from Jeff Jacobs of the Harford Courant,

But here.

We go.

Again.

So let's make a pact right here, OK? Let's try to stay out of Delusiontown and Cynicalville. Look, we can play "Imagine" on our old eight-track player and play "Brass Bonanza" at our weddings, but Gordie Howe, Ron Francis and Kevin Dineen aren't skating through that door. They're retired. Conversely, to go all dismissive and insist the NHL never will never, ever happen, and not one dime of state tax money for a new arena, is to invite great damage to our existing state sports landscape.

So with that, we wake up the echoes and we're not talking about getting Bob Diaco from Notre Dame to coach the UConn football team.

Malloy said Friday, yes, he is interested, "although probably not at our sole expense." He said there had been at least two groups that have expressed interest to him in acquiring an NHL team, existing or expansion, and the possibility of moving to the state and that, yes, the state would be participants. So I forwarded questions to Malloy's spokesperson Andrew Doba. He was kind enough to go one better. He put Malloy on the line. Good. I so much want this to be reality-driven and not emotion-driven.

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