Bettman's interview on CBC last night

[EuroTwin 240]

He's done so many weird things that I don't think any hockey fan will view him as anything but an idiot.

I'll take it one further. Even people who aren't hockey fans were texting me when he was on CBC last night and leaving me messages on facebook. "Who is this ******* tool" "How did he get this job" "He so worthless" "I've never seen a bigger tool" and so on and so forth. People who don't even follow hockey unless the Wings are in the Finals.

I agree with all of you guys but i gotta say, I watched game 6 of the finals again last night (from 08) and i kinda feel sorry for him getting booed down there and shaking all over the place, i just couldn't imagine how any one can deal with that every time he steps on to the ice for what is essentialy the biggest moment of the year. As lame as this sounds I hate thinking about how people like his family must feel watching it too.

Then again hes probably s*** at decision making at home too so maybe they enjoy it

I felt kind of bad for him then as well. But only for like a second. And then I remember what an asswipe he is.

[Uniblab 12]

My guess is that Bettman just hates all sports.

I'll bet he was the kid that was always getting shoved into his locker by the jocks.

This is his way of getting even.

[Theophany 110]

Wow, I have always hated the guy, but this interview actually made me hate him less. His points on the cap were dead on correct. His points on the ‘bankruptcy issues†were also accurate as to the future ramifications. Maybe the team will move, but its up to the NHL to decide and not the BK courts.

As for the taxpayer money; he did look like a whinny. But what’s the league to do? not take the money? I blame the cities who give team money whether its football baseball or hockey. (or even if its Citi Bank, GM, or farm subsidies … sorry I should stay on hockey)

I still do not like him, but not because of anything he said in this interview. It's the whossification of the game and his attempt to make individual players bigger than the team (i.e., the NBA) that i don't like.

Yeah, I agree with you. He made some pretty valid points.

The owners cannot decide to just up and move their franchises; how fast do you think the Illitch family would move out of Detroit, were the Red Wings not as successful as they are, if the ownership were in charge of their location?

A guy with a s***ton of money should not be able to just come in, say, "hey, I'm gonna buy this team and move them to Canada, k?"

And yeah, it's also not his fault that the franchises use taxpayer money to build stuff, or that a team is terrible and can't come up with more than 15 players to dress.

I hate him mainly because he's trying to make the NHL into the NBA played on ice. Granted, he's not trying to take the physicality out of hockey like they are in basketball, but he's trying to set it up to glorify the player over the team. 90% of people that I talk to about hockey that don't follow it know Sidney Crosby. Hell, I've run into people here in Washington that didn't know that Vancouver even had an NHL team, yet they still know who Sid the Kid is.

That's the big problem I have with him. The NHL is not the NBA; we all have favorite players, but most of us follow teams, not players. This isn't the Kobe and LeBron show; it's hockey. Teams have history in our sport, and turning it into the NBA on ice skates takes away from that history.

[Lovin Jiri Fischer 147]

Wow, I have always hated the guy, but this interview actually made me hate him less. His points on the cap were dead on correct. His points on the ‘bankruptcy issues†were also accurate as to the future ramifications. Maybe the team will move, but its up to the NHL to decide and not the BK courts.

No, I completely agree that it's the NHL's decision and not the courts to decide who moves. But the problem is why won't the NHL make the decision to let Phoenix move when they are failing? Bettman is pretty much taking after the US government by throwing money at the problem and hoping that fixes things.

Edited June 3, 2009 by Lovin Jiri Fischer

[Mike 0]

Ron MacLean tried really hard to KO Bettman but I thought Bettman did a good job in explaining every one of his answers. It's obvious that he is not completely retarded, but I still don't like him.

Edited June 3, 2009 by Mike

[NHLrules? 32]

Funny how this is the only league that refuses to fix its issues. Especially when it comes to officiating.

This guy sees his officials not following the rules his league created, and then tells the media they are correct.

This only adds to the confusion for new fans and hurts the legitimacy of the NHL.

Thats what we get for having lawyers run companies.

[NHLrules? 32]

Funny how this is the only league that refuses to fix its issues. Especially when it comes to officiating.

This guy sees his officials not following the rules his league created, and then tells the media they are correct.

This only adds to the confusion for new fans and hurts the legitimacy of the NHL.

Thats what we get for having lawyers run companies.

[sether 5]

I thought McLean took Bettman to the woodshed on alot of his questioning. Anyone else notice how Bettman kept moving his hands around while he was talking.

[Mike 0]

Funny how this is the only league that refuses to fix its issues. Especially when it comes to officiating.

This guy sees his officials not following the rules his league created, and then tells the media they are correct.

This only adds to the confusion for new fans and hurts the legitimacy of the NHL.

Thats what we get for having lawyers run companies.

I agree with you but I also disagree with you. The NHL does have problems with its officiating and they do not respond to them publicly. However, take a look at Brad Watson and Dan O'Halloran. They each had a monumental f*** up and they both were not carried over into the next round of playoffs. They are getting punished in a way but no where near enough punishment IMO.

[T.Low 1,011]

Ron MacLean tried really hard to KO Bettman but I thought Bettman did a good job in explaining every one of his answers. It's obvious that he is not completely retarded, but I still don't like him.

I agree. Bettman is very smart and very eloquent, too eloquent for most hockey fans to the point of them being uncomfortable with it. The only times he interrupted McLean was when he a) didn't understand what McLean was saying and wanted clarification before he continued, or b) when he had to correct McLeans numbers and make sure he knew that was not accurate.

The Team 1040 Vancouver had a caller that is an "off ice" official in Phoenix and he explained a completely different side of the Pheonix situation. The side of the Phoenix story that you neverhear is that things were actually looking bright until Gretzky and his group bought into the team and took the franchise into a total different direction. Among other things, they moved the team from downtown to a place out in the boonies and according to this guy, that was a very bad move, and no one wanted to go way the f*** out there to whach hockey. They changed the logos and jerseys, they quit all the community outreach programs they were doing , all sorts of bad moves and things have been going down hill ever since. The team doesn't do anything in the community anymore compared to what they used to do.

And yes, its a franchise, the owner does not have soveriegnty over a franchise.

If you are going to grown the league, of course the demographics of Phoenix look great. Who lives there? Everyone from Chicago, Detroit, Philly, Boston, Minnesota, British Columbia. You would think there is potential for these people to latch onto a new team, and go see there hometown team when they come visit. (which is why there will be a team in Vegas). And the city is suppossed to keep growing and growing faster than most other cities.

People got to get past the geeky persona of the guy. He shakes cause he's got some sort of nerve condition going on, just like my boss does, BFG! He's not nearly as bad as everyone likes to portray him to be.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with his interview.

Edited June 3, 2009 by T.Low

[evilmrt 636]

HAHAHA INSPECTOR GADGET! Watching the interview, he seems so clueless about how hes damaging the NHL. I liked his brush-off of the head of the player's union....very classy. Then he dismisses the 212.5 million offer, saying its "way less", yet we have not ONCE seen any such report in the media, or in the trial. However, we DO know that the offers to keep the team in Phoenix (not even Phoenix!!! Glendale, folks!) is much less. Then he seems to have no problem with a team losing 400 million dollars, and taxpayers footing the bill for hockey arenas in the middle of nowhere.

What an arrogant little prick.

[Electrophile 3,554]

I agree with all of you guys but i gotta say, I watched game 6 of the finals again last night (from 08) and i kinda feel sorry for him getting booed down there and shaking all over the place, i just couldn't imagine how any one can deal with that every time he steps on to the ice for what is essentialy the biggest moment of the year. As lame as this sounds I hate thinking about how people like his family must feel watching it too.

Then again hes probably s*** at decision making at home too so maybe they enjoy it

Ordinarily I'm all for bashing him because he IS a complete moron, but that's the only time when I wish the fans would lay off. I mean, you just won the Stanley Cup, it's exciting and everyone is overjoyed......don't start being bitter and boo. Save it for another time.

So yeah, I completely agree with you.

[Lovin Jiri Fischer 147]

Ordinarily I'm all for bashing him because he IS a complete moron, but that's the only time when I wish the fans would lay off. I mean, you just won the Stanley Cup, it's exciting and everyone is overjoyed......don't start being bitter and boo. Save it for another time.

So yeah, I completely agree with you.

Keep in mind that we won it in Pittsburgh last year so the majority of those fans were bitter Pens fans

[wings5gal 0]

I didn't see it, but now I've got a headagche from trying to figure out how he can possibly look like more of an idiot.

I'll try to watch it when I'm not worn out from work.

[Manoir 70]

I thought he handled himself extremely well in that interview.

Phoenix has the potential to be a great hockey market. As someone mentioned in this thread, it was really Gretzky who brought this team down by bringing in his buddies whether it was Barnett as GM or a way past his prime Claude Lemieux as a player. Remember how everyone used to say hockey will never work in Carolina?Now they have one of the loudest buildings in the league. People forget that Winnipeg was averaging 10,000 fans for the last 6-7 years of their existence, and that was with zero competition from any other sport (unless you think the CFL is a real sport).

Bettman in right on when he states that one man cannot dictate where a franchise should be moved. Imagine if 5 Western teams were in trouble and 5 guys all decided to move them eastward, it would be a logistical nightmare for the league.

If anything, it was Ron Maclean who looked foolish in the interview, especially with the whole salary cap discussion.

[T.Low 1,011]

I'll take it one further. Even people who aren't hockey fans were texting me when he was on CBC last night and leaving me messages on facebook. "Who is this ******* tool" "How did he get this job" "He so worthless" "I've never seen a bigger tool" and so on and so forth. People who don't even follow hockey unless the Wings are in the Finals.

I felt kind of bad for him then as well. But only for like a second. And then I remember what an asswipe he is.

Where'd this whole "tool" thing come from? I know its been around for years but from where? I love my tools. I got tons of 'em. Use them all time. Tools are great. Tools are useful. You need tools to survive. I don't get it.

What tool started using the word tool in a deragatory fashion? What a ******* tool he must have been. Sheesh.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

HAHAHA INSPECTOR GADGET!...

A few years ago, during my annual trip to Toronto to the HHOF, I headed south to the Air Canada Centre to do a walkabout. I'd just the building, I look up and there he was, wearing a trench coat and carrying a briefcase, going to work (the Canadian headquaters of the League is right night door to the ACC). Behind him was his female intern/assistant/go-fer, carrying his garment bag. The only thing missing was that he wasn't wearing a fedora.

[jvxp 0]

I HATE Bettman! He has to go.

[#19forPresident! 1]

[Guest E_S_A_D]

Bettman is a weasel.

[FLWINGSFAN4013 5]

hey the nhl should try out paul tagliabue. I doubt he can get booed as much as gary

[NKYWingsFan 4]

I thought McLean took Bettman to the woodshed on alot of his questioning. Anyone else notice how Bettman kept moving his hands around while he was talking.

He was working on his "Crosby Two Pump" while loosening up his jaw for the glazed doughnut workout.

[wingslionstigers 12]

The guy so so F*ing arrogant. He lives in his own little world. Has anyone actually ever seen this guy listen to what somebody else had to say before?

[fastballspecial 0]

I agreed with Bettman about the salary cap topic. I think it's ridiculous to allow teams extra cap space if they are experiencing more injuries than normal. That's called MANAGING YOUR CAP SPACE. That's really the only point I agreed on with Gary.

I really think that this whole "moving Phoenix" thing is just a competition to see who has bigger balls. It's almost pathetic to see grown men acting like this over a hockey team. I say they just do what's right.