While I understand the ideas and frustration behind them, your demands and expectations really are too silly when you consider a couple things:

#1) On the weekend at this time of year, In the US, FOOTBALL IS GOD. College football on Thursdays and Saturdays, NFL on Sundays and Mondays. And you really can’t change that unfortunately. Football is too unique a sport — 16 games a year, one game a week, then a short playoffs (or bowls in college). The NHL can’t take that on. The NBA can’t take that on. Heck, MLB probably couldn’t take that on.

#2)The NHL and hockey in general have a LOT of competiton outside of football. The NBA is in full swing now and with a certain demographic you’re not going to be able to penetrate that. And quite frankly the NHL would have been able to maybe make some strides but ESPN got the rights to the NBA and… so guess who’s second-fiddle again.

What competition does the NHL have there? The CFL is over already, even… In the US, it has to deal with NCAA Football AND Hoops, NFL, NBA, the end and beginning of the ever-growing-in-popularity NASCAR season, the end and beginning of the MLB season… just to name a few…

#3) Seriously now, how is Bettman any worse than David Stern, Paul Tagliabue, or Bud Selig? Well for one, I can guarantee you Betteman is doing a phenomenal job with his sport compared to Bud Selig with MLB. I don’t see Bettman stepping in and literally deciding the rules for outcomes of games, and I don’t see Bettman’s family owning a franchise in the lague he’s commissioner of.

Bettman doesn’t have Problem Children[tm] like everyone on the Portland Trailblazers, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Shaq…

Bettman doesn’t have mounting evidence of Owner Collusion to deal with like MLB is undergoing…

Bettman doesn’t have rampant problems with kids graduating high school and then being drafted #1 with all the hyp in the universe centered on them (hello Lebron)…

Bettman doesn’t have an ever-growing public microscope staring at the league drug policy, with accusation of THG, HGH, andro, etc, while turning a blind eye anyways (hi there MLB, NFL).

Bettman doesn’t have Patrice Brisebois publicly making fun of Saku Koivu’s cancer like Kenyon Martin made fun of Alonzo Mourning’s kidney disease in a practice…

…need I continue?…

Are there problems? Yes. Are they all Bettman’s fault? No.

Owners have been too stupid with their teams, is that HIS fault too? Officials won’t call the rules right, and the league refuses to crack down on the officials the way the NFL is starting to do to theirs (that’d be Van Hellemond’s fault though as Head of Officials, not Bettman’s). Just to name a few.

Really the biggest problems trace STRAIGHT BACK TO THE OWNERS. They are the ones who ultimately decide on things like an outdoor game, or when a team plays (they don’t make the schedules, no, but they can complain about arena availability and lack thereof because they’ve already made other committments).

You really want to improve the league? Yank Bill Wirtz the hell out of Chicago and get someone with an IQ above 7 in there. Go up and smack the NYR ownership for putting a team with Eric Lindros, Brian Leetch, Pavel Bure, Mark Messier, Alexei Kovalev, Anson Carter, etc, on the ice for years now and still having them completely suck. Complain to your team’s owner on high ticket prices, or for choosing to black out home games for stupid reasons (again, hello Bill Wirtz).

Maybe instead of looking for one single scapegoat everyone needs to start pointing the fingers at their own teams’ owners and management. They ultimately put the product on the ice, market it locally, pay the salaries, decide the ticket prices, deal with the arenas… not the league.

But no… you guys are all copping out, looking for the one sacrificial lamb to appease gods to save them from disease, instead of actually trying to heal and eliminate the disease from within the entire herd… and then you’re all going to bitch and whine and moan when the stupid sacrifice doesn’t work.

It makes no sense. Your cries for Bettman’s head make no sense. Your excuses make no sense. You’re all bandwagonning on a wagon going nowhere.

If you all really cared, and were REALLY taking interest in the league, you’d start AT HOME, WITH YOUR TEAM, AND YOUR OWNER, and ask yourself what they’re doing to promote the game…

– Primis.

Praise CBC! (I’m lucky enough to live in a border city that receives perfect reception, rendering ESPN a laughable waste of time).

Bettman’s error lied into trying to make hockey popular by making it more like football and basketball. Hockey mustn’t have to be changed to become popular, it shouldnt try to take the place of football in the heart of americans because that just wont work. Don’t say “Hockey is like football, only more fun, watch it instead” but more like “Hockey is different than football but it’s also very enjoyable, how about you pick a team you like and watch them too? It’s a lot more fun than watching a sitcom right?”

What they need is to *teach* people to like hockey, it needs fans like you guys to grab your friends and acquaintances and show them how hockey is fun. The whole Fox puck business “because americans have trouble following the puck on screen” was a load of BS, I seriously don’t think the whole american people have worse eyes than canadians. It needs people like you to tell them how the game is played, how the game was played, all the great moments throughout hockey’s history.

They need to have 5 minutes capsules in between periods that shows how the game is played, and show great moments of hockey. Be it the Miracle on Ice, Guy Lafleur streaming down the ice, Gretzky’s thousands of points.

Now hockey fans, go out and teach! bring people to watch hockey and tell em why it’s great!

Don’t miss next week’s French Pick-Up Lines Breviary – learn how to score in french!

What did they keep calling those things under the players helmets? I’ve worn one for year and just keep calling it a ‘hat’.

PS- Cherry is going to have a fit after tonights Simpsons Hockey Dad thing.