The NHL returned to Winnipeg with a cold reminder of the challenge that lies ahead. It did little to dampen the warmth brought on by a massive civic celebration. As the clock ticked down Sunday in Winnipeg's 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, the fans at MTS Centre rose to their feet and gave the Jets a standing ovation that was 15 years in the making.

The Stanley Cup is back in play as the season begins in Boston, Toronto and Vancouver. All 30 teams entertain hopes of playoff berths and that rule changes and equipment improvements can lead to a safer sport. Enjoy another winter of the fastest game in any town — even Winnipeg.

From the moment the NHL announced its return to Winnipeg, the city's focus turned immediately to the future: What would the team be called? What would the sweaters look like? Who would the first opponent be? But new general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff was just as interested in looking back at what happened before the Atlanta Thrashers migrated north.

The Atlanta Spirit Group won't square off in court against its former law firm after all. The Spirit, which recently sold the Thrashers and has an agreement to sell a majority stake in the Hawks, and prestigious Atlanta law firm King & Spalding have settled the legal-malpractice lawsuit the sports ownership group filed against the firm early this year.

Tragedy struck professional hockey again. This time it touches the Atlanta Thrashers organization. Brad McCrimmon, a former Thrashers assistant coach, was among the confirmed dead on a Russian jet that crashed Wednesday. The plane was carrying members of the Lokomotiv Yaroslav hockey team of the Kontinental Hockey League.

A former Atlanta Thrashers assistant coach died in a plane crash that killed at least 43 in western Russia Wednesday. The plane, a Yak-42, was carrying the Lokomotiv hockey team from Yaroslavl. Officials said Russian player Alexander Galimov survived the crash along with a crewmember.

Former Predator Wade Belak, an enforcer who had played with five NHL teams before retiring in March, was found dead Wednesday in Toronto. Belak is the third NHL enforcer found dead since May. The Predators learned of Belak's death from NHL security and the team issued a statement saying the organization was shocked and sadden by his sudden and untimely death.

In a sense, Craig Ramsay is going home. Ramsay grew up outside Toronto and spent 22 NHL seasons in Buffalo as a player and coach. He found warmer confines in 1993 when he went to Florida to help start the expansion Panthers. Ramsay, and several of his children, established roots in Florida.

Winnipeg’s new NHL franchise, formerly the Thrashers, didn’t go far to find its coach. The yet-to-be named team will hire Claude Noel, according to multiple reports. Noel was coach of the AHL Manitoba Moose, which also is owned by True North Sports and Entertainment.

Don Waddell was one of the first Thrashers employees. He will be one of the last. However, there will be a day when the team president’s tenure will end. “It’s not going to hit me until that day that I don’t get into my car and drive to the office, said Waddell, his voice cracking.

NEW YORK – The Thrashers are gone. The NHL’s Board of Governors approved the sale and relocation of the Thrashers on Tuesday in separate votes. Now, they belong to Winnipeg. For the second time, Atlanta lost its professional hockey team to a Canadian city.

The sale and move of the Thrashers, approved Tuesday by the NHL board of governors, leaves Atlanta with three major-league sports franchises. And while none of the three are in danger of relocation, two have ownership situations that could be conservatively described as, well, fluid.

NEW YORK -- Craig Ramsay won't be coach of the Winnipeg franchise. The Thrashers head coach, who interviewed for his position with the soon-to-be-relocated franchise Saturday, was informed by general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff Monday that we would not be retained.

NEW YORK -- The Atlanta Thrashers’ sale and relocation to Winnipeg will clear its final hurdle on Tuesday at the NHL’s Board of Governors meeting. The approval of the deal between the Atlanta Spirit and True North Sports and Entertainment will be the official end of the franchise after 11 seasons in the city.

Thrashers coach Craig Ramsay interviewed for the same job with the Winnipeg franchise Saturday. “It was a good talk,” Ramsay told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I enjoyed the conversation. There was no commitment and no timeline [for a hire]. Nothing has been decided.

Thrashers coach Craig Ramsay has yet to interview for his position with the Winnipeg franchise but a meeting with general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff could come this weekend. Ramsay was contacted by Cheveldayoff Sunday and told he would be a candidate for the position when the team relocates to Manitoba for next season.

Bobby Stewart could see the end. One final season — and a milestone of 3,000 NHL regular-season games — and the long-time equipment manager would start a Florida retirement. The only bags to carry would be his and those of his wife, Sherri. Those plans have come to an abrupt end.

Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals posted a 2.1 rating in the Atlanta TV market — below the national average, but probably not below expectations for a city that is losing its NHL franchise. That rating means 2.1 percent of the Atlanta market’s TV households, or about 50,000 households, tuned in on average for NBC’s coverage of the final game of the Boston Bruins-Vancouver Canucks series Wednesday night.

Fans in Winnipeg are showing just how excited they are to have NHL hockey back, helping the club hit its goal of 13,000 season tickets sold in a matter of minutes. In announcing its purchase and relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers this week, True North Sports and Entertainment said it hoped to sell 13,000 season tickets before the NHL Board of Governors votes to approve the transaction on June 21.

The Thrashers are no more. A franchise has come and gone, vanished almost without a trace — only one season with more wins than losses, one Southeast Division title and not a single postseason victory. Leaving, it would seem, what typically remains after the ice melts: Nothing.

Neither Don Waddell nor the Thrashers name will accompany Atlanta’s hockey team when it relocates to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Waddell, the team’s general manager from its inception until his promotion to president last year, said he’ll remain on the job until the sale closes and then part ways with the franchise.

Sports capital of the South. Yeah, right. For the second time, Atlanta has shown the puck doesn't stop here with Tuesday's announcement that the Thrashers are heading to Winnipeg, the second NHL team to abandon Georgia's capital. The Atlanta Flames left the city for Calgary in 1980.

Atlanta added a lowlight to its sports record book Tuesday, becoming the first city in the NHL’s modern era to lose two teams. Thirty-one years after the Flames left Atlanta for Calgary, an agreement was reached to sell the Thrashers to a Canadian group that will move the team to Winnipeg.

The Thrashers are headed to Winnipeg. True North Sports and Entertainment, the Canadian group that has been negotiating to buy the team since mid-May, made formal announcement of the move at news conference in Winnipeg  at 12:20 p.m. Lawyers worked through the night on the transaction, with the last piece put in place at mid-morning Tuesday.

Andrew Ladd is fine with moving to a new city, but the Thrashers’ eighth and final captain feels sympathy for the team’s jilted fans. “In my short time, I got to meet some very passionate fans,” Ladd said. “I’m sorry we weren’t able to make it work, and I feel bad for them.