[Bobblehead]

PuckDaddy reported today on Gary Bettman. Bettman was asked if the Winnipeg Whiteout chanting "Katy Perry" to Corey Perry was an issue the league was intending to address.

Bettman said the NHL has a track record of “diversity, inclusiveness and doing the right thing.” He noted the league has a bigger female fan base compared to other professional leagues.

He likened the “Katy Perry” insult to calling a goalie a “sieve.”

Another reporter, a woman, noted that “sieves don’t have feelings.”

“You don’t see how taunting a player by calling them a woman could be sexist?,” she said.

“I see the point but I don’t think it’s overly literal. Short of gagging everyone who comes to a game I’m not sure we can stifle that,” he said.

I don’t know how the Flames were able to make this plea for their fans to stop being misogynistic, harassing creeps with the use of official NHL fan gags, but somehow they pulled it off.

Unlike the Flames, perhaps Bettman feels all of this is systemic in society, and not an NHL problem. That it’s not his place to step up and say anything about it.

Look, I agree Bettman: It’s impossible for the NHL to police everything said or done by fans, be it in arenas or online.

But I also don’t think anyone’s asking for that.

I guess what we’re asking for is that the face of the League be as quick to sympathize with women who see the “Katy Perry” thing as another tire on the fire as he is when, say, an owner cries poverty. That the guy running the NHL take a step back and understand the bigger picture here for his female fan base rather than doing what he always does, which is dismiss valid criticisms of the League as being inconsequential.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-pu...170052337.html