glendale with varying degrees of success and fan interest. Its a situation Gosbee sees the best in. He called the Coyotes mix of players one of the best in the league, citing the leadership of Shane Doan, and hopes to cultivate an even bigger fan base now that at least the short-term future is secure. "The fan base down here has to be one of the most loyal fan bases Ive seen, to continue to buy season tickets, to continue to make the drive out here (to the arena in Glendale)," he said. "Its asking those fans to come back that werent really wanting to support a team that was thinking about leaving. And theres a lot of those fans around. ... "Theres number of things that are going to happen that I think those fans are going to come back. Also I think were going to be able to generate new fans based off the stability of ownership." Gosbee is confident hockey in Arizona will work out long-term as well, based on the size of the Phoenix metropolitan area and the large number of Canadians who live there. At the moment, Gosbee is homeless. He lost his Calgary house in the floods earlier this year, but bought another one there to fulfil a promise to his wife. Hes looking for a place in Arizona. He and the IceArizona ownership group have already made sure the Coyotes have a home there, for at least the next five years. Leaving hockey to Maloney and his staff, Gosbee and the collective "brain trust" of IceArizona are convinced they can do enough on the business side to ensure an NHL presence in the desert for a long time. "Theres one unique thing about this deal: Its not all dependent upon one thing working," Gosbee said. "Theres five or six or even seven type of avenues that were all pursuing on increasing revenue. Some of those wont work and some of them will, and were not dependent on any one particular avenue to go with." Anthony Miller Jersey . Sure, Josh Browns 45-yard field goal on the third drive of overtime lifted the New York Giants to a 23-20 win over Detroit on Sunday. But the Lions (7-8) dropped themselves out of the NFC North race by losing five of their last six games, blowing fourth-quarter leads in each setback. Mike Ditka Bears Jersey . Rasmussen didnt have a decision during his four appearances in May, when he gave up two hits and no runs in two innings. Toronto used five relievers while pulling off the second-biggest comeback in franchise history on Friday night, rallying from an 8-0 deficit to a 14-9 win.MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens wasted no time locking up the head coach who has led them to the Eastern Conference final. Montreal re-signed Michel Therrien to a four-year contract extension Saturday, two weeks after the Canadiens were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. "It really shows the stability that (general manager) Marc Bergevin and (owner) Geoff Molson want to establish with the Canadiens," said Therrien on a conference call. "Weve progressed a lot over the past two years and we want to continue to progress. Its a sign of confidence." Therrien, who has coached the Canadiens for the past two seasons, has one year remaining on his contract before the extension kicks in. The 50-year-old led Montreal to the playoffs twice in the last two years, falling to the Ottawa Senators in five games in the first round of the 2012-13 post-season and following that with a six-game East final loss to the New York Rangers this year. Therrien said his team still needs to learn how to be a successful playoff team, and referred to the Chicago Blackhawks and Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings as examples. "We have a good group of young veterans. I really like the chemistry at the core of our team. Roquan Smith Youth Jersey. The players have really bought into the team concept," said Therrien, who offered little on pending free agents Andrei Markov and captain Brian Gionta. "Im really satisfied with the progress we did the last two years. Regarding if theres going to be any changes for the next year, thats the business of the game. And I know one thing for sure, Marc Bergevin is working really hard to improve our hockey team." Therriens new contract wasnt a surprise. Bergevin had previously confirmed that Therrien would be back behind Montreals bench. Therrien coached the Canadiens for parts of the 2000-03 seasons, and was 77-77-22-14 over that span. He was 75-42-13 over the past two years. Prior to his second stint with Montreal, Therrien coached the Pittsburgh Penguins for parts of four seasons, making it to the Stanley Cup final in 2008 before losing to the Detroit Red Wings in six games. Hes hopeful the Canadiens take another step forward next season. "Were constantly adjusting," he said. "We do it from one month to the next, and from one year to the next. Its so important to adjust and make sure youre getting the message across." ' ' '