gary-bettman Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The NHL’s Pride jersey problem slips into the comedic
The NHL got more Pride Night bullshit last night courtesy of the Staal brothers on the Panthers, Eric and Marc. I’d try and provide some commentary, but sometimes, you just can’t beat reality:...
If only the NHL had a leader
It is yelling at the rain to lament that commissioners in any league aren’t stewards of the sport anymore. Look at Roger Goodell’s face and wonder if you’d trust that man to steer a fucking tricycle. But there comes a point where the commissioner is the only one who can steer a league out of a skid ...
Let’s find a way the Boston Bruins might lose in the playoffs, if there is one
While Gary Bettman might not think there’s anything wrong with the current playoff system (he’s wrong!), it is pretty clear that this set-up has robbed March and the first half of April of most of its drama. We’re basically down to seeing whether a wheezing Penguins team (whoops!) can keep their lun...
The NBA is trying to jam the Elam Ending into a square hole
The Elam Ending has become NBA corporate jargon to throw out there as a salve for everything. All-Star Game lost its appeal? Elam Ending fixes that. Low ratings? ELAM ENDING! Superstars sitting out games? E-LAM END-ING!!! The latest rumored implementation of “Playing to a number” comes as a fix for ...
Besides Aaron Rodgers, what other sports figures could use a darkness retreat?
With the news that Aaron Rodgers has emerged from his darkness retreat and will soon regale the people with the tablets he has produced, and certainly not the tablets or whatever else he definitely did not take while locked away by himself in obsidian, it got us to thinking who else could use some t...
Of course the NHL makes teams wear St. Patrick’s Day jerseys
In the NHL’s current procession into the gutter, the New York Islanders were the latest to announce that they wouldn’t be using rainbow jerseys or stick tape for their Pride Night. While odious on the surface, digging a little deeper it gets…slightly less odious. The Islanders have never done so, th...
The NHL isn’t for you
Once the NHL let one through the door, it stood to reason that another would follow. After the Flyers’ Ivan Provorov refused to wear their Pride Night jerseys in warmups, and their coach John Tortorella refused to admonish him in any way (nor did the official partner of the NHL in these matters, the...
L.A. Kings, Pacific Division prove why overtime and the shootout are a plague upon society
The idea that the NHL regular season is just an 82-game preseason is maybe the last vestige of a time when 16 of the then-21 teams made the playoffs. These days, when exactly half the teams are culled, some genuinely decent teams don’t make it. Teams like the Knights last year can rack up over 90 po...
What does You Can Play actually do?
The thing that organizations like the Philadelphia Flyers, or the NHL, or the You Can Play Project, is that the stories they hope will just go away never do in the timeframe they’re counting on. They continue to fester, and everyone’s inaction on it only prolongs this. The Flyers and their coach, Jo...
![Ivan Provorov, John Tortorella once again show that hockey can’t move forward [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/e5c7510945e9755bf115def070b35df0.jpg)
Ivan Provorov, John Tortorella once again show that hockey can’t move forward [Updated]
This is becoming, sadly and infuriatingly, a familiar story in sports. The NHL wants you to believe that “hockey is for everyone,” except that it never seems to filter down to anyone in the game below the tagline....
A compilation of the most notorious con artists in sports
George Santos, Anthony Devolder, or whatever identity he’s assumed by the time this is published, pulled off one of the most daring cons in U.S. history during the midterm election cycle. In an era of con artists exploring extreme lengths to swindle their way into office, Santos faking a resume, spe...
Bruins get a finger in the wind and then jammed in their own eye
As far as public statements go, this one rings pretty hollow:...
Mullett Arena is somehow dumber than you’d imagine something called Mullett Arena could be
I’m one of many hockey observers that Coyotes fans, whoever they may be, claim to have an agenda at all times against the Yotes. And on some level, it’s fair, because it is hypocritical to talk often at length about the place teams have for fans in their lives and the public trust that they really a...
We found something sports-related that Mike Trout can’t do
Mike Trout being the worst commissioner in sports is not the development I expected from 2022. On the field, the Los Angeles Angels star is finally attaining similar levels of individual and team success. The Angels are competing for the American League Wild Card, their pitching is much-improved and...
Craig Berube and the St. Louis Blues can’t even bring themselves to say racists are bad
I’m used to things turning ugly when the St. Louis Blues are involved. It’s St. Louis, after all. The NHL must be praying that the Avalanche punt them into space in Game 5 so they can continue to pretty much ignore everything that’s gone on here. It’s what the league does best, considering that Davi...
Gary Bettman must make the Oilers wear their ‘80s jerseys for the second round
Much like the Canadiens-Leafs series last year, this is why the NHL rejiggered its playoff system nearly a decade ago. To get things like the Edmonton Oilers vs. the Calgary Flames in the playoffs. OK, Gary Bettman’s NHL was only really concerned with getting Penguins-Capitals as often as possible a...
Hear me out: Derek Jeter for MLB Commissioner
We’re going to be without big league baseball for the foreseeable future, launching a sport that’s already been on the decline into what feels like its death throes....
It sure looks like the Arizona Coyotes are going to play in a warehouse for the next few years
There’s little that can surprise anyone when it comes to the Arizona Coyotes anymore. They’re being kicked out of their building after this season. They were nearly kicked out in the middle of it. It’s apparently an abhorrent place to work. The owner might not have any actual money. And the team has...
IDIOT OF THE YEAR #4: Chicago Blackhawks, equal parts heinous and incompetent
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE YEAR festivities! Nos. 50 through 11 are available for your enjoyment here. And our top 10 thus far:...
It doesn’t sound like the NHL is going to the Olympics
There are few good ideas in the pandemic. The most you can muster is, “Well, I guess that’s the best they can do.” The urge to try and have anything normal is an understandable one, it’s just there are so very many limits to how to get to that safely, so we either can’t have them or just ignore the ...