Offtopic » SEATTLE (AP) Hollywood producer

Jerry Bruckheimer has been hosting hockey games for a quarter-century. Now he wants to do it on a much bigger scale.The filmmaker of ”Flashdance Minnesota Wild Hoodies Authentic ,” ”Beverly Hills Cop” and ”Top Gun” fame joined his partners – billionaire David Bonderman and Oak View Group Chief Executive Tim Leiweke – on Wednesday in discussing for the first time publicly why they’re trying to bring a professional hockey team to Seattle.One answer, they said, is that the city deserves one: It’s been more than a century since the old Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup, and a decade since Seattle’s last major men’s professional winter sports franchise, basketball’s SuperSonics, bolted for Oklahoma City. Seattle is the biggest market in the nation without a major winter sports team.But Bruckheimer has also been a big hockey fan since The Great One – Wayne Gretzky – moved from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in the early 1990s. Bruckheimer met Gretzky at a party, and Gretzky arranged for him to get season tickets. Having season tickets, Bruckheimer decided to take skating lessons. And having taken skating lessons, he decided to get some friends together to play hockey on Sunday nights. They’ve been playing ever since.”It’s something I get so much joy out of watching and doing,” he said. ”I’m still playing the sport – poorly – but I get out there with a bunch of the guys and do it every week. That’s really nice, to carry something that long in your life.”The group submitted its application for an expansion team with the National Hockey League this month and said Wednesday they hope to hear in June whether it’s accepted. In the meantime, they’re embarking Thursday on a season-ticket-deposit drive meant to demonstrate the city’s interest in a team. They declined to say how many deposits would constitute a successful drive, saying they don’t know how many NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman expects them to sell.The deposits run $500 for season tickets or $1 Minnesota Wild Hats Authentic ,000 for club season tickets, which are center ice, lower-level tickets.They’re also planning to renovate KeyArena, where the Sonics used to play, to the tune of $660 million – including $20 million in acoustic treatment requested by Seattle’s beloved Pearl Jam – and if they’re approved, the league expansion fee will run approximately $650 million, all privately financed. They say if everything goes according to plan they’ll have an NHL team ready for the 2020-21 season.”We’re taking the risk; we’re putting up the money,” Leiweke said. ”There is no risk to the taxpayer.”He added that an environmental review is about half complete and has turned up ”no game-changers.”Bonderman, who graduated from the University of Washington and Harvard Law School before embarking on a career in private equity, would be the principal owner of the team, though he said he wouldn’t be involved in day-to-day operations. As a part-owner of the Boston Celtics, he said he has learned how fun running a sports team could be.”It shows you what you can do with the right kind of team, the right kind of spirit Custom Minnesota Wild Jerseys , and how much people appreciate having the ability to go see these kind of games,” he said. WINNIPEG, Manitoba — It’s no wonder the Washington Capitals are suffering from a serious Stanley Cup hangover.It’s not uncommon for the winners of hockey’s holy grail to get off to a slow start the following season but when you consider how much liquor the Capitals players consumed during a seemingly summer-long party — particularly captain Alex Ovechkin — it’s conceivable that their heads could ache until Christmas.And the Winnipeg Jets, who host the champs at Bell MTS Place on Wednesday, don’t want to give them any secret cures.Article continues below ...The Capitals are outside of the top eight spots in the Eastern Conference and granted, there are still more than 60 games to go, but they have a target on their backs that they haven’t had previously.Jets coach Paul Maurice isn’t surprised the Capitals have stumbled out of the gate but he also doesn’t expect it to be long before they right the ship.“I would think coming off the playoff high that they came off, (the issue of) getting as excited about a game in October or November has to be real. When you win a Stanley Cup, you’re usually powerful enough to get through these, I don’t know if they’re dog days for them, but the first 40 games. They know they can amp their game up,” Maurice said.“There’s such a huge difference between playoff hockey and regular season hockey. Emotions that are easily attached in the playoffs are sometimes hard to find (in the regular season). They’re still a really powerful team.”The main story line of any Jets-Capitals contest is the goal-scoring rivalry between Ovechkin, the seven-time Rocket Richard trophy winner www.officialcanadiensprostore.com , and Jets sniper Patrik Laine.Ovechkin topped the league in goals once again last season with 49, outpacing Laine’s 44.Both should get at least a few good opportunities to add to their current totals — Ovechkin has 12 while Laine has eight — as the Jets (34 percent) and Capitals (30.3 percent) boast the top two power plays in the NHL this season.Ovechkin has filled his boots against the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers during his career, notching 47 goals and 91 points in 63 games.Laine, meanwhile, who has been heating up the last couple of weeks, has yet to score a goal at even strength this season. Seven of his goals have been scored on the power play while one was shot into an empty net. He has a team-high 64 shots on goal.The Capitals come to town on the heels of defeating the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on the road Tuesday night, stopping a two-game slide. They received a boost from right winger Tom Wilson, who had his 20-game suspension reduced to 14 earlier in the day by an arbitrator, and scored a goal in his return to put the Capitals up 2-0 late in the first period. He also was assessed a penalty for goaltender interference after the puck crossed the goal line.“That was a first for me to score and get a penalty on the same play,” Wilson said in a post-game scrum. “I was just going hard to the net and (defenseman Dmitry Orlov) put it right on my tape. I was trying to do everything I could to get out of the way, so I’ll take the goal and the kill.”Jets forward Mathieu Perreault left practice with an apparent leg injury Tuesday but Maurice said he expects he’ll be fine Wednesday.