Mr. Bettman goes to Washington

Gary Bettman will get his share of the Capital Hill TV cameras on February 27th, when he and NHLPA head Paul Kelly appear in front of a Congressional sub committee investigating drugs in sports.

The two NHL leaders will appear at the hearings with the all ecnompassing title of; Drugs in Sports: Compromising the Health of Athletes and Undermining the Integrity of Competition.

Part of the deliberations from the Congressmen are designed to determine whether Congress should considering passing a law to establish minimum requirements that might include mandatory blood testing, as well as off-season testing.

That's an area that the NHL doesn't feel the need to go into, as they don't believe they have a particularly troublesome doping issue in the league.

The Bettman and Kelly tag team will outline the current testing methods in place, which include random testing two and sometimes three times a year, but which provides for no testing what so ever in the off season.