Gary Bettman: NHL Fans “Overwhelming Like” The Shootout
Gary Bettman has proven over the last two decades that he is willing to go places that fans, players, and front office staff would rather not go. Nobody wanted lockouts, but Bettman took the fan base through three of them (and cost the fans and the players the 2004-05 season for it).
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The NHL commissioner also believes that hockey in the desert is the best thing ever. It doesn’t matter that the Arizona Coyotes running total of losses is around half a billion dollars, and it will likely increase if/when Las Vegas gets a franchise. Bettman says putting a team in a city that has months of one hundred degree weather is a smart move.
Gary Bettman feels the same way about the shootout. A lot of players don’t like it. A lot of fans don’t like it (especially Boston Bruins fans). Once again, the NHL commissioner has stuck to his guns, mentioning fan research that says “overwhelmingly fans like it.” (I don’t think it helps if the research group is a single person named Gary Bettman.)
The league will have new rules when it comes to overtime next season. There will be a five minute period of three-on-three play that should hopefully cut down on the amount of shootouts next season. But no matter what the actual majority of people say, Gary Bettman believes that the shootout is just too good to get rid of.
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“I think to the extent some people wanted to see fewer shootouts, this will get us there, and that’s fine.” said Bettman about getting rid of the shootout. “The shootout isn’t going anywhere. You go to a building during a shootout, everybody’s on their feet, nobody is leaving, which is what it was designed to do. It’s exciting, it’s fun, it’s entertaining, and so if we’re going to try and reduce the number of shootouts, this may do it.”
“I think you see some people (like most of them)in the hockey community say they’d rather see fewer shootouts, but this is a sport that had ties for so many years and nobody liked that. And we’re not in the position in the regular season for a whole host of reasons to play games to the end in sudden death the way we do in the playoffs.”
Well, that’s Gary Bettman’s logic for you. So it’s just a matter of time until he’s watching Las Vegas take on Arizona in a half-empty arena, plotting the next lockout and congratulating himself on how right he is and how the fans just don’t get him.