I understand that is where most people are at today, even though I'm not and never will be as that feeling of "anything could happen" and the rivalries it sparked really set hockey apart from everything else. I feel that I've been more into the NFL the last few years even as they get softer since there is still a lever of contact in that sport that can't just be legislated away like they are doing in hockey.
Am I a caveman? Whatever. I also like liquor, sex and junk food. Sue me.
Back to Bettman, he started softening it before the other sports. The NBA guy came in and wanted to turn hockey into basketball. When you look at it for when he came in to his position, the instigator started that season and is attributed to him even though it was already in place. Then there is a lockout shortly after he takes the position, killing all the momentum the NHL had going after the Rangers in '94. Then we get the Fox contract and laser beams and **** that had all of the old school people dying.
I feel like he earned his hatred early on and it hasn't gone away for those that were die hard fans back then. New fans don't know jack **** about him and don't care but the older markets--and Canada--still dislike him. Doesn't help in Canada that he was at the helm for Quebec and Winnipeg leaving and then how he's basically propped up a god damn corpse in Arizona for years and years.
There was also the Canadian Assistance Plan in the late 90's/early 00's, which probably saved every team in Canada outside Toronto and Montreal. Even the Canadiens couldn't really compete in the post-1995 league though. Didn't help that Roy forced his way out due to non-money reasons.
My minor conspiracy theory is that it's not crazy that 3 of the 4 former WHA teams, in the smallest of small markets, all moved after the league didn't get the cap in 1995. The one team that didn't move, had not only championship history, but dynastic history. It would've looked bad for the league if a former champ had to relocate, although there was a moment where they were close to moving to Houston. Had any of the other 3 teams won a Cup, they would still be where they were. And the Jets were supposed to move to Minnesota before they ended up in Phoenix. Minnesota, the great hockey market with a team that already had to be merged with another franchise to survive, and then also had threats of the team moving a couple different times(before Bettman), and then ultimately ending up in Dallas.
The 1992 strike led to Bettman. The owners weren't going to let that happen again. You look at what was going on around the time, Lindros was refusing to play for the team that drafted him, Scott Stevens was making a huge deal about being forced to be compensation(and free agency was a thorny issue for a long time before that), as well as the strike that happened before the playoffs. After Eagleson, the NHLPA was starting to flex its muscles under Goodenow. Why would Bettman try to kill the momentum of an American team winning, maybe
the American team, in 1994? He's Mr. USA, but he's going to undercut the league like that? Anyone that blames him as the singular force behind all the labor issues, doesn't care about anything other than blaming him.
