At the beginning of the 2007-2008 season, MSG LP sued the NHL for violating anti-trust regulations, and monopolizing teams’ promotions. The suit came after the NHL made every team turn over the private operations of team web sites and promotional activities to the NHL offices in New York. The lawsuit was taken to court three times, and the NHL won every time. The Rangers owners have challenged the decisions based on anti-trust regulations, and now the NHL will have nothing to do with it… so they have filed this counterclaim with an intent to stop MSG’s continuous actions against the NHL… with a threat of fining, suspending or making MSG lose ownership of the Rangers.

What?? The Rangers or no team can challenge the “rules”??? Everything the NHL does is completely correct and no one can say otherwise??? This is typical Bettman style… never admitting he’s wrong, sticking to his rules even though LOTS of people who know much more about business and hockey disagree, and doing anything he can to counter-attack and shed the blame when there is constructive criticism about the way he is operating the NHL (”NHL Hour” anyone??). Why would any team want to turn over their web site or promotions operations directly to the NHL? The only thing the NHL cares about is posting Sidney Cry-baby’s face all over their ads, putting teams in markets that will never survive, putting NHL games (even almost all of the playoff games!) on a TV network (Vs.) that no one really knows about or receives, turning the game into the NBA or other over-dramatic productions/sports, and making the owners money no matter how much it costs/hurts the fans and game.

In other news, apparently the NHL Players Association isn’t too happy with Mr. Bettman either. Before the infamous lockout of 2004-2005, one of the main reasons Bettman and his cronies insisted on a salary cap was to reduce ticket prices for fans. Just the opposite has happened… ticket prices have gone up… and there are still teams, such as Phoenix and Florida, who are losing money. Point being, no one but certain team owners are reaping the benefits of the salary cap and the new collective bargaining agreement. The players, fans, and many teams are worse off than they were before 2004-2005. It’s apparent the NHLPA is getting more frustrated with Bettman and his antics and tactics… as the article states “The union also agreed to form a committee to decide whether to opt out of its labour agreement next summer”.

Also, tomorrow night (June 20th) is the beginning of the official 2008 NHL Draft in Ottawa!! The thing we’re most excited about is to see how loud the “boos” are at Scotiabank Place when lil’ shit-fer-brains steps up to the microphone.

Ron also brought up the fact that Canadian teams are providing the bulk of the revenue and asked Gary if he had seen the Toronto Star article which reported the disparities in revenue. “I haven’t read that article” was Ding-dong’s response. (Of course, why would the commish read anything from the top revenue team’s home town newspaper? gimme a break!) Our little Napoleon then got testy and cut-off Ron when asked about American teams in (financial) trouble. “Whoa, whoa; trouble’s a funny thing” spewed out of the hole in his face. Funny when you’re a Coyotes owner losing $30 million? Funny when the two bottom-earning Canadian teams are producing more revenue than eight, yes, eight, American teams? Yes, our ignorant commish has a great sense of humor. Too bad he doesn’t have any honor (and resign).

There is more to the interview including Numb-nut’s cheap patronizing of Ron and Don, Wipe-oid’s ever-prescient employment interview of Colin Campbell, and more commish double talk.

Coaches Corner star Don Cherry noted that Ron did a fine interview and followed his advice by “takin’ it easy on him”. With all the squirming and double talk witnessed in the interview, one gets the feeling that Bettman wouldn’t agree with Don.

Update: To listen to yesterday’s NHL Hour please click here.

Today’s (05/29/08) guest on “NHL Hour” with Gary Bettman will be Vincent Lecavalier — the high scoring, powerful forward for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The show airs at 4p.m. EST on XM Radio channel 204, or you can listen through the NHL’s live stream. You can call your questions/comments in at 1-877-645-6696 or e-mail NHLHOUR@NHL.com. If you miss the show today, we will post a link to the NHL’s podcast of the show tomorrow.

Now ‘ol douche bag hasn’t dissed Detroit for just the first time this playoff season. No sir! Just a short while ago he took away a real crowd pleaser by notifying the Detroit club that if their Zamboni/ice wizard were to swing one more octopus over his head on the ice as he has been doing for years, the league would fine them 10 large. (Careful Mo’ Cheese, you might be next.) Now comes the ultimate insult to sports fans in Detroit. Choose between the Pistons or Wings. (There’s no choice for this author; Sid vs. Hank? - Awesome!) Nevertheless, when you have a sport that your own commissioner says is inferior in popularity to another, WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU SCHEDULE YOUR GAMES TO CONFLICT WITH THE OTHER ALREADY POSTED SCHEDULE????????? What a dumb ass!!!

The NHL excuse-of-the-day is that Hockey Night in Canada has rights to Saturday night scheduling. (I think we posted previously about the screwing of HNIC and last year’s schedule.) HNIC would of course televise a game at any time knowing the devout following of Canadian fans. And what about the scheduling for the other two games this weekend that could be aired at a different time? What say you ‘ol brain dead commish?

Seriously, I’m almost convinced that someone has tasked this former Stern lackey with the destruction of the NHL.

I’m tiring of the owners’ apathy, but here goes again -

Please fire this idiot (or be ready to turn the lights out yourselves).

According to Michael McCarthy of USA Today, the NHL and Versus are considering (re)introducing “puck-tracking” technology into broadcasts of NHL games, which they might put into effect as soon as next season. However, the Globe and Mail reports that this tracking technology would only be used in replays (see bottom of article) and not during live action.

When FOX covered NHL games in the 1990’s, they introduced a “glowing puck” technology… the puck had a blue streak behind it when traveling at low speeds, and then would have a red streak behind it when traveling at higher, slap-shot like speeds. It was supposed to make keeping track of the puck easier for fans watching the games on TV, but most people thought it was a foolish idea and interfered with their ability to focus on other aspects of the game. Players also complained that the FOX puck reacted differently than normal pucks and caused some problems for them.

Either way, we don’t see how this would help the NHL or its fans in any way. The idea has been tried and tested in the past, and it failed. There are obviously plenty of people who can follow the game without being taken by the hand and told exactly how to watch it… it is pretty easy to catch on to where the puck is just by watching the motion of the players and the flow of the game. Furthermore, with HDTV spreading rapidly through North American homes and bars, viewers can almost read the “NHL” logo on the puck We see this as another decision by the NHL to help attract non-market fans, while turning off long-time and die-hard fans at the same time… which would result in a net loss in NHL fans’ enjoyment of the game and possibly the number of NHL fans. With Versus’ commentary of the games already being about the worst we’ve ever heard (try listening to Doc Emrick & Eddie Olczyk for a whole game) , they must be trying to see how far and low they can go with their awful coverage of the NHL. Who knows, maybe they’ll want to put virtual ads on the glass and ice during the game. Ahh, never miss an opportunity to make an extra penny Gary!!! You might need those pennies to pay off another owner in the future.

On a much brighter note, Diane Brady of Business Week emailed us a link to a video of an interview that she recently conducted with Gary Bettman. During the interview she asks Bettman what he thinks of sites such as ours, and also asks some other very good questions. Check it out!.

Additionally, today’s NHL Hour with Gary Bettman will feature guest Ken Holland — the great General Manager of the Detroit Red Wings. The show airs at 4p.m. EST on XM Radio channel 204, or you can listen through the NHL’s live stream (which now includes advertisements for your viewing pleasure). You can call your questions/comments in at 1-877-645-6696 or e-mail NHLHOUR@NHL.com. If you miss the show today, we will post a link to the NHL’s podcast of the show tomorrow.

Today’s (05/08/08) guest on “NHL Hour” with Gary Bettman will be the best dressed man in hockey… you guessed it… Don Cherry! It should a very interesting show to say the least… Don Cherry is an outspoken critic of all things hockey, including Gary Bettman and the state of the NHL under his reign.

The show airs at 4p.m. EST on XM Radio channel 204, or you can listen through the NHL’s live stream. You can call your questions/comments in at 1-877-645-6696 or e-mail NHLHOUR@NHL.com. If you miss the show today, we will post a link to the NHL’s podcast of the show tomorrow.

The Detroit Red Wings organization needs to spend ten grand this Sunday!

One of the greatest men ever involved in professional sports — Scotty Bowman — will be the guest on today’s (03/20/08) NHL Hour with Gary Bettman. The show airs at 4p.m. EST on XM Radio channel 204, or you can listen through the NHL’s live stream. You can call your questions/comments in at 1-877-645-6696 or e-mail NHLHOUR@NHL.com. So get some tough questions ready!!

We are STILL waiting to hear Gary Bettman address the ongoing issue of games on the NHL Network not being shown on NHL Center Ice… which is making fans who have already paid at least $145 a season, pay another monthly fee to get what they originally paid for.

We will post a link to the NHL’s podcast of the show early tomorrow.

Today’s (03/13/08) guest on “NHL Hour” with Gary Bettman will be Maple Leafs executive Richard Peddie. The show airs at 4p.m. EST on XM Radio channel 204, or you can listen through the NHL’s live stream. You can call your questions/comments in at 1-877-645-6696 or e-mail NHLHOUR@NHL.com. So get some tough questions ready!!

We’re waiting to hear Gary Bettman’s answer/solution to the ongoing issue of games on the NHL Network not being shown on NHL Center Ice… which is making fans who have already paid at least $145 a season, pay another monthly fee to get what they originally paid for. If you listened to the NHL Network last week, you probably heard a question asked about this problem.

We will post a link to the NHL’s podcast of the show later today.