NHL 2011 PLAYOFFS

fox_mulderX

people can hate on bettman all they want, but the sport has grown so much in the united states since he's taken over. the amount of american players in the draft has increased.. just a few years back the first two players in the first round were american (kane and johnson i think). that's never happened before. not to mention there are players from untraditional markets being drafted. i think las vegas was one last year or the year before. how about the winter classic? the draft lottery? managing to keep the sport alive after the lockout and then actually making it better?
granted, he did mess up by putting so many teams down south. a few isn't a bad idea, but he flooded the market.

many canadians will probably comment saying that my post is biased towards americans, and yes it is. as a canadian, i know that the majority of canada will follow hockey no matter what. it's like many of us are brainwashed... jesus, they aired that stupid game where people skate down a hill of ice wearing hockey equipment on TSN instead of march madness... don't worry, march madness was on TSN 2, a channel that no one watches.

81

fox_mulderX wrote:

just a few years back the first two players in the first round were american (kane and johnson i think).

kane and JVR

Heisenberg

Kudos to Stevie Y

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=6395598

restlesssoul

Heisenberg wrote:

Kudos to Stevie Y

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=6395598

you gotta think hes winning that. the total turnaround tampa has had has been impressive. Stamkos blossoming doesnt hurt either.

Jason P

Too bad this is a fake pic ...

MFCarissa

The outdoor game at a football field concept was swiped from NCAA hockey. The success of the Cold War at Spartan Stadium between Michigan and Michigan State gave the NHL the idea for the first Heritage Classic and eventually the Winter Classic. All Bettman had to do was pick a date and slap a huge advertising budget on it.

fox_mulderX

MFCarissa wrote:

The outdoor game at a football field concept was swiped from NCAA hockey. The success of the Cold War at Spartan Stadium between Michigan and Michigan State gave the NHL the idea for the first Heritage Classic and eventually the Winter Classic. All Bettman had to do was pick a date and slap a huge advertising budget on it.

but the point is is that he still did it regardless of where the idea came from.

fife

fox_mulderX wrote:

people can hate on bettman all they want, but the sport has grown so much in the united states since he's taken over. the amount of american players in the draft has increased.. just a few years back the first two players in the first round were american (kane and johnson i think). that's never happened before. not to mention there are players from untraditional markets being drafted. i think las vegas was one last year or the year before. how about the winter classic? the draft lottery? managing to keep the sport alive after the lockout and then actually making it better?
granted, he did mess up by putting so many teams down south. a few isn't a bad idea, but he flooded the market.

many canadians will probably comment saying that my post is biased towards americans, and yes it is. as a canadian, i know that the majority of canada will follow hockey no matter what. it's like many of us are brainwashed... jesus, they aired that stupid game where people skate down a hill of ice wearing hockey equipment on TSN instead of march madness... don't worry, march madness was on TSN 2, a channel that no one watches.

While i don't hate bettman, i don't agree with you. Bettman didn't really have a major role in getting more Americans to play. many owners have actually said that it was the great one who did more for hockey in the states. I don't know who was drafted from vegas last year but i suspect you might mean how the NHL awards was in vegas. The winter classic was made up now by the NHl but between 2 canadians teams but i will grant you that it is a big ratings boost for the NHL.

Under bettman rule, how many teams are either close to broke or broke. Bettman made dumb mistakes that hav ecost the NHL alot of money.

MFCarissa

fox_mulderX wrote:

MFCarissa wrote:

The outdoor game at a football field concept was swiped from NCAA hockey. The success of the Cold War at Spartan Stadium between Michigan and Michigan State gave the NHL the idea for the first Heritage Classic and eventually the Winter Classic. All Bettman had to do was pick a date and slap a huge advertising budget on it.

but the point is is that he still did it regardless of where the idea came from.

A monkey could have done it. It wouldn't make the monkey a good commissioner. And I think Gretzky being traded to L.A. did more for hockey in southern California than anything Bettman ever did. (Edit: It looks like the person above me touched on that.)

Jason P

I'm biased against Bettman because he moved the schedule for the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals up one week when a banged-up Red Wings team that was missing key starters really needed some rest that was well earned ... and then made them play back-to-back nights (If Malken or Crosby were injured on the Penguins, that never, ever, ever, ever, ever, would have happened). But what really confirmed to me that this guy is a doofus, was his comment on the future of NHL participation in the Olympics:

“I know the players are passionate about representing their countries — we have a long history as a sport in international competition and that’s something that’s important to the players. But we have to decide, on balance, ‘is it worth it?” he asked.

In addition to the problems of shutting down the league for two weeks, Bettman expressed concerns about the NHL getting enough publicity during the event.

“In some places, the benefits are greater for the Olympic participation than others. When you’re in Vancouver or Salt Lake City and you’re in North American time zones and you’re getting that type of coverage, then you are getting coverage that may be commensurate with shutting down,” Bettman said.

Has there ever been a better platform to push hockey in the U.S. then the last Olympics, at least since 1980? People at work were talking about hockey. My mom was talking about hockey. Hockey was on the front pages of major newspapers for weeks. Yet Bettman is unsure if it is worth it.

What a tool.

fox_mulderX

fife wrote:

fox_mulderX wrote:

people can hate on bettman all they want, but the sport has grown so much in the united states since he's taken over. the amount of american players in the draft has increased.. just a few years back the first two players in the first round were american (kane and johnson i think). that's never happened before. not to mention there are players from untraditional markets being drafted. i think las vegas was one last year or the year before. how about the winter classic? the draft lottery? managing to keep the sport alive after the lockout and then actually making it better?
granted, he did mess up by putting so many teams down south. a few isn't a bad idea, but he flooded the market.

many canadians will probably comment saying that my post is biased towards americans, and yes it is. as a canadian, i know that the majority of canada will follow hockey no matter what. it's like many of us are brainwashed... jesus, they aired that stupid game where people skate down a hill of ice wearing hockey equipment on TSN instead of march madness... don't worry, march madness was on TSN 2, a channel that no one watches.

While i don't hate bettman, i don't agree with you. Bettman didn't really have a major role in getting more Americans to play. many owners have actually said that it was the great one who did more for hockey in the states. I don't know who was drafted from vegas last year but i suspect you might mean how the NHL awards was in vegas. The winter classic was made up now by the NHl but between 2 canadians teams but i will grant you that it is a big ratings boost for the NHL.

Under bettman rule, how many teams are either close to broke or broke. Bettman made dumb mistakes that hav ecost the NHL alot of money.

jason zucker, drafted by the wild. i do agree with you that gretzky being traded to LA had a huge impact on hockey culture, i just don't understand why everyone refuses to acknowledge some of the good bettman has done for the league.
teams go broke in every league under any type of ownership... just ask the sacramento kings. correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't the vikings in financial trouble, too? not to mention that teams went broke in the league before bettman became commissioner, and they'll go broke long after he's gone.

fox_mulderX

Jason P wrote:

I'm biased against Bettman because he moved the schedule for the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals up one week when a banged-up Red Wings team that was missing key starters really needed some rest that was well earned ... and then made them play back-to-back nights (If Malken or Crosby were injured on the Penguins, that never, ever, ever, ever, ever, would have happened). But what really confirmed to me that this guy is a doofus, was his comment on the future of NHL participation in the Olympics:

“I know the players are passionate about representing their countries — we have a long history as a sport in international competition and that’s something that’s important to the players. But we have to decide, on balance, ‘is it worth it?” he asked.

In addition to the problems of shutting down the league for two weeks, Bettman expressed concerns about the NHL getting enough publicity during the event.

“In some places, the benefits are greater for the Olympic participation than others. When you’re in Vancouver or Salt Lake City and you’re in North American time zones and you’re getting that type of coverage, then you are getting coverage that may be commensurate with shutting down,” Bettman said.

Has there ever been a better platform to push hockey in the U.S. then the last Olympics, at least since 1980? People at work were talking about hockey. My mom was talking about hockey. Hockey was on the front pages of major newspapers for weeks. Yet Bettman is unsure if it is worth it.

What a tool.

lol you make a good point, but the reason why the coverage was so good is because it was in a strong hockey market and the gold medal game featured an amazing rivalry.
remember torino in 2006 when the usa and canada were both defeated early in the tournament? honestly, did you watch one game after that? i didn't.

MayDay10

it also could be posturing with the NHLPA and/or IIHF

Jason P

fox_mulderX wrote:

lol you make a good point, but the reason why the coverage was so good is because it was in a strong hockey market and the gold medal game featured an amazing rivalry.
remember torino in 2006 when the usa and canada were both defeated early in the tournament? honestly, did you watch one game after that? i didn't.

I may have watched, but mainly because the Sweden national team is the Euro version of the Red Wings.

Still, he was making these comments during the middle of the Olympics when everything was going excellent on the PR front. I can see positioning yourself six months later because you are obviously working in the owner's best interests (avoid injuries to stars in non-sanctioned hockey), but to do it right after a great game between the US and Canada on live TV????

Drowned Out

MayDay is right, it's posturing for the next CBA.

Fuck Bettman, and fuck the Gretzky 'trade' too!
And while I'm at it, fuck the 94 Ranglers for winning our last cup.

Heisenberg

The fact that Gary Thorne is doing the Twins/Orioles game right now instead of an Stanley Cup Playoff game really makes me sad

EZ1221C

Go Pens!!

haffajappa

MFCarissa wrote:

I just looked it up. 5 years, $7.2 million a year. It's like my one friends said, "He gets paid more than Lidstrom, but he does everything wrong." I actually heard that, for game 7 in the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals, Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch made Bettman purchase a ticket. He refused to just give him one for free. Ilitch offered him a ticket at market value, gave him a window of time to buy it, and if Bettman refused to purchase it, he was going to release it for sale to the public.

Amazing, truly AMAZING!

haffajappa

Its not just us regular folk.
A good friend of mine works catering at rogers arena.
During the olympics she worked the player's suites... Served a lot of NHL'ers.
She said nearly every one of them shit talked Bettman once he turned his back.

lukin2006

Jason P wrote:

I'm biased against Bettman because he moved the schedule for the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals up one week when a banged-up Red Wings team that was missing key starters really needed some rest that was well earned ... and then made them play back-to-back nights (If Malken or Crosby were injured on the Penguins, that never, ever, ever, ever, ever, would have happened). But what really confirmed to me that this guy is a doofus, was his comment on the future of NHL participation in the Olympics:

“I know the players are passionate about representing their countries — we have a long history as a sport in international competition and that’s something that’s important to the players. But we have to decide, on balance, ‘is it worth it?” he asked.

In addition to the problems of shutting down the league for two weeks, Bettman expressed concerns about the NHL getting enough publicity during the event.

“In some places, the benefits are greater for the Olympic participation than others. When you’re in Vancouver or Salt Lake City and you’re in North American time zones and you’re getting that type of coverage, then you are getting coverage that may be commensurate with shutting down,” Bettman said.

Has there ever been a better platform to push hockey in the U.S. then the last Olympics, at least since 1980? People at work were talking about hockey. My mom was talking about hockey. Hockey was on the front pages of major newspapers for weeks. Yet Bettman is unsure if it is worth it.

What a tool.

That's just an excuse...when I first started watching hockey in the late 70's it was quite common to play back to back playoff games. I love Mike Babcock quote last year when the Wings were eliminated in the second he said the guys could use the time to get more rest because they went to the conference finals and finals in 3 years...excuses... Montreal won 4 in a row late 70's, Islanders early 80's 4 in row 5 final appearances and Edmonton 5 in 7 years.