Gary Bettman has been the
Commissioner of the NHL since 1993 and in my opinion is the worst
commissioner in the history of sports. Under his watch the NHL has
gone from one of the big four sports in America to a niche sport that
has to fight to have its games televised. He has presided over three
work stoppages, two that cut seasons in half and one the eliminated
an entire season. He has instituted rule changes that have taken the
teeth out of the game and wonders why more players are getting hurt.
He refuses to change things that will improve the on ice product and
can’t figure out why the sport’s popularity is fading. He needs
to be replaced as soon as possible and pretty much anyone would be
better. As a matter of fact I would be interested in filling the
position. If I were hired there are quite a few things I would
change.
One of my main goals would be to
repair the relationship between the NHL and the player’s union.
Currently it is so toxic that neither side thinks they can trust what
the other is saying and that needs to change. The players need to
realize that the owners have to make their money and that without
them there wouldn’t be a league to play in. The owners need to
realize that the players want to make as much money as they can as
quickly as they can, before their careers are over and without them
their wouldn’t be a product to put on the ice. In other words both
sides cannot exist without each other. I think it is totally
ridiculous that relations between Bettman and whoever is running the
union are so bad that there have been three lockouts since 1994. The
management side of the NHL and the owners has never really accepted
the union and it is my belief that Bettman has tried to break the
union every time the collective bargaining agreement has come up for
renewal. The NHL made 4.1 billion dollars last year and is scheduled
to make even more this year. I see no reason why there isn’t
enough money to go around and as long as neither side is too greedy
everybody should be able to get along. While my ideas might be
considered radical I think they will make the NHL a better product
and maybe return some of the luster to a sport that was fallen from
its once lofty perch.
My biggest complaint over the
years has finally been addressed; moving the Red Wings to the Eastern
Conference. I can’t believe it took this long to move them but I’m
happy about it. Bettman could have done a better job and re-aligned
the entire NHL and made travel a minor issue. My plan would put
Montreal, Toronto, Boston, New York Rangers, Detroit and Chicago, all
of the original six teams in one division; I would put Buffalo,
Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New Jersey and the New York Islanders in
another division. The final Eastern Conference division would be
Ottawa, Washington, Carolina, Florida and Tampa Bay. In the Western
Conference one division would be comprised of Minnesota, Columbus,
Nashville, St. Louis and Dallas. The second division would be
Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Colorado and Phoenix and the third
division would be Vancouver, San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles. If
you examine that setup travel would mostly be within one time zone or
at worst a few games one time zone away. I would also change the
number of games in a season from 82 to 75 and set it up differently.
Teams would play non-divisional conference foes twice, once on the
road and once at home. They would play divisional opponents eight
times, four at home four on the road, except for the six team
division which would play each other seven times rotating every year
which team would have the extra home game. That would add up to 62
games for the divisions with five teams and 65 games for the six team
division and have teams play clubs from the other conference to make
up the difference.
I would also change the playoff
system and the number of teams that qualify for the post-season.
Rather than the best eight teams in each conference making the
playoffs, I would have the three division winners and the next best
two teams qualify. I would give the team with the best record in the
conference a bye in the first two round to make up for the odd number
of teams but I would keep all series as the best of seven. That
would mean if you were a conference winner you would play between
eight and fourteen games to win the cup and every other team would
play between sixteen and 28 games. Lowering the number of qualifying
teams and giving a two round bye to the conference winner will make
the regular season mean something, which would be a great change from
the current system where more than half the teams in the league make
the post-season and teams go through periods where they coast, this
would end that and force teams to play all out all season long.
There are two rule changes I
would tackle if I were Commissioner. The first rule I would change
would be the instigator rule, I think that is one of the main reasons
players are getting hurt more often recently. If that rule is
removed the players will police themselves and the number of illegal
hits and other incidents will go down. If players have to worry
about dealing with enforcers and the enforcers don’t have to worry
about an extra two minutes the game will return to a level of
incidents from years past. I would also change the way goalies are
treated outside the crease. I wouldn’t make them completely fair
game but if they’re outside the crease handling the puck and a
players runs into them trying to get the puck there shouldn’t be a
penalty called. As it stands now if a player taps a goalie anywhere
on the ice he is whistled for goalie interference or roughing, that
is just stupid and gives an unfair advantage to the goalkeeper. I
would also start a committee of players, owners, NHL officials and
refs to settle once and for all the issues regarding what is and
isn’t a penalty for interference, hooking, slashing etc. The
current system of refs being instructed by the league to call
penalties tightly in the beginning of the season and players and
coaches having to figure it out is ridiculous. The players, coaches
and refs need to be on the same page from the first game to the last,
season after season. This committee would be charged with coming up
with a standard for each penalty, that the refs would stick to all
season, including the playoffs and the players would learn to play
around.
I understand that most of these
changes would require negotiations with the player’s union and that
is why I consider the repair of the relationship between the league
and union so important. I believe that if the two sides can learn to
trust each other then most of these items would not be a big deal to
get enacted. The owners and players have to realize that their sport
is failing and changes need to be made if they wish to regain
relevance. I think hockey is one of the best sports on earth and I
wish more people agreed with me and I think these changes would go a
long way to making that happen.
