Quick shifts

If there's one person here in the Tampa Bay area who has a vested interest in seeing Absolute Hockey's $200-million deal for the team become finalized, it should be Lightning coach John Tortorella (shown at left).

It's no secret that Tortorella has no problems throwing a player under the bus (just ask Carolina's John Grahame or the Islanders' Ruslan Fedotenko). This past weekend, though, Tortorella launched some barbs toward the high-rent district in the team's existing power structure.

During a question-and-answer session with fans this past Saturday, Tortorella took a shot at one of his bosses, current Lightning CEO Tom Wilson (shown at right):

"The guy who I'm glad is the hell out of here is Tom Wilson because he's the one who has put obstacle after obstacle in front of us," Tortorella said in Sunday's edition of the St. Petersburg Times. "Who knows? This deal might not go through, and they'd still be here. I really don't care."

The Times reported this morning that the earliest the sale of the Lightning to Absolute Hockey from Palace Sports & Entertainment would be Sept. 18, though it could take longer.

Interesting move

Future Hall of Famer Eddie Belfour may be out of the NHL, but that doesn't mean he's out of hockey. It seems Belfour, who played last season for the Florida Panthers, will tend the net for Leksand, a second-division club in Sweden.

Doesn't it seem odd, given how Belfour's play last season gave the Panthers some respectability, that he'd bolt across the Atlantic? My instincts tell me there's more to this story.

Lifting the veil

The Vancouver Canucks will show off their new uniform, and possibly a logo, later today. The unveling is set for 12:30 p.m. (PST), meaning East Coast hockey fans will have to wait until 3:30 p.m. Here's a link to the team's jersey launch page.

You should expect some commentary on the Canucks' new look and other jersey/logo-related news tomorrow.

Poll results

Eagle-eyed readers should have noticed that there's a new poll here at Hound Central 3.0. With all of hub-bub about new jerseys and logos, you can vote on what team has done the best job reworking its logo.

As for the first poll of the season, which asked what free-agent signee will help his new team the most, here are the results:

Philly's Daniel Briere: 11 of 13 votes (84 percent)
NYR's Chris Drury: 0 of 13 votes
NYI's Bill Guerin: 0 of 13 votes
Detroit's Brian Rafalski: 1 of 13 votes (7 percent)
Other: 1 of 13 votes (7 percent)

And, no, I don't know why the percentages add up to 98 percent, rather than 100 percent. It's way too early for math, if you ask me.