NEW YORK—In a disappointing coda to one of its most thrilling seasons in years, the NHL lost its longstanding Internet domain last week when executives failed to pay the renewal fee for NHL.com, allowing 18-year-old California resident Fredrick Westfield to purchase the URL for $10.69. "While our online situation is not ideal, our fans will still be able to get all the latest breaking hockey news they crave at NHLHockeySports.com," Commissioner Gary Bettman said of the domain his league will use unless Westfield lowers his NHL.com asking price from the "exorbitant sum" of $2,000 to something more reasonable. "Fans can still be friends with the NHL on Facebook and MySpace, where we post tons of great stuff like photos, videos, scores, and poll questions." Bettman later admitted that he wasn't sure how the problem was overlooked nine months ago when the league was forced to upgrade from its previous Yahoo! GeoCities hosting platform.

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