BETTMAN'S TENURE HAS BEEN DISASTROUS FOR CANADA'S TEAMS
On Feb. 1, 1993, Gary Bettman was named commissioner of the National Hockey League.
Three months and nine days later, the Canadiens won Lord Stanley's Cup for the 24th time, defeating Wayne Gretzky's Los Angeles Kings, four games to one.
From a Canadian perspective, Bettman's tenure has been downhill ever since. Zero Cups for the Canadian teams since 1993. Three lockouts, one of them catastrophic, with the NHL in 2005 becoming the only North American league to lose an entire season to a labour dispute. A wretched TV contract with Sportsnet.
Under Bettman's reign, two Canadian franchises have moved to the U.S. and only one has been regained — the Winnipeg Jets, whose anemic attendance numbers during a strong season may have put the team in jeopardy of another move.
Now the NHL is reportedly gearing up to move the long-suffering Arizona Coyotes to Salt Lake City, a location with less than half the population of Quebec City. (News of the proposed move was broken by Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff, who also reported that the league was drafting two different versions of a schedule for the 2024-25 season, one of which would leave the Coyotes playing at their 5,000-seat Arizona venue, while the other would move the team to Salt Lake City.)
Current Coyotes ownership is bidding at a land auction for a new venue in Arizona, but even if they win the auction, the building would not be ready before 2027, leaving the team to play three more seasons in an unsuitable arena.
What, other than the sheer stubbornness of one Gary Bettman, has kept the Coyotes in the desert for 28 years? Why would they move to Salt Lake, a market with barely more than 200,000 people when Quebec City, with more than twice the population, is ready and waiting?
Hockey fans have suffered from Bettman fatigue for a very long time. What is new is that Bettman himself appears shopworn and bereft of ideas. Why, after clinging stubbornly to his Arizona dream for almost three decades, would he surrender now? Why is he so inflexible on Quebec City? Why did the NHL beat a cowardly retreat on Pride nights after a handful of players opted out?
Above all, why do Bettman and his lieutenant, Bill Daly, cling to the fiction that the science is not yet in on CTE?
Today, Bettman himself seems to lack the energy or the imagination to lead the league out of the poisonous thicket of Don Cherry World.
Cherry is long gone from the scene, ousted by his own bile, but his influence endures. When Brady Tkachuk loses his mind and risks a lengthy suspension because Nico Hischier nudged a puck into the net, we feel the presence of Cherry in one of his garish jackets, urging Tkachuk: “Let's you and him fight.”
That a man like Colin Campbell still carries the dual titles of executive vice-president and director of hockey operations tells you all you need to know about the lingering Cherry effect and Bettman's approach to the game itself, especially with the continuing presence of Mike Murphy as senior vice-president of hockey operations.
Both Campbell and Murphy have a significant work-related scandal in their past. Campbell should have been dismissed in 2010 after leaked emails revealed he had criticized officials who called penalties on his son, Gregory Campbell, and that he called Marc Savard a “little fake artist” while deciding not to suspend Matt Cooke for a hit to the head that effectively ended Savard's career.
Murphy's offence was not as egregious, but it still offers a rare window into the way the Toronto War Room was run under his direction.
In 2010, Murphy disallowed a goal in the first round of the playoffs by Vancouver's Daniel Sedin against Murphy's former team, the Los Angeles Kings. Murphy later admitted there was no distinct kicking motion, yet he disallowed the goal.
Here we are, 14 years on, and Campbell and Murphy are both further up the food chain. With George Parros and his “violent gentleman” approach to player safety, the NHL has virtually guaranteed a retrograde approach to the game itself.
Parros himself has been on the job for seven years. Not long by the standards of an ossified head office, but given that players aren't a whit safer than they were when he took over, his presence is another indication of a league that has run out of ideas. That extends to the very top, where Bettman seems to have little to offer except the pyramid scheme that is expansion.
With 31 years on the job, Bettman has become the longest-serving commissioner of any major sport on this continent, ahead of his mentor, the NBA'S David Stern, who stepped down after 30 years. Love him or hate him, you have to acknowledge that he has had more influence on the NHL than any other individual, including the game's greatest stars.
Will Bettman step down? Not bloody likely. He will soldier on and Quebec City will remain out in the cold, with a state-of-theart building, passionate fans, a potential owner with deep pockets — and no team.