bettman Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Why did the NHL even bother?
While nowhere near the most important facet or phenomenon around the Derek Chauvin verdict, it was rather startling that, within minutes, dozens of companies ushered statements out into the world. This means they had them prepared, which means they had ones prepared for the other outcome, too. Which...
With Francisco Lindor and Anthony Rizzo seeking extensions, it's a tale of two owners
Lindor-palooza has apparently begun. News broke last night that the Mets have offered Francisco Lindor a 10-year, $325 million extension to his deal that ends after the season. Lindor is apparently after a 12-year, $385 million deal. As always, both sides are making noise about negotiations being cu...
Tim Peel is just a symptom of the NHL’s problem with enforcing fake parity
As expected, the NHL couldn’t wait to toss Tim Peel out on his ass after he got caught on a hot mic basically admitting to make-em-even calls. It’s not really much of a punishment. Peel was due to retire next month anyway, will still get paid, and due to his years and years of clown shoes refereeing...
It’s important that the NHL tried Lake Tahoe, even if it didn’t work
It’s always funny, and easy, to laugh at the NHL and their constant failed plans. No league can step on a rake as quickly and thoroughly as this one. And there’s something truly symmetrical about Gary Bettman declaring the sun his enemy. But their “ski weekend” in Lake Tahoe was probably still worth...
![NHL's Lake Tahoe Classic is an actual hot mess [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/xflfveb3yeyxvk3bw92g.png)
NHL's Lake Tahoe Classic is an actual hot mess [UPDATED]
Apparently it’s difficult to keep a 200-by-85 foot sheet of ice in pristine condition, appropriate for world-class ice sports, while it bakes under recently discovered celestial bodies that produce light and heat. Who knew?...
![For the 47th time, just let the Coyotes die [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/a1hzlzsvdoe4bqqo186j.jpg)
For the 47th time, just let the Coyotes die [UPDATED]
There is a Sliding Doors scenario, where the NHL simply let Jim Balsillie buy the Arizona Coyotes and move them to Hamilton, Ontario, more than a decade ago. Would it have worked? Hard to know. Balsillie’s BlackBerry tanked not too long after the proposed buy-date, and could have led to a host of pr...
![NHL stays extremely on-brand in trying to jump COVID vaccine line [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/cfjmjgcvmjtbzjx7r40g.jpg)
NHL stays extremely on-brand in trying to jump COVID vaccine line [UPDATED]
Nobody in sports repeats their mistakes quite like the NHL, the league that lost the entire 2004-05 season to a lockout, then came back in 2012 and had another lockout that cost half a season, all after also having half the 1994-95 season wiped out by a lockout....
NHL still silent as greedy owners proving they can never have enough
As is always the case, every so often you look up and wonder, “Hey, how come I haven’t heard from the NHL in a while?” And the answer always comes back, “Oh right, because they’re galactically stupid.” And then you go on about your life. It’s good to have solid things to hold onto at this point in t...
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the NHL Restart
Major League Baseball’s plan to play a 60-game 2020 season is asking for trouble, as teams are going to be asked to fly from city to city, and coronavirus hotspot to coronavirus hotspot, multiple times a week for a two-month period....
NHL Unveils Plan To Return, With A Few Questions Left Out There Like When, Where And How?
What’s most obvious about the NHL’s “outline” of how it will finish its 2019-2020 playoffs is that it had a huge desire to be the first league to put actual matchups and actual processes in fans’ minds. It’s like giving an animal a name. Makes it harder to kill or something....
One Neutral Site Won’t Work For The NHL, But For Some Reason, Four Might?
Time for our routine check-in of the batshit ideas leagues are kicking around to finish their seasons and playoffs. They vary as to level of batshittiness (battyshit?), and the NHL is apparently lessening the level of theirs at the moment. Only barely, though....
We Can't Go To School Or Get A Haircut, But We're Going To Play NHL Games In New Hampshire?
Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, said a very smart thing on Thursday as he explained his decision to keep schools closed in the Granite State for the rest of the academic year....
First, Gary Bettman, Now Coronavirus: The Universe Is Conspiring To Keep Alex Ovechkin From Passing Wayne Gretzky
(Usual disclaimer that this is galaxies away from the biggest concern of the time. We’re just the class clowns trying to make everyone laugh...or not cry. I aim for just north of crying.)...
What's The Future Of Women's Hockey In North America? (Update)
The disbanding of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, and the narrowing of North American women’s hockey back down to one professional league—the USA-based NWHL—is not exactly surprising, even if the sudden announcement on Sunday may have come as a shock. For a quite a while now, the people in a pos...
Gary Bettman Is A Hall Of Famer And He's Got Jokes
Six new members of the Hockey Hall of Fame were inducted in ceremonies Monday in Toronto, and it’s one of the deeper and more inclusive classes in memory. There are NHL legends Martin Brodeur and Martin St. Louis; Soviet superstar Alexander Yakushev, one of the greatest players in the world; Jayna H...
NHL Won't Admit Liability, Will Pay Around $19 Million In Concussion Lawsuit Settlement
The NHL announced that a tentative settlement was reached today in the lawsuit initially brought against the league in 2013 by nearly 150 former players, who claimed the league had concealed the potential harm caused by head injuries while they played. The agreement, which can be read here, is estim...
Don Cherry Made Gary Bettman Extremely Awkward By Bringing Up A Quebec Expansion Team
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was watching CBC analyst Don Cherry’s “Coach’s Corner” segment off-screen during the first intermission of the Stanley Cup Finals game tonight, but once Cherry brought up his desires for a Quebec expansion team, he and his partner Ron MacLean got Bettman on camera. It w...
NHL Apologizes For Those Emails You Received From An Obviously Fake Gary Bettman
The NHL issued an alert today that the league would be investigating emails received by numerous people purportedly from commissioner Gary Bettman “requesting a phone call or other calls to action,” claiming the emails were being sent from fake accounts:...
What The NHL Is Doing In Calgary Is Pretty Gross
Let’s cut through the sports angle and put in plain terms exactly what’s happening here:...
Unsealed Docs: Gary Bettman Told NHL GMs How To Discourage Media From Talking About Fighting
A U.S. federal court judge on Tuesday unsealed more documents in the long-running lawsuit over the NHL’s handling of concussions. The NHL had fought the release of these documents, and TSN’s Rick Westhead has the high points....