Bruce Hood has a suggestion, just use the rule book when it comes to controversial hits

And perhaps they had the answer all along but could not see it!

With the NHL all over the map suddenly when it comes to enforcement of overly physical play ( a Cooke hit nets noting, a Wisniewski however merits an eight game suspension) there's a call from a former official to just re-read the rule book in particular Rule 43.1


Rule 43.1, which is easily found in dog eared (well maybe not so much these days it would seem) copies of the NHL rule book (or for net savvy NHL officials available on the internet) outlines what one former on ice official believes is the answer to much of the mayhem in the NHL of the last two months.

Rule 43 - Charging

43.1 Charging - A minor or major penalty shall be imposed on a player or goalkeeper who skates or jumps into, or charges an opponent in any manner.


Charging shall mean the actions of a player or goalkeeper who, as a result of distance traveled, shall violently check an opponent in any manner. A “charge” may be the result of a check into the boards, into the goal frame or in open ice.


A minor, major or a major and a game misconduct shall be imposed on a player who charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within his goal crease.


A goalkeeper is not “fair game” just because he is outside the goal crease area. The appropriate penalty should be assessed in every case where an opposing player makes unnecessary contact with a goalkeeper. However, incidental contact, at the discretion of the Referee, will be permitted when the goalkeeper is in the act of playing the puck outside his goal crease provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.

From that review of the current regulations, Bruce Hood, a former NHL official with a rather sterling resume of officiating consisting of 1,033 NHL regular-season games, 157 Stanley Cup playoff games, three all-star games and three Canada Cup tournaments has explained quite informatively that the solution to the hits to the head, boarding and blind side hits could all easily be tied up into one neat bundle called charging.

Mr. Hood outlines his thoughts for the Globe and Mail on the hottest issue of this NHL season and makes perhaps the best case yet for the NHL that they have the tools necessary to take on the challenges of the cheap shots and ugly incidents, all they have to do is read their own rule book.

Unfortunately for hockey fans (not to mention concerned players) his efforts seem to have fallen on deaf ears, in the course of the Globe and Mail interview Hood explains that he contacted NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman with his thoughts but was provided with a reply that suggested he was wrong.  The Commissioner explaining in reply that in his interpretation of things, such incidents as the Matt Cooke hit of a few weeks ago is legal under the guidelines of the current rule book.

This is bad news for those hoping for a quick fix to the problem, as past history has shown once Mr. Bettman makes a declaration there is no backing down, no retreat and never, ever do you hear the words "we were wrong".

And there we guess is the problem with the NHL these days, while its reassuring to know that NHL officials can read, it appears that comprehension is a bit of a struggle, not to mention interpretation of what seems quite simple to follow.

As Mr. Hood explains the charging rule, it seems perfectly logical to think that this could very well be the solution to  the string of ugly incidents that threaten to return the NHL to the back of the sports entertainment lines behind the likes of UFC, Roller Derby and any other combination of pseudo sports you can think of.

Alas, it's not the first time the league has been provided with a path out of a nasty situation (hello Mr. Balsillie sorry about those Coyotes) and has chosen to stick its head back into the sand, staying the course regardless of the path of misery it portends.

When give the chance to do the right thing and solve a problem before it gets completely beyond its grasp, the current regime always seems to dig in and take to the trenches, espousing a solid we know best mantra and a declaration to damn the outcry approach.

That might be good for Mr. Bettman's image as a stick to your guns executive, but in the end it seems that his empire is one that is showing far too many cracks these days, a good number of which seem to be rather self inflicted mistakes that could be easily solved.

Then again the easy route just doesn't seem like the NHL's style these days, now does it.

Storm clouds on Gary Bettman's horizon

Gary Bettman launches the North American portion of the 2007-08 season on Wednesday by taking some time out of the afternoon to sit in with one of Canada's most informed and opinionated Sports talk hosts, Bob McCown.

The commissioner will appear on McCown's Prime Time Sports between 5 and 5:30 ET (2 and 2:30 PT) and field what should be a number of interesting questions from both McCown and his co-host this week Stephen Brunt.

In fact, Brunt may have published a primer on Tuesday for the Commissioner to study, featuring a couple of troubling developments for the league bureaucracy to examine and sort out. Some percolating issues, which try as he might, don't appear to be on the verge of going away any time shortly.

In his Globe and Mail column on Tuesday, Brunt examined the state of the league as they prepare to drop the puck on another chase for Lord Stanley's mug. His findings show that the league is doing quite well in Canada, where the suddenly skyrocketing loonie is making for a cash flow bonus that provides for more dollars in the Canadian franchise treasuries, while the southern teams begin to feel the pain.

Included in his column on Tuesday were a couple of interesting brush fires that have flared up this week for the league to address. The on again/off again saga of the Nashville Predators sale seems to have moved into the death throes again this week. As the new council in the Nashville area, has not smiled beneficially on some of the "changes" that the Preds would like to make to such things a lease arrangements and other financial subsidies that the city is underwriting to keep the Preds part of the Nashville scene.

Brunt also examined the washing of some dirty laundry heading into opening night, examining a Larry Brooks story for the New York Post, which reported that Madison Square Garden chief executive officer James Dolan has been busy blasting the league office for incompetent handling of the NHL brand. Dolan who seems to enjoy controversial roles these days, took time out from the legal woes that have befallen MSG to drop a little diversionary bomb at the doorstep of Gary Bettman.

Dolan believes the Rangers do a far better job selling their product in all of its permutations than the league ever could. Said Doolan, "we believe that the league continues to squander opportunities to improve our business and solidify and grow our fan base." He pulled out some interesting numbers to back his case, recounting how some 93 per cent of the NHL overall revenue (up from 91 per cent before the lockout) is generated by the teams, with only 7 per cent generated by the league.

In effect, he's probably wondering what the NHL office is doing to not only justify its existence to improve the game on a wider agenda.

All in all it's going to make for an interesting thirty minutes of Bettman, Bob and Brunt, you can check it out at The Fan 590 website or on the various Sportsnet channels available across Canada.

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There's also a good chance that the Bettman interview will be featured on the Fan590 podcast feed later on Wednesday afternoon or evening.

Dispatches from the Bettman / Balsillie battleground.

All is quiet on the front lines today, as the NHL keeps its counsel on the state of negotiations between the Predators and would be owner Jim Balsillie.

For his part, the swashbuckling billionaire who seems to have gotten onto the wrong side of the NHL Commissioner has gone to the ground as they say, not issuing any more ticket counts out of Hamilton, nor thinking aloud over potential relocations of the soon to be declawed Predators.

The last three days have seen the NHL hijack its own marquee event of the amateur draft and appear to be a collection of devious spin meisters. With a cryptic declaration making the rounds at the start of the draft that the Balsillie bid was no longer working its way through the system, many were wondering if war had been declared on the would be Canadian owner.

As it turned out, the original spin on the story wasn’t quite true, instead it was perhaps a warning shot from Craig Leipold to both sides, that he was getting tired of carrying the can on this mess and that somebody should sign some papers pretty soon.

It’s hard to fathom this vision of the NHL turning away a media savvy billionaire, more than willing to overpay for what will soon be a team that has nothing but an AHL roster. While the negotiations and backroom theatrics continue on, the Predators are dumping players and salaries at a rate last seen by the Florida Panthers when the Blockbuster money ran out. It’s not a pretty sight to see a team jettison a squad that took the franchise into the playoffs for the first time, but considering Leipold’s losses in the last few years and his obvious desire to be done with the team it’s not surprising.

But in short the NHL needs to clean up its mess and clean it up fast. Gary Bettman’s James Gagney stance was amusing at the start, but realistically Balsillie is the kind of owner the leagues should be seeking out regularly. Besides the new media directions he could bring to the game through his connection with RIM, he clearly loves hockey. He’s sufficiently well off financially to bankroll a team wherever he would want to put one and he’s struck a chord with Canadians as a kind of nationalist crusader to return the game back to where it originated from. Mr. Bettman should realize when he’s got a losing hand, put down his cards and call it a day.

Terms of surrender should be negotiated as soon as possible; otherwise the Commissioner may find that his hold on his empire will begin to crumble. While he probably can find a few owners to stand with him on his battle line, there’s a very good chance that an embarrassing showdown will push his support on the issue to a very one sided defeat. Outside of Toronto and Buffalo and maybe the old hard liners in Boston and Chicago, it’s hard to see the other 26 owners saying. “Nope we don’t want his money, nor his inflated value for our franchises.”

The NHL has been known to shoot itself in the foot far too frequently, somebody needs to take the ammunition pile away from the Commissioner before its too late.

As can be found in the following links, if the NHL doesn’t solve this problem quickly, its image problem may be much worse under the glare of legal and government spotlights.

Steve Milton-Hamilton Spectator-Balsillie vs. Bettman

John Kernghan-Hamilton Spectator-Balsillie 'won't upset (NHL) apple cart'

Stephen Brunt-Globe and Mail-NHL's constitution will be put to the test

Jim Kelley-Sportsnet.ca-Do the Right Thing

Damien Cox-The Toronto Star-NHL calling the tune in Nashville

Damien Cox-The Toronto Star-There's still time for Bettman to save face

Dave Perkins-The Toronto Star-Balsillie's money talks

CBC-Balsillie deal not dead: report

Pierre LeBrun-CP-Balsillie still very much in the mix for Predators despite Friday setback

Jim Balsillie’s march to Hamilton, will it be Gary Bettman’s Waterloo?

The Commissioner’s uncomfortable look at the televised NHL Awards last night, gave away the body language of a guy in a corner. Gary Bettman looked a tad rigid in his chair after that Ron McLean joke about relocating the last half of the show to Kitchener-Waterloo, a jibe that probably tells us a lot about the state of affairs between the Commissioner and the billionaire would be hockey owner Jim Balsillie.

The bid to purchase the Nashville Predators, like the attempted purchase of the Pittsburgh Penguins before it, is starting to spin away from the commissioners grasp and he can’t like the feeling of déjà vu. Balsillie even upped the stakes in the game of poker with the NHL owners, offering the Nashville owner Craig Leipold, 240 million for his hockey team, an amount that seems out of whack even to the unseasoned eye of a non accountant.

240 million for a team in a leauge, which a fair number of years since a southern expansion still, has a negligible footprint in the USA outside of traditional markets. 240 million for a team in a league with a TV contract that allows playoff games to be punted before completion lest the majestic sight of a horse and jockey rubbing noses may be missed. 240 million dollars for a team in a league where some franchises are offering two for one deals on tickets and still don’t particularly draw well.

If you’re Craig Leipold, Balsillies' arrival is like a lottery win, after years going into debt and trying to make a go of it in Nashville, he has been offered a parachute of gold out of his financial doldrums, just let the rest of the NHL try to stop the sale and watch the fireworks.

More to the point though is why would they try to stop him from spending such money, Balsillie with his huge purchase price instantly increases the face value of every single franchise in the 30 team loop. An artificial number that doesn’t really seem to be a true reflection of worth, but when you consider that there are at least three or four Nashvilles in the league at the moment, dollars are dancing...

The problem for the NHL is of course, Mr. Balsillie appears to not want to call the land of the Opry Home, but instead would seem to prefer the working mans foundry of Hamilton for his 240 million dollar investment.

Not a problem for the majority of the owners we suspect, but a concern for Toronto and Buffalo. The Sabres are probably worried for their ticket base, as perhaps half of their season tickets are owned by residents of the golden horseshoe area of Ontario, put a team in Hamilton and the traffic flow on game night might be North instead of Southeast in a year or so.

For the Leafs it’s just the nerve of someone thinking of poaching into their long held territory, a fiefdom which they protect with much zeal. Never mind the fact that the only way to get a Leafs season ticket is for Grampa to die off and leave them in the will, the Leafs have enjoyed uninterrupted attention in Southern Ontario far beyond when young Jim Balsillie probably first saw his first blackberry patch and went aha. To share such lucrative turf with an interloper and a pushy one at that, probably has the office dwellers of the Air Canada Centre looking at nuclear weapons as a way to stem the invasion.

Television of course is what’s at stake, adding a team in Hamilton will cut into that cash cow of the digital world and its non stop attention given to the mighty Blue and White. From Sportsnet through TSN and to the Leafs very own television network Leafs TV, the Leafs are like something from Orwell, they are always there. And they probably aren’t inclined to share.

For Gary Bettman the headache is surely to get worse before it gets better, while the Leafs and Sabres will have their reasons for protection, other NHL owners may wonder why they are willing to let an opportunity slip by to not pay equalization to a market that doesn’t seem to like hockey that much. The Preds reportedly made the largest withdrawals from the equalization pool, a situation that is likely not to happen upon relocation to a hockey mad market like Hamilton. In addition to putting dollars in their pockets upfront, Balsillie is unlikley to take them out at the other end of the season.

There are rumblings that the NHL is a little put off by the full speed ahead approach of Balsillies group and the forming storm clouds that his entry to the league may bring. Gary Bettman may find that Mr. Balsillie emboldens other owners who may be tiring of the attempts to inject hockey into areas that don’t seem to want it, while those that would be great successes are left off the invitation list. If you were to pick one market for a relocation, you can’t help but think Hamilton is the most likely to succeed. Hockey is the culture of the area, the population not only understands the game, they hold it in reverence like Winnipeg and Quebec City; they share a longing for the game. The NHL would surely do worse than planting its flag in the Steel city.

Already deposits in Hamilton for tickets for a team that may or may not come to town, already outpace ticket sales in the town the franchise sits in. Clearly Hamilton is stepping up to what is their best and probably last chance to gain a franchise, for a Commissioner that claims to want to protect hockey in its homeland the prospect of telling Hamiltonians to get lost can't be a happy one, hence his pursed lips and shifting butt at the Elgin theatre.

The grimace (unintended or not) said it all on Thursday night, Balsillie is becoming the stone in Mr. Bettman’s shoe, only we suspect that betting against the stone would be an unwise choice to make.

Where it leaves the Commissioner when it is all played out could be the larger issue of the NHL for the league and it’s owners, especially if he’s finding himself further and further away from their goals of financial salvation.

Below some links to the growing file of coverage on the chess match that seems to be developing between the Commissioner and the prospective owner.

Hamilton NHL ticket deposits leap past Nashville's base
Preds selling out... in Hamilton
Copps Coliseum designed for expansion
Bettman's Balsillie, U.S. TV contract conundrum
Balsillie good for the NHL
Balsillie buzz swarms award show
Balsillie, NHL on collision course
Bumpy road for Balsillie
Cherry urges NHL to support Balsillie
Sabres mum on Preds potential move
Leipold has millions of reasons to speak up
Predators inch closer to Hamilton
Tickets, who needs tickets?
Balsillie shouldn't overplay his hand
Beware Balsillies competitive fever
Predators owner invokes escape clause in lease
Nashville concentrating on buying more tickets to keep Predators
City rallies around Preds
Nashville fans plan to fight back
NHL, not Balsillie Hamilton's toughest opponent
Hamilton council OKs deal for prospective NHL team
Council's Tennessee two-step
Doughnuts, Copps not appetizing for NHL
Hamilton accepts Preds
Balsillie attracts competition watchdog
Many years in the making

Bettman and the Bobcat

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman makes a media appearance on the Fan 590 and Sportsnet on Thursday. The commissioner is scheduled to appear in first part of the 6-7 pm (EST) time slot 3-4 PST.

It's a rare opportunity to hear some of the issues of the day get an airing as host Bob McCown and this weeks co host Jim Kelley knock down the items on their lists of the last few weeks.

It should prove to be a lively bit of radio as the commissioner answers questions no doubt consisting of his future with the league, franchise relocation's and or expansion and whatever else McCown and Kelley can come up with.

You can find the program streaming on the air at the Fan 590, or listen to their podcast later in the night. It also will air on the simulcast portions of Rogers Sportsnet across the country.

They were talking hockey in Vancouver today, but not in a good way!

Well the NHL has its wish, fans in Western Canada were talking hockey after the all star break, but nobody was coming up with anything good to say. After a three day break of meetings, skills tests and a glorified practice skate and shoot, the league will soon be sent back to rigors of the regular season schedule.

While the players pick up their game from where they left off, the fans have much more to chew over. And it would seem that in Western Canada at least, there’s a pretty bad case of indigestion.

The Bill Good Show, a talk show on Vancouver’s news and information station CKNW, took on the topic of NHL indifference to the West on Thursday. Good had a number of guests for a one hour examination of how the NHL is treating the hinterlands, coming off the botched scheduling consultations of the last week in Dallas.

Good talked with CKNW sportscaster Neil MacRae, author, journalist and Fan 590 radio personality Stephen Brunt, Montreal Gazette columnist Pat Hickey and Ottawa Citizen Hockey writer Allen Panzeri.

The course of the one hour program went over a number of contentious issues in the West, such as the scheduling bungle this year and apparently now next year as well, the power of the Commissioner or lack of when it comes to the good of the game and rumours of yet another expansion, deemed by all as nothing but a cash grab idea floated by the current owners.

Macrae led the charge for the West, in his own caustic but correct style on this issue he basically said that the eastern teams were leaving their western brothers out to dry; such is their own course of self interest east of the Manitoba border. His point about scheduling explained all you needed to know about the mess the NHL finds itself in, where the Canucks will face the Minnesota Wild at least eight times in a regular season, but will seemingly never see the likes of Sidney Crosby or other rumoured eastern stars any time soon.

Hickey and Panzeri offered up some background on the possible thought process that goes through the Canadiens and Senators management teams, who seem to have turned their backs on their western cousins this time around,

The death knell was sounded for the CBC’s Hockey Day in Canada feature, which most likely will see an American team or two involved in next years production, should they decide to carry on with their tradition. With the same scheduling plan in place for 2007-08 there’s a very good chance at least one of the Canadian teams won’t be suiting up for the triple header of hockey worship. A boneheaded error if ever there was one by the NHL if it comes to pass.

Stephen Brunt gave an informative examination of the issues under Gary Bettman’s leadership, pointing out that while many would like to think Bettman can crack a whip, he really is at the beholden of those who employ him.

When the hockey folk weren’t providing their opinions, the audience took to the lines and were not happy in their comments over the direction of the NHL these days and the apparent dis-regard for what the fans really want.

It was a lively one hour discussion and proves just how passionate that folks in Vancouver and British Columbia can get about their game and the stewardship it is under from the NHL offices in New York City.

It probably will be helpful to Mr. Bettman in one thing at any rate, not that there is any danger of it happening any time soon, but if he was planning on a trip to the western territories, he might wish to take a pass. He won’t be the most popular guy at the rink should he show up in the next little while.

You can listen in to the entire hour program by checking out the CKNW audio vault here, the program aired between 9 and 10 am on Thursday, it will be left on the audio vault for the next two weeks. Giving the Commissioner and the eastern owners lots of time to test the winds coming in from the west!

The Bettman Backlash?

Before the NHL’s year long sabbatical a year ago, Gary Bettman’s cache in Canada was rather limited, having overseen the relocation of both Quebec and Winnipeg to American markets, the perception of the Commissioner as being somewhat anti-Canadian in his thoughts on Canadian franchises reached a fever pitch.

It was not uncommon that in his rare forays into the frozen wastelands of the NHL he would be greeted by a sound universally known as and indication of distrust. That wasn’t Lou he was hearing from Edmonton to Ottawa.

Perhaps an unfair perception by the cradle of the puck, but none the less there was a definitive distrust of anything he said or did when it came to the fate of Canadian franchises.

Things began to turn a bit for Bettman when the Ottawa franchise suffered it’s meltdown during the Bryden years, rather than smooth the way for the moving vans to hit the 401, Bettman counseled patience and eventually the Ottawa faithful were rewarded with Eugene Melnyk’s rather secure wallet.

The unofficial Canadian franchise in Buffalo likewise dodged the relocation bullet, as the NHL propped up the struggling Sabres in their Buffalo home while the sought out more secure and interested owners (not to mention ones without legal problems).

The lock out year brought the fans in the north fully on the side of the Commissioner as cost certainty, wage caps and a need to knuckle down financially was sold as the best way to keep a strong Canadian presence in the NHL.

With the lock out year out of the way, even Edmonton, once considered the next possible team to bolt from Canada, had stabilized over the last few years, last year returning to that place of past glory a Stanley Cup final.

All in all, the impression was that while Quebec and Winnipeg were gone, the remaining teams were strong in the new NHL, and who knew, with a set wage scale, costs under control and a few struggling franchises in the sunbelt there just may be life in the Canadian hinter land once again.

But, for Mr. Bettman, all that good karma has run out. The mess that has become the Pittsburgh Penguins sale has brought the Canadian hockey fan to the boiling point once again. The unspoken belief is that the NHL purposely has put too many roadblocks in the way of moving the Pens north of the 49th. Under the principle of wanting to keep the team in Pittsburgh, the idea of moving them to Hamilton, Kitchener, Winnipeg or Quebec City is considered a long shot at best. This despite the simple fact that this Pens team would be a sell out in any Canadian city it chose to make home.

What annoys Canadians besides the obvious slight at their hockey genealogy, is the fact the list of possible suitors for the Pens isn’t exactly an A list of hockey hotbeds. While Houston might be workable spot, the prospect of Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Las Vegas, the perennial Portland or the suddenly surprising Seattle leave many hockey fans in the north just a little bemused.

Stephen Brunt has examined the Bettman agenda for the Globe and Mail; it’s a fascinating look at how he’s shaping the league, still sticking to a foot print in markets that aren’t showing a particular affinity for the game.

It won’t be something that Canadian hockey fans will enjoy reading, but at least they’ll have a better understanding as to why the NHL still insists on fanciful dreams of sunbelt hockey thriving, while the frozen home of the game offers up it’s unrequited love for the sport.

THE GAME
Brunt: Bettman's vision for NHL unwavering
STEPHEN BRUNT
Globe and Mail Update
December 22, 2006

Not so long ago, the commissioner of the National Hockey League spoke to a crowd in Edmonton and was rewarded with a standing ovation.

That was during the great hockey labour war, when Gary Bettman managed to convince many Canadians that the battle was being fought by ownership on behalf of small-market clubs on this side of the border.

It was a crock, but it was an appealing argument in a place where anti-player and anti-union feelings already ran high.

And after Bettman won his glorious victory, it was appealing, also, to extrapolate just a little bit.
Maybe in the new, cost-controlled NHL, there was a place for more Canadian teams. Maybe the retreat from the free market when it came to player salaries would allow more modest, but actual hockey-loving burghs back into the club.

The events this week surrounding the Pittsburgh Penguins are mighty murky, with prospective owner Jim Balsillie suggesting he was side-swiped by the NHL at the last minute, and the league, through deputy commissioner Bill Daly, suggesting that if Balsillie says any such thing, he's not telling the truth.

We may never know whether Balsillie was seriously contemplating moving the Penguins north, or whether the NHL, terrified of that possibility, did its best to stop him by attaching a long list of conditions to the sale.

Still, there's one crystal-clear truth that emerged amid all the finger pointing: The 40-year-old dream that spurred the NHL's great 1960s expansion, and more explicitly, the conceit that has been at the heart of Bettman's reign as commissioner, is still very much alive — at least in the heads of those who run the league.

They believe, still, that professional hockey can become a significant factor in the American sports environment. They believe, still, that there is serious money to be made from U.S. network television. They believe, still, that hockey can be dropped into non-traditional markets, expanding the sport's "footprint," seeding new shinny hotbeds wherever it goes.

Asked this week about the league's policy on relocating franchises, Daly said there is nothing to prevent a team from moving to Canada. But in the criteria he laid out by which the governors would accept or reject a move, the good of the league — in terms of expanding the market base and satisfying television networks — was clearly of greater importance than increasing the NHL's presence in places packed with rabid fans where it has already fully exploited the broadcast possibilities.

The league's position is that it's now impossible for an owner to pull an Al Davis, to simply change cities in the middle of the night and then dare the commissioner to stop him. Bylaws have been amended in the light of an appeal-court ruling that may well have closed that legal loophole.

So if a team can't go where the governors don't want it to go, and if they're still buying in to the notion of the NHL as a significant, continental brand, then hello Kansas City, hello Las Vegas, hello Houston and hello Oklahoma City — and forget about Winnipeg, Quebec City or Kitchener-Waterloo.

There are new, or relatively new, arenas available in all of those U.S. cities now, and according to the league, there are several would-be owners for the Penguins, even if Balsillie is gone for good. Barring a last-minute cave-in by the politicians in Pennsylvania (which isn't out of the question), you'll soon enough be hearing how Sidney Crosby will sell the sport to the American heathens from a new home.

You say this feels familiar, that you've been here before, that you vaguely remember a fellow named Gretzky in Los Angeles, the Stanley Cup being contested in tropical climes, glowing pucks, hockey-playing robots and the U.S. breakthrough being at hand.

And now, there are all of those half-empty buildings, television coverage on a network (Versus) a whole lot of people can't seem to locate, a network deal for no money down and a free fall from being almost the fourth major sport to something approaching niche, cult, hardcore-only status.
(Question: When did hockey last appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, that arbiter of mainstream American sports taste? Answer: Aside from a Steve Yzerman commemorative edition produced for the Detroit market, it was Oct. 14, 2002.)

But Bettman is undeterred. He is still trying to accomplish the mission he was hired to perform. He can't make a hard left turn now, or ever.

When might the NHL add teams in Canada? When the business implodes, or when the vision changes — which might amount to the same thing.

Either would require, or inspire, a change at the top.