GDT: Around The League 24/25. Parity, blessed parity.

[Yuke]

They scare me lol

They were pouncing on us and didn't even have some of their best players playing. SOmething we can't really do.

Another big team. We have issues when the game isn't all speed but won in the corners

 

[TheSuperElite]

love how bad Elias Pettersson is

 

[yukoner88]

Blackwood is still broken.

Brokewood mountain

 

[North]

Eat shit Blues.

 

[BlackDogg]

Calgary might even make the playoffs

 

[bellagiobob]

Hopefully we get to boo him this spring when he hands us the cup, and then retires right after.

 

[JordanGalhanth]

Hopefully we get to boo him this spring when he hands us the cup, and then retires right after.

Bettman retiring cannot happen soon enough.

My biggest fear is that he handpicks a successor and the league sees no need to overhaul its direction in any way shape or form.

 

[bellagiobob]

Bettman retiring cannot happen soon enough.

My biggest fear is that he handpicks a successor and the league sees no need to overhaul its direction in any way shape or form.

That’s pretty much a given. The owners are thrilled with him, they would clone him if they could.

 

[Tarus]

Bettman retiring cannot happen soon enough.

My biggest fear is that he handpicks a successor and the league sees no need to overhaul its direction in any way shape or form.

Most fans overestimate how much he drives the direction of the game, he primarily works with the high level league stuff(Expansions, National TV contracts, CBA negotiations, salary cap, league administration, ownership collaboration etc). Even things like the southern US expansion that he gets so much flak for is something that predates his tenure, and one of his main mandates when he was hired was to properly execute mass expansion into southern US markets, a long held ownership/BOG level goal.

Most of the on ice stuff that everyone complains about, especially in the context of on ice rules and procedures are governed by the GMs(which is comprised of a decent number of living fossils who are notoriously resistant to change), the player's committee(which have very different ideas of what they want on the ice compared to fans), and the BOG(who knows what they want for the game, but I have heard stories about owners calling up the head office to complain every time their team gets a bad call against behind the scenes ).

I'm probably arguing against mob on this one, it's human nature to blame the guy perceived to be in charge . I'll always have a bit of a soft spot for Bettman as an Oilers fan though. If it wasn't for him convincing the rest of the owners to accept a committee Oilers ownership group in the late 90s, or setting up the NHL assistance plan in the early 2000s, NHL hockey wouldn't have made it to the 2005 lockout and the salary cap era in Edmonton.