Gary Bettman

The imperial commissionership

Content warning: This story contains a lot of frank discussion of sexual assault.

On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced they had reached a settlement with Jarrod and Erin Skalde regarding a sexual assault by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins coach John Donatelli. As part of that settlement, no further details will be released, which is very much the outcome that Gary Bettman‘s NHL wanted.

That story is now owned by the league, whose new culture of accountability shares the same mission as the previous culture of accountability: protect owners’ assets. Wherever the damage is stopped, it must be stopped before it reaches the capital. That is all Gary Bettman’s job is and all it has ever been.

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By Peter Hassett 11 months ago

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Take the 2010 Chicago Blackhawks off the Stanley Cup

Content warning: This story contains a lot of discussion of sexual assault.

There was a meeting about it.

On Sunday, May 23, 2010, John McDonough, Al MacIsaac, Stan Bowman, Jay Blink, Kevin Cheveldayoff, and Joel Quenneville got together to hear a report from team counselor Jim Gary. Gary’s report, which Gary believed, was that that video coach Brad Aldrich had pressured Kyle Beach into sex, which is a crime called rape.

Those seven men decided to do nothing. They did nothing that day, or during the Cup finals, or during the summer that followed. They did nothing to protect or restore Beach. They did nothing to prevent Aldrich from victimizing more young people after he left the organization with their recommendation.

Why they did nothing is open-ended. Maybe they did not believe Beach’s account. Maybe the rampant homophobia in the team culture obscured for them the actual violation. Maybe leadership did not want any distractions during their championship run. We know John McDonough did not want any “negative publicity.” Whatever. For some or all of those reasons, they failed to take any action.

Or, put more succinctly, they did nothing Because It’s The Cup™.

The 2010 Chicago Blackhawks put winning the Cup above the very lowest benchmark of moral responsibility, and that’s why they don’t deserve their title. The NHL should vacate the 2010 Stanley Cup Championship and remove the Chicago Blackhawks from the Stanley Cup.

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By Peter Hassett 11 months ago

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Gary Bettman says no NHL jersey ads next season but ‘it’s something we’re looking at’

Gary Bettman announced that jersey ads would not be coming to the NHL next season, but signaled it’s very much on the table and its implentation could come in the near future.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s inevitable,” Bettman said. “It’s something that makes good sense for us to be considering and looking at but certainly not for next season. Beyond that, I’m not prepared to predict but it’s something we’re looking at.”

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By Ian Oland 1 year ago

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NHL’s participation in 2022 Olympics remains ‘a work in progress’, Gary Bettman questions logic of taking part during pandemic

In the newest CBA, the NHL gave into the NHLPA’s demands and agreed to return to the Olympics in 2022 and 2026. However, the coronavirus pandemic is complicating matters for the Beijing Games.

Monday, before Game One of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final between the Montreal Canadiens and defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commish Bill Daly met with the press digitally via Zoom and gave an update on negotiations.

They were not optimistic.

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By Ian Oland 1 year ago

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Arbitrator cites NHL’s past excessive punishment of Tom Wilson in Nazem Kadri decision

Nazem Kadri’s eight-game suspension from the NHL was upheld by an independent arbitrator on Tuesday.

Kadri received the nearly double-digit ban after nailing Justin Faulk with a blindside hit to the head during Game Two of the Avalanche-Blues’ first-round series on May 19.

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By Ian Oland 1 year ago

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Athletic report suggests Tom Wilson was suspended for Brandon Carlo hit because Gary Bettman ‘didn’t like the optics’

Tom Wilson avoided being suspended for starting a line brawl against the New York Rangers on Monday, but he wasn’t so lucky earlier in the season.

In March 2021, Wilson was suspended for seven games for a hit he made on Brandon Carlo that sent the Bruins defenseman to the hospital. It was the fifth time Wilson had been suspended by the Department of Player Safety in his career.

The Capitals believed (strongly) that the hit was legal; Wilson’s supplemental discipline marked the first time in NHL history a player was suspended for boarding on a hit that wasn’t from behind. “On the ice, even the ref said like ‘it’s not two minutes. It’s a [clean] hit’ and the guy gets seven games,” Alex Ovechkin said.

In an unusually broad explainer video, DoPS reasoned that the “totality of circumstances” surrounding the Carlo hit required Wilson to be suspended seven games.

Now we’re learning more context surrounding that suspension, which seems to explain why Wilson’s punishment was so severe.

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By Ian Oland 1 year ago

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Gary Bettman: NHL helmet ads are ‘likely’ staying long term

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly met with the media on Thursday to reflect on the one-year anniversary of the NHL suspending its 2019-20 season due to the coronavirus pandemic. The two executives celebrated the league’s accomplishments during that time and looked forward to the future.

“We completed a CBA extension, we negotiated a new US media rights agreement, and we signed 13 new corporate partners with the league,” a proud Bettman said. “We created new assets – the helmet decals, the virtual slot ads, the division sponsors — to help our clubs retain 100 million dollars in revenues.”

Bettman said that the temporary helmet ads, which were previously reported as only a one year experiment, are likely here to stay.

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By Ian Oland 2 years ago

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Alex Ovechkin’s lost goals and who is to blame

Here is a story that I’ve put off as long as I could. The short version is that Alex Ovechkin has been unfairly deprived of almost 100 goals. The long version is longer, and it has graphs in it.

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By Peter Hassett 2 years ago

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Report: NHL/NHLPA having talks about a 52 to 56 game regular season that starts on January 15

The NHL and NHLPA have been cranky with each other over the last week and there have been some concerning headlines such as Gary Bettman says NHL not trying to back out of CBA and NHLPA weighing options if NHL cancels season.

But on Friday, there were finally some “positive developments” — Elliotte Friedman’s words, not mine — on next season. According to Friedman, “it sounds like” the NHL’s Escrow Ask of the players is going away and many the details for next season have been settled.

Friedman made his comments to Sportsnet 590 The Fan on Friday morning.

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By Ian Oland 2 years ago

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Gary Bettman says NHL exploring temporary hubs and divisional realignment for next season

Gary Bettman appeared on a virtual panel discussion on Tuesday along with MLB commissioner Rob Manred and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. At the 2020 Paley International Council Summit chat, the NHL commissioner revealed several avenues the league was exploring to play next season.

While pulling off the 2020 playoffs in a bubble was hard, playing the 2020-21 regular season may be an even more difficult needle to thread as the league cannot afford and is unwilling to do a full bubble solution again. The league is currently aiming to start the season on January 1, 2021, but some owners, such as the Golden Knights’ Bill Foley, believe that the start date will be pushed back into February.

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By Ian Oland 2 years ago

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