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Originally Posted by Boreal
This is patently false. There is an overwhelming majority of owners who own an NHL franchise because Gary facilitated their golden ticket. There is also a long line of Jim Balsilies amoungst others who wouldn’t or are still waiting for their chance.
He is the most power human in hockey and he has always been reactive rather than proactive because he thinks he is the smartest man in the room.
And you know what? He probably is the smartest.
However he can’t use his brain to adjudicate himself out of every problem, especially when his league looks like a group of insular, empathetically bankrupt, racist bigots.
He can and should do a lot more as this is on his watch.
It’s banal and tiresome watching him evaluate everything as either liability or a legal pissing match to sharpen his own ego.
Gary Bettman has done more for hockey than probably any non-player in the last 50 years.
Trying to pin the entire culture of the sport on one person is lazy and dishonest.
You should say American hockey. Since he took over it has been harder and harder for Canadian teams to compete. How many players has Treliving been trying to acquire and they won't come here! When is the last time a Canadian team won the cup? If he has done anything to help Canadian teams with there poor tax and weak dollar I would like to hear. If he has done anything it isn't working.
He is way overdue to be gone.
This is patently false. There is an overwhelming majority of owners who own an NHL franchise because Gary facilitated their golden ticket. There is also a long line of Jim Balsilies amoungst others who wouldn’t or are still waiting for their chance.
Bettman didn't just veto Balsillie out of personal spite, you know. Most of the team owners disapproved of Balsillie, because he kept trying to override territorial rights and move franchises without permission. The moment he tried to sell tickets in Hamilton, he became persona non grata and remained so. Bettman simply enforced rules that the owners explicitly supported.
In general terms, the Board of Governors has to approve the sale or relocation of an NHL franchise, and while Bettman certainly has a voice there, he does not have a vote.
The team owners don't like doing business with anyone who might upset the applecart by suing to change the way the league works. This attitude goes right back to the beginning. The NHL was founded by four team owners from the old National Hockey Association, who quit their old league and started a new one just to freeze out a litigious colleague.
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Last edited by Jay Random; 11-01-2021 at 07:30 PM.
You should say American hockey. Since he took over it has been harder and harder for Canadian teams to compete. How many players has Treliving been trying to acquire and they won't come here! When is the last time a Canadian team won the cup? If he has done anything to help Canadian teams with there poor tax and weak dollar I would like to hear. If he has done anything it isn't working.
He is way overdue to be gone.
Bettman has 0 to do with Treliving not being able to attract free agents or bring in players via trade. That is a really weird thing to blame on Bettman.
Without Bettman I think Calgary loses its team. He also brought back hockey to Winnipeg. Not sure how he can help with the Canadian dollar and taxes. If you have an idea, please share.
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I’m not sure how I feel about Bettman on the two recent issues, given that his primary contribution has been inaction.
I do find it strange how often people are bringing up that he’s employed by the league and hired by the owners of the teams, though.
If that was a worthwhile excuse, JQ would still have a job. I believe Bettman has enough power and enough away to have influence and, you know, run the league and take responsibility and action on those things that occur under his watch.
Rick puts the gears to them at the 46:00 min mark. I couldn’t help but just watch Daly’s face for each question. Guy would be a terrible poker player.
I have to say, normally Gary doesn't get caught with his pants down. He's probably among the best at his job than anyone I know. He thinks incredibly fast. Today what were they thinking with that set up? It looked like an amateur situation simply based on the makeshift set up. Camera off angle and all. Looked like Bert and Ernie with shirt and tie with the audience sequestering them. Just a bad PR set up.
With respect to Tara Sloane and others picking and choosing to post by purposely ignoring the surrounding quote, shame on her. What an embarrassing thing to do in the word of social justice. She should be grilled for not presenting the rest of the quote. There really should be lawyers and people with logic to critique these things. Useless commentators have little common sense and instead invest in emotion ambiguities to get a rise out of people less intelligent. Ridiculous.
While clearly a quote taken out of context, Sheldon Kennedy has to be top of the list of alumni to involve in a long overdue league funded abuse support group. While I don’t see anything heinous there, it does surprise me that they haven’t had talks with Kennedy about some sort of role. It’s a league that everyone knows has abused players.
While clearly a quote taken out of context, Sheldon Kennedy has to be top of the list of alumni to involve in a long overdue league funded abuse support group. While I don’t see anything heinous there, it does surprise me that they haven’t had talks with Kennedy about some sort of role. It’s a league that everyone knows has abused players.
I don't think the NHL wants to associate with Sheldon Kennedy because they don't want people associating his abuse with the NHL. Especially now.
I’m not sure how I feel about Bettman on the two recent issues, given that his primary contribution has been inaction.
I do find it strange how often people are bringing up that he’s employed by the league and hired by the owners of the teams, though.
If that was a worthwhile excuse, JQ would still have a job. I believe Bettman has enough power and enough away to have influence and, you know, run the league and take responsibility and action on those things that occur under his watch.
Bettman runs the league's business operations. He doesn't run the individual franchises. Joel Quenneville has been held responsible because he was Brad Aldrich's direct superior, and Stan Bowman has been held responsible because he had the power to fire Aldrich. Bettman wasn't in the chain of command at all. He didn't have the legal authority to intervene, and anything he would have to say on the matter would be legally considered hearsay.
What some people seem to overlook is that the NHL is not the police. Sexual assault isn't a violation of the rules of hockey; it's a crime. This whole matter should have been in the hands of the police and the courts from the beginning. The people directly involved deserve punishment because they covered it up to keep law enforcement from getting involved. Bettman's attitude in this whole matter has been unhelpful, and he has at least two feet firmly wedged in his mouth, but he is not one of the guilty parties.
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I don't think the NHL wants to associate with Sheldon Kennedy because they don't want people associating his abuse with the NHL. Especially now.
I think it's more than that. Certainly the players can relate to him, but you have counselors and professionals who can speak to it in a trained way. He definitely experienced it and is very well spoken, but what can he help with day to day in a full-time role professionally? Additionally, it's a corporate environment, is he willing to do the corporate thing occasionally and bite his tongue when a decision doesn't go his way? We'll never know.
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I think it's more than that. Certainly the players can relate to him, but you have counselors and professionals who can speak to it in a trained way. He definitely experienced it and is very well spoken, but what can he help with day to day in a full-time role professionally? Additionally, it's a corporate environment, is he willing to do the corporate thing occasionally and bite his tongue when a decision doesn't go his way? We'll never know.
Clearly I’m not saying he should provide counselling himself…
He heads, and acts as a spokesperson, for advocacy groups. He’s in the environment. And an alumni.
Clearly I’m not saying he should provide counselling himself…
He heads, and acts as a spokesperson, for advocacy groups. He’s in the environment. And an alumni.
No doubt. I just don't know what the show of advocacy does aside from PR. Putting in rules and adhering to them is more important than a face (to be blunt).
No doubt. I just don't know what the show of advocacy does aside from PR. Putting in rules and adhering to them is more important than a face (to be blunt).
It's not about Kennedy being a "face" or good for PR. He has valuable perspective to bring that would be useful for the league and players. This was one of his quotes from LeBrun's column today:
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“If you look at the amount of people that surrounded this situation in a leadership role or in a work capacity role such as HR or whatever it might be — nobody did the right thing.
“To me, that says there’s a lack of knowledge, a lack of leadership around these issues, and a lack of priority. We’re in a big transition here in society where you get the real progressive, the big organizations that have made all of these issues — whether it’s sexual assault, or harassment, discrimination, inclusion, you’ve made those a priority within your organization. And they’re led by leadership. The other organizations that haven’t, they’ve really fallen back on ‘Well, we’ve got it covered in our policies.’ They’re the ones struggling now."
It's not about Kennedy being a "face" or good for PR. He has valuable perspective to bring that would be useful for the league and players. This was one of his quotes from LeBrun's column today:
Hard to say if the sexual assault problem at the NHL level is widespread or isolated, but it appears they have a policy problem in addressing things like drug/alcohol abuse if anything. Given what you're saying where he could be the one to bridge the gap between players and management, sure, probably right. I just don't know what a figurehead does day-to-day to do it. Probably just ignorance on my part to be honest.
Hard to say if the sexual assault problem at the NHL level is widespread or isolated, but it appears they have a policy problem in addressing things like drug/alcohol abuse if anything. Given what you're saying where he could be the one to bridge the gap between players and management, sure, probably right. I just don't know what a figurehead does day-to-day to do it. Probably just ignorance on my part to be honest.
They do similar things with players like Brian McGratten, which is why I said I was surprised they never discussed something with Kennedy.
As much as Bettman could/should have been fired for 100 better things previously, lets not bring over-reactionary cancel culture into hockey.
"Cancel culture" is laughable. If Bettman is feeling heat it's because of his leadership missteps on the Beach scandal. His performance at today's press conference didn't convince anyone he's the right person to lead the NHL through this.
I suspect it hasn’t come up as an issue before this. Not anything like drugs and alcohol.
I’m not sure what you mean. We know of several nhl players by name who were abused and then that carried through their lives.
If you mean coverups within the NHL, that’s not what I’m talking about. They have a union to protect the health and well being of current players. That includes lingering effects of past trauma…. Leading to drugs and alcohol typically.
