PITTSBURGH — It's pretty tough to steal the spotlight from a playoff series featuring

Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. Jim Balsillie is doing his best, however.

Balsillie, the BlackBerry billionaire who has twice been rebuffed in his attempts to purchase

an NHL franchise, is making his third bid. Balsillie has agreed to purchase the bankrupt

Phoenix Coyotes for $212.5 million, but it comes with one condition: He moves the team to

southern Ontario.

"The current team ownership asked that I table an offer to purchase the Coyotes, and

significant discussions resulted in an offer that is in the best interests of the franchise,

the NHL and the great hockey fans of Canada and southern Ontario," Balsillie said in a

statement. "I am excited to move closer to bringing an NHL franchise to what I believe is one

of the best unserved hockey markets in the world."

The move stole headlines from Game Three of the Pittsburgh-Washington playoff series Wednesday

in Mellon Arena, but it registered mostly a yawn in HSBC Arena. Buffalo Sabres minority owner

Larry Quinn ... who said 20 percent of the Sabres' revenues come from southern Ontario ... did not

seem concerned Balsillie wants to put a team in Buffalo's backyard.

"I don't want to be commenting on this proposal because it's not one that's been presented to

the league. I don't think it will be," Quinn told reporters. "If it is some day, then we'll

make a decision on that.

"Obviously, the southern Ontario market is part of our [area of dominant influence]. It's very

important to our fans. It's something we have the right to promote and market as only the

Buffalo Sabres'. If we were to sell our team by promising somebody the rights in another

market, we wouldn't be able to do that, so I'm assuming that other people in the league will

follow those same rules.

"Gary Bettman will pursue the interests of the league, and we'll follow his lead on it."

Bettman, the NHL commissioner, was said to be livid over Balsillie's attempt because it seems

to be a backdoor move. The league reportedly had been giving the Coyotes and owner Jerry Moyes

money to keep the team afloat, and it was putting the finishing touches on a deal to sell the

Coyotes to Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the NBA's Chicago Bulls and baseball's Chicago White Sox.

Reinsdorf, whose purchase price would be substantially less than Balsillie's offer (rumors in

Mellon Arena had Reinsdorf getting the team for practically nothing), would keep the team in

Phoenix.

Moyes, however, declared the Coyotes bankrupt. That broke the lease with the city of Glendale,

Ariz., and allows the Coyotes to go to the highest bidder. No one would be expected to top

Balsillie's offer, especially if they had to keep the team in Arizona, where it loses $35

million per year.

An NHL spokesman said the league is taking the matter to bankruptcy court today in Phoenix.

The NHL is expected to contest whether Moyes had the authority to declare bankruptcy. Bettman

has a history of keeping broke teams in place and did so with the Sabres earlier this decade.

"We generally try to avoid relocating franchises unless you absolutely have to," Bettman said

in New York. "We think when a franchise is in trouble, you try and fix the problems. That's

what we did in Pittsburgh and Ottawa and Buffalo prior to our work stoppage. That's what we

did when the perception was that five out of the six Canadian franchises around the turn of

the century were in trouble. We fixed the problems. We don't run out on cities."

On the surface, NHL players would be expected to applaud the move, even though they have no

say in the matter. Under the collective bargaining agreement, players' salaries are tied

directly to league revenues. A team in southern Ontario would bring in cash rather than leak

it like in Phoenix, thus raising revenues and salaries.

Washington forward Brooks Laich, though, doesn't want to see troubled franchises automatically

head for seemingly greener pastures.

"If the team is struggling, nobody wants to play in front of 5 or 6,000 fans. That's not a

real positive situation," Laich said. "But at the same time, you want to be respectful to the

tradition of the game. We don't want to be bouncing teams around from city to city just to

capitalize on a hot spot right now. A couple years ago, Washington wasn't a real hockey town.

All of a sudden you get a draft pick and select Ovechkin, and now you can't get a seat to

watch us.

"Just because some fans aren't attending in some buildings, I don't think we have to hit the

panic button right away and pick the team up and move it to another city."

Balsillie's statement said the fan base in southern Ontario is 7 million. The residents'

passion for hockey would allow him to fill any building, whether he were to put the team in

Hamilton or Toronto, which already has the Maple Leafs. Laich wondered if another team in the

area would be too many.

"I think there'd be demand for it," Laich said. "It's just are you cramming too much into too

small a space? You've got Buffalo right there, and Ottawa and Montreal aren't too far. But

Ontario is a hockey hotbed. People are going to fill the building."