A woman being charged with impaired driving is not a big news story, unless she is arrested at work. An off-duty Windsor, Ontario police officer observed a Zamboni operator driving in an erratic manner. She was hitting the side boards as she had apparently fallen asleep and was slumped over the steering wheel during the re-surfacing of the ice in-between periods of a local game.

At around 9:40 p.m. Thursday, an off-duty Kingsville OPP sergeant who happened to be at the arena was approached by a number of citizens telling him “I think the Zamboni driver is drunk.”
The sergeant observed the 34-year-old driver operating the machine erratically, with speed fluctuating and missing large portions of the ice surface.

The female driver was released on a promise to appear in a Windsor court on the charges of impaired operation of a motor vehicle. Her name will not be released by authorities until her first court appearance.

There’s a Sarah Palin joke in here somewhere.

The NHL Board of Governors is privately discussing a plan to place a second hockey franchise in Toronto alongside the Maple Leafs. Their thinking is the Toronto market is big enough to support two franchises.

Some members of the board feel the league would be better served by moving an existing team as opposed to granting an expansion franchise. They fear becoming the laughingstock of professional sports, as the NHL already has too many financially-troubled franchises. The board wants to concern themselves first towards making the existing franchises in the league solid before thinking about expanding to new markets.

Media speculation is Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie, developer of Blackberry, would become owner of the new franchise in Toronto as reward for his assistance in restoring the financially strapped Nashville Predators last season. He attempted to buy the Predators with the intent of moving the franchise to Hamilton, Ontario. The league blocked the move because it would have ruined the Buffalo Sabres’ share of the southern Ontario market.