Good Place to Talk About Lines -- Other Than Blue

What were the odds?

When the news broke about a gambling ring in the NHL, true story, the league’s general managers were all in meetings at the Lake Las Vegas Resort just outside Sin City.

The resort, which features “two elegant casinos,” does not, however, include a sports book, which from what we know now about the NHL, would not have been considered an inconvenience.

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I WENT to a hockey game Saturday, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn Janet Jones was betting against it. If she’s gambling $5,000 on the coin flip at the Super Bowl with a bookie linked to the mob, as reports go, what’s left -- wagering on whether her husband takes her one call from jail?

How many men at one time in their life looked at Wayne Gretzky and Janet Jones, and said, “That lucky guy.” Marriage is a gamble, all right, and yet you would think here’s two people who might say they’re going for broke while never dreaming they really were, and it was all riding on Pittsburgh.

The NHL hired Robert Cleary, the prosecutor who convicted the Unabomber, like it was tough to nail a scruffy rebel who pleaded guilty to the charges, to investigate the gambling fiasco and then make fans feel better about the NHL being on the up and up.

“It does not appear to us that there has been betting on hockey games at all,” Cleary said, and they didn’t need to hire a prosecutor to tell us no one bets on hockey.

Before Saturday’s hockey game, I had the chance to talk to Jeremy Roenick. His name has been mentioned in the gambling investigation, but with the football season over, I didn’t see any benefit in asking Roenick whom he likes in next year’s Super Bowl.

Instead, I wanted to know why the Kings gambled $5 million on him, and came up empty.

“It’s been an awful, horrible year for me,” Roenick said, which wasn’t exactly a news bulletin, and when I suggested he might be finished at age 36, he said, “I still have the game to play with these kids.”

Maybe. But so far, all he’s done is whine and refuse to play exhibitions because he didn’t want to get checked, then whine and carry on because the U.S. Olympic team didn’t want him, and now the Kings had lost seven in a row, while getting almost nothing from Roenick.

“The challenge for me now is to go out ... “ and frankly, I lost interest, telling him to just go do it, and I’d check back later, which meant sitting through three periods of hockey, and what a thrill to learn the game would go into overtime.

The Kings blew a lead, did it again, but won in overtime, prompting Roenick to refer to me as the team’s good-luck charm. Bettors think that way.

“You have to come back for Sunday’s game,” Roenick said. “Bring your wife.”

Talk about pressing your luck, asking me to return to a hockey game, and bring my wife!

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KOBE BRYANT’S new “love me or hate me” ad for sneakers is all about, “Kobe, me, me,” which shouldn’t be a surprise.

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THE BEST thing about Brian Cook’s recent showing -- it might make Devean George more attractive to teams looking to trade. The Lakers can pawn off George and his $5-million contract with the incentive of knowing they are getting Cook, who can actually score, while getting paid just over $1 million.

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A FEW days ago, the Southern California Sports Broadcasters, a group obviously out of touch and who must view sports with the sound muted, selected Rex Hudler the best local TV analyst, ignoring the other two nominees, Laker sidekick Stu Lantz, and my choice, the Kings’ Jim Fox.

Let’s just say that Hudler, one of the nicest people you’d ever hope to meet, describes things a little bit differently than Page 2.

The group also honored FSN West for its sports anchors, the first name being announced, Carolyn Hughes, who hasn’t been on the air since being linked to Dodger pitcher Derek Lowe, one of the players she was assigned to, well, cover.

FSN West’s Lindsay Soto, a professional, who has had to put up with the Hughes fallout, got stuck accepting the award on behalf of FSN West and Hughes.

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ANGEL OWNER Arte Moreno, a big hit with an Orange County jury, will see if he can hold the attention of a Los Angeles-wide audience this morning at 9 on the father/daughter 570 radio gabfest.

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WHY DO I get the feeling NBC is orchestrating a Michelle Kwan reality TV episode within its coverage of the Olympics?

I fell asleep during the opening ceremony counting how many times she appeared on camera, and now the nightly drama continues with the “will she or won’t she” be able to compete -- giving NBC more opportunities to put her on camera.

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THE LAKERS got 14 points from George and 18 from Kwame Brown. And lost. Yikes!

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Scott:

“Looks like Nike is taking this apparent hate for Kobe to a new level. I have a friend who said she knows someone who works at Nike.... She said they started an underground site to appear to be a Kobe hating site so they can rally his fans to buy his shoes. The site is kobehater.com. If it’s true, it insults Kobe fans like myself who bought his shoes.”

I would think if Nike was going to sell shoes, it would Just Do It.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.