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goalieboy82

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Bingo Brian. Well said and exactly correct.

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"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the

press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of

speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us

the freedom to demonstrate. And it is the soldier who salutes the

flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, and

who allows the protester to burn the flag."

Marine Chaplain Dennis Edward O' Brien

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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.

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