This came in via our MySpace profile from a reader called RunninAmok. We’ve met many great hockey fan folk through the MS network, and if you haven’t made friends with us yet please do so. 206 friends and counting!
“This was written by a member of Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fight Site from Vancouver, with some input from others that I added to it.”
I would like to congratulate Gary Bettman for doing his very best for improving the NHL as we know it. Gary, you have done a marvelous job since you have been Commissioner of the NHL. You have been instrumental in 2 work stoppages, half of the 1994-95 season (468 games), and a complete loss of the 2004-05 season.
Gary, great job in bringing back half empty arenas, and for moving two great Canadian franchises in Quebec City and Winnipeg. Sure, we have a “new” team in Ottawa, but you’re right, Carolina, Nashville and Miami are much better hockey markets. Nothing says “Old Time Hockey” like those blue, silver, and bright yellow jerseys of the Nashville Predators. I can’t wait until Pittsburgh, Edmonton, or Calgary move since we all know Houston, Kansas City and Las Vegas are such hotbeds for hockey!
Thank you Gary for bringing us a schedule where we don’t need to see each team every year. In a place like Vancouver, they have hundreds of fans who would like to see the Leafs, Habs or Bruins play the Canucks every season, but once again, you’re right, playing Calgary, Minnesota and Edmonton 8 times a season is much more entertaining than seeing an original 6 team like New York, Detroit, or Toronto. Who cares if the Stanley Cup Champions play here? Who cares if Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin or Staal play here every 3 seasons? Gary, you’re right, we don’t need them.
Mr. Bettman, how do you do it? How did you get such a sweet deal on OLN? Yes, having the NHL on a channel Americans have to pay for is much better than ESPN. The numbers don’t lie; OLN’s numbers prove that. ESPN, NBC, CBS, yeah, we don’t need that. We have Pay Per View; how fortunate are we! What ever happened to that Fox Trax puck? I miss that.
Getting back to the schedule, I really like how some games are worth two points and others three. It’s also so exciting to see no battles in front of the net or body contact of any kind. Hockey is such a great game now. I couldn’t stand watching Todd Bertuzzi slamming Chris Chelios or freight training Barret Jackman. Those bodychecks were so violent! We don’t need that in OUR sport. No way! I prefer to see Henrik or Daniel Sedin, able to stand unimpeded in front of the crease so they can tap in a rebound! I’m so happy that fighting is almost gone from the game. Now I have more time to go get some popcorn or a drink instead of wondering if Brian McGratton would fight Wade Brookbank. Wait, the Canucks got rid of Brookbank because he was tough. Also, that fight would only happen every three years.
Gary, I’m thrilled that there are so many Europeans in the game. Having Europeans on the third and fourth line is fascinating. Watching them cycle the puck back and forth behind the net is so exciting. I’m glad to see guys such as PJ Stock, Gino Odjick and Tie Domi gone from the game. They didn’t bring anything to the game that a fourth liner from Europe couldn’t. I really hated to hear those chants of Gino, Gino, Gino we used to hear when he went after Marty McSorley or Tie Domi. Like I mentioned fighting was a despicable part of the game. I now have time to go to the washroom, beating those intermission crowds.
I really enjoy watching five on four, four on three, or five on three games nightly. There’s nothing more entertaining than seeing more goals. I love seeing the stars racking up the points like Gretzky and Lemieux used to. We don’t need those old records that were set before you became commissioner. Players like Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Phil Esposito or Bobby Orr aren’t important. They played in that era of fighting and limited power plays. These players had to battle nightly for space on the ice or in front of the net. I’m so glad to see that you don’t have to pay a price to score. What a chore that was. If Gretzky played in today’s game, he may have gotten 400 points, but let’s not get silly now.
And thank you for the two-referee system. Get some more people out there on the ice and call more penalties. Forty minor penalties per game is exciting and really gets the average Joe and Joan heading to the arena. In conclusion Mr.Bettman, I’d just like to say that the game, as you see it, could never be better & I hope you are thrilled with today’s product coming to a rink near you. By the way Gary, have you ever played the game, or even watched it?
Sincerely,
A WHL fan.
Hear fucking hear!
Excellent!!! Bettman, who I’ve always thought to be a real life version of Charles Montgomery Burns (Simpsons), has turned the greatest sport on earth into TV programming. He has sold the owners a bill of goods and turned the NHL into the NBA On Skates. His plan to create the star system,ie; “Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins” “Jarimor Jagr and the New York Rangers”, goes against everything hockey stands for. Bettman is not a hockey fan and seems to show up at a game only when he has to “painfully” award a trophy. If a Canadian team wins the Stanley Cup in the near future, Bettman may want to send someone else to present the Trophy, for as much as we dislike him in the States, he is truly hated in “Oh, Canada.” I feel fortunate that I was able to begin attending NHL games in the late 50’s. This was the Golden Age of hockey where the players, all 120 of them, policed the game themselves and provided wonderful memories. I still love the game but today’s product pales in comparison to what we had in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s.
Well said Dennis. I am not a big fan of the “New NHL.” There is no grit to the game anymore, and it’s a shame. Where are the guys like Randy “Stumpy” Burridge, and Kenny “The Rat” Linseman? I want my third and fourth line muckers back. These were guys that fought through checks, got a cross check in the back in front of the goal, and still managed to bury a few. There is no price to pay for scoring a goal anymore, and I think it is a big problem.
wow…that pretty much sums up my overall feelings about the game for the past few years. I dont mind seeing more goals because playing the trap isn’t that exciting, but constant powerplays and lack of fighting are really starting to piss me off. i agree with what everyone has said, I want to see a little more old time hockey and a little less of this “tic-tac-toe” bullshit. lets face it bettmans a fucking moron and whoever wrote this is the man.
Looks like Grimmles listened to Podcast #2, eh? Well done Zach.
Great nickname Grimm, and great comment too. Like I said last season, if I wanted Sweedish Elite League, I’d move to Sweeden.
Hey – stumbled on your site while looking for Lowell Devils merchandise. Great site! Love the letter to Bettman! Can’t agree more. While I’m not one of those fans who goes to hockey games just to see the fights, I agree that the fights are part of the game. An occasional bench clearing brawl was always fun.
The NJ Devils Cam Janssen is doing his best to preserve the tradition, though.
Anyway – count me in as a fan of “olde-tyme” hockey and bring back the 3rd and 4th line muckers like my favorites – the “Crash line”
Go Devils!
Thanks for stopping by, and leaving a comment Cyber Kat. I dig your site too. Keep up the good work.
gary bettman is honestly THE biggest terrorist in the world. as i said on http://www.hockeyfights.com
DON’T HANG SADDAM, HANG GARY BETTMAN!!!
BRING BACK HOCKEY!!!!!!!!
The NHL is on Thin Ice
Report; Posted on: 2006-11-29 02:31:49
Will the Great White Game of Ice Hockey Survive Jewish Meddling?
By Mark Neufeldt
The National Hockey League (NHL) season has reached the quarter pole, and already there are rumblings of an attendance crisis. Some teams are reporting attendance figures as low as 8,000 for games in state-of-the-art arenas that seat capacity crowds of more than 20,000. Chicago, Long Island, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Colorado, and Phoenix have all seen precipitous declines in attendance- some as low as 22% below last season’s figures.
Overall, the League has seen average attendance dip from 17,285 a year ago to 16,743 this season. This was a decline that Hockey News reporter, Ken Campbell, ominously described as a “slippery slope,†pointing out that “players receive 54 per cent of revenues up to $2.2 billion, but if the decline in attendance continues, there’s a very good chance they could be giving money back to the league this season.†(1)
Some observers charge that League attendance is actually much worse than is being reported. Detroit News hockey correspondent, Ted Kulfan, found 13,000 fans present at a game where the Detroit Red Wings had announced an attendance of 20,066. Former Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reporter, Jamie Fitzpatrick, asked “if Hockeytown can pad its numbers by about 30 percent, what kind of lies are they telling at other NHL arenas? How many real people showed up for Wednesday’s games in Florida (which reported 14,312 loyal customers), Atlanta (12,579) or Anaheim (12,394)?†(2)
League officials had high hopes that a new collective bargaining agreement between the League and the players, coupled with rule changes designed to speed-up the game, would bring the fans back after a year-long lockout in 2005. But, what the evidence seems to indicate, is that the League’s attendance problems began much earlier, and can be traced to sweeping changes instituted by a racially-conscious Jewish executive, his Jewish staff, and Jewish network television executives, who demanded changes to the game that reflected their own interests, which came at the expense of hockey fans. (3)
Knowledgeable fans and hockey journalists point to the reign of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman- a prominent Jewish activist, and former executive in the National Basketball Association- as the source of the current disconnect between the League and ticket buyers. Though he grew up on Long Island, New York, where hockey is a very popular sport, and claimed he was a fan of the game, he never actually played the game as a youth. Bettman was the first commissioner in League history who did not have real ties to the game. (4)
Upon assuming the commissionership, Bettman immediately surrounded himself with a coterie of corporate, media-savvy Jews- Steve Solomon (ABC), Arthur Pincus (Washington Post) , and Bernandette Mansur (Reebok)- who were tasked with securing a network television contract for the League. Bettman’s staff was so top-heavy with Jews, that a host of hockey columnists, including the Toronto Sun’s Al Strachen, began euphemistically referring to the League brass as the “New York lawyers,†and complained that they “didn’t understand the game.†Bettman’s ruling clique was so out-of-touch with the rest of the hockey world that the phrase stuck, and Strachen was forced to defend himself against charges of “anti-Semitism†leveled by Jewish hockey writer Stan Fischler on “Hockey Night in Canada.â€
read the rest: http://www.nationalvanguard.org/printer.php?id=10893
I would also like to thank Mr. Bettman for his amazing knowlege of a truly Canadian game. I’m sure when he was commissioner of the NBA, he learned so much about Canada that this was a natural move for him.
I would also like Mr. Bettman for being so Anti-Canadian because really, the money is in the US and the fact that hockey is such an American game, especially in fine cities such as Miami and Nashville when cities such as Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Hamilton and Halifax would not suit the new NHL.
And finally, I would like to thank Mr. Bettman for disrespecting an entire country and insulting a Canadian hockey fan every chance he gets, especially for trying to make us think that moving a hockey franchise from 2 Canadian cities was a smart move and done for hockey in general
Mr Bettman, I do hope you realize that this whole message is very sarcastic. I’m going to say what every Canadian hockey fan wants to say. GET OUT!!!, you obviously do not have the sense of a cockroach to run a league such as the NHL, and as a Canadian, I know you are doing everything you can to get hockey out of Canada, but guess what, 30 million people will not go down without a fight.
amen!