CaolinaJoe Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 Bingo Brian. Well said and exactly correct. "It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of thepress. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom ofspeech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given usthe freedom to demonstrate. And it is the soldier who salutes theflag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, andwho allows the protester to burn the flag."Marine Chaplain Dennis Edward O' Brien Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJTank Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 I agree the NHL and NHLPA has to real its a second teir sport and if it does this would help both sides. www.sportsecyclopedia.com For the best in sports history go to the Sports E-Cyclopedia at http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian in Boston Posted February 20, 2005 Share Posted February 20, 2005 I just think that it is far too easy to point at Bettman and say, "There's the guy who destroyed major professional ice hockey in North America." He attempted to do what the owners asked him to do: build the NHL into an entity on equal footing with the NFL, MLB and the NBA. He took the steps necessary to do so, with the exception of the fact that he hasn't yet been able to get the NHLPA to agree to the implementation of the salary cap parameters that he feels would stabilize the league and allow its member franchises to grow and prosper.Look, the NHL expanded into markets that were questioned long before Gary Bettman came along. Anybody remember the league's first go-around in the Bay Area? How about Colorado? Or Cleveland? Kansas City? Atlanta? So let's not act as though Bettman's the only NHL leader who attempted to grow the league into markets that were - or, might prove to be - tough sells. In fact, Bettman's managed to see the sport prosper - in San Jose and Colorado in particular - where his predecessors failed.I also love how Bettman is excoriated for presiding over the change from the "historical" conference and division names to geographical conference and division names. It's not as though this is the first time that geographic designations have been used on the NHL's divisions/conferences. In the NHL's storied past divisions and conferences carried such names as Canadian, American, East and West. And all of the founder/builder names still exist on trophies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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