Hall-of-Famer Lindsay blames Bettman for loss of fans

[Jwo 7]

http://winnipegsun.com/Sports/Hockey/2007/...708377-sun.html

By CP

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens commemorated their 81 year-old rivalry with the Detroit Red Wings before the two Original Six teams played their only game of the season yesterday.

It is that disparity in the NHL's current schedule that has Red Wings Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay believing that Detroit will never have a similar rivalry with another team ever again.

Lindsay said yesterday that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is to blame if attendance numbers are down in Detroit because fans in Hockeytown are sick of seeing teams like Columbus and Nashville so often every year.

"We had it for a couple of years there with Colorado and Detroit, but Bettman has taken advantage of Detroit because of it being a great hockey city and it being a well managed hockey team," Lindsay said.

"These people, they don't want to see Columbus. I understand what he's trying to do, he's trying to use the strength of Detroit to carry on some of these weaker teams."

[Z and D for the C 712]

Surely the schedule changes next year will help.

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Keep on preaching Ted. I agree 100%.

[theman19 47]

Ted Lindsay has forgotten more hockey than Gary Bettman could ever hope to know.

[Duck Guy 86]

Surely the schedule changes next year will help.

hey.. thats exactly what i was thinking right after i read the story... lol the new schedule is exactly what teams with struggling attendance numbers need.

[akustyk 84]

so, we have NHL first fu* it up with expansion dragging it to 30 teams in places where hockey need significant money pumping only to survive (and I don't even dare to say flourish(sp)).

then Gary's f* it up with dumb schedule which was supposed (again!) to lift those new teams at the expense of those franchises which have established link to fans and good economical background.

nice, really nice. so we have the NHL being smart with guarding business of such hockey-traditional sites like Phoenix or Nashville and rightly screwing PPL north of Chi-town who know sh* about this game, huh? or was it the other way around?

Edited December 6, 2007 by akustyk

[BringHomeTheCup! 0]

After reading this article, I had to sit down and think about it for a while.

While Bettman is the easy whipping boy, I think you have to deflect some blame on his bosses, the board of governors. He is basically their puppet. If the BOG thought he wasn't doing a good job, he'd be gone. Now I'm not saying I like Bettman, or that he should share in the blame. Just that I think there are more people to include in the blame.

[wingfaninco 0]

Amen Ted!

Edited December 6, 2007 by wingfaninco

[Rob the Badger 0]

[b.shanafan14 733]

Well said, Ted.... exactly what Bettman has tried to do for years. Use teams like Detroit to carry the struggling hockey markets. Hockey is healthy in Detroit, Montreal, and Toronto, so no need for them to be playing each other too often... Imagine if we got to see Montreal at least twice a year? That game was a great one to watch because of all the emotion evoked, and thats purely from tradition and atmosphere. That one game against a traditional rival with no recent bad blood was more exciting then every Wings-Blues game we'll see this year combined....

[irishtemper14+25 11]

haahahaha thats hilarious stamp

agreed ted =D

[BlueMonk 102]

After reading this article, I had to sit down and think about it for a while.

While Bettman is the easy whipping boy, I think you have to deflect some blame on his bosses, the board of governors. He is basically their puppet. If the BOG thought he wasn't doing a good job, he'd be gone. Now I'm not saying I like Bettman, or that he should share in the blame. Just that I think there are more people to include in the blame.

Agreed. Bettman deserves a share of the blame, but above all else he's a figurehead for the league's ownership. An ownership that fans, including many on this board, cut a lot of slack during the lockout.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

Agreed. Bettman deserves a share of the blame, but above all else he's a figurehead for the league's ownership. An ownership that fans, including many on this board, cut a lot of slack during the lockout.

True.

One of my biggest problems with Bettman is that he's basically a slappy for whatever the BOG wants to do. And many of them have proven themselves to be idiots when it comes to running an NHL franchise. Ideally a real commissioner would have a passion and understanding of the game (which Bettman doesn't) along with the diplomacy skills (which Bettman doesn't) to get the owners to agree to ideas that are ultimately good for the NHL even if it doesn't help them in the short term. Instead he seems to do pretty much whatever the hell most of them want, even if it ultimately ends up hurting the game, and the most irritating part his bald face lies about what the fans think.

As for the low numbers being his fault, all you really have to do is look at the popularity of the game when Bettman took over the reigns (basically the 94 season), and where the popularity of the game is now, 13 years and two work stoppages later.

And I think you bring up a great point about the lockout. People here were all over the players, calling them greedy, and mostly siding with the owners. Now that the game is back, I think more people are realizing that maybe it wasn't all the players fault. And that there are some bad owners out there.

Edited December 6, 2007 by haroldsnepsts

[Grittzkey 1]

maybe Paul Tagliabu will wanna come outta retirement and commish the nhl ?

[Lidsyukerberg 0]

It doesn't help that he is changing the rules in a way that is bound to turn it into figure skating with a stick and a puck. Hey everybody, let's load up the kids and go down and see "Red Wings on Ice", weeeee.

Does anybody remember the old ads on tv (I can't remember if it was Fox or what), that would have different sports scenes like bowling, or golf, and the guy is lining up his shot when suddenly another guy comes in from the side of the screen and body checks the guy to the ground? "Everything would be better if it were hockey", it would say. It's just unfortunate that we can't use those ads any more because it would have to end with a ref handing out penalties. One for the guy who body checked the other guy, and one for the other guy for taking a dive (or being in the way (i.e. interference), whichever fit the situation better).

I say Bettman brings hockey back, forget the schedule and focus on getting rid of the stupid penalties. That's just my two cents anyway. I still watch, and I still love my Wings, but I just get so aggravated. My wife can barely watch any more because of all the lame penalties (called on either team).

Of course, on the flip side, my wife can get me to watch figure skating now. As long as they have a stick and a puck I'm in.

This was edited because I added a sig.

Edited December 7, 2007 by Lidsyukerberg

[b.shanafan14 733]

Nothing says "ridiculous" like calling tripping on a player and simultaneously calling diving on the player that was tripped. Either the one player tripped the other or the other dove.

welcome to the LGW boards, and I couldn't agree more. Its either dive or trip... Yet another fantastic Bettman idea...

[motorcitykid 42]

The only thing I wanna do is slap Bettman senseless. Then i'd like to hold him for ransom until he reverts the schedule back to HOW IT SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE BEEN and allows Detroit to meet the Habs, Leafs and similar teams who actually hold meaning for what was once TRUE RIVALRIES.

It is a joke we play teams like Nashville & Columbus 8 times, yet play the Habs once, oh, what ... every 10 years or so??

[Lidsyukerberg 0]

Thanks for the welcome b.shanafan14. This place is great, I think I am going to enjoy it here. Hopefully I can post often, but I'm usually pretty busy so I'll post when I can.

Edited December 7, 2007 by Lidsyukerberg