Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Vail
Hockey was far more fun for fans before Bettman came around.
It was affordable. Trades were about hockey talent. Money wasn't the most talked about part of the sport. Canada had the best teams.
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The writing was on the wall from the moment the NHLPA made players' salaries public information. If memory serves, that was in 1990 – a couple of years before Bettman came over to the NHL. Couple that with the beginnings of meaningful free agency (a product, I believe, of the 1992 players' strike, which was the last thing to happen on John Ziegler's watch), and salaries (and therefore ticket prices) were bound to skyrocket.