Gary Bettman embarrasses himself at nationally televised press conference, openly denies the idea of teams ''tanking''
Prior to attending the Habs and Bruins game in Montreal last night, Commissioner Gary Bettman held a press conference to address the state of the league. As always, Bettman provided us with a handful of statements that raised some eyebrows. At his last meeting with the media, it was him saying that everyone prefers the digital ads on the boards, which is the complete opposite of what fans have been saying.
This time around, Bettman was asked about teams tanking and he once again provided us with an eyebrow raising quote. "Nobody tanks because we have a weighted lottery. You're not going to lose games to increase your odds by a couple of percentage points. That's silly. And frankly, suggesting tanking, I believe, is inconsistent with the professionalism that our players and our coaches have. Nobody tanks. Our players and our coaches do their best to win. And again, just because you may finish with the worst record in the league you've got something like a 75 percent chance that you're not going to get the first pick."
His response to the question about tanking shows how out of touch he is with the actual game. Even the casual fan can see when a team is tanking. The Oilers did it for Connor McDavid, the Leafs for Auston Matthews and this year, the race is for Connor Bedard. If teams like the Blackhawks, Canadiens, Coyotes and Sharks weren't attempting to get the first overall pick in this year why would they have traded the likes of Alex DeBrincat or Kirby Dach, attempting to trade Jakob Chychrun or having a player like Cole Caufield practice in full one day only to shut him down for the season the next? They are trying to give themselves the best odds for landing the first overall selection.
Bettman's statement is lawyer talk to protect the investments made by all of the now legal betting companies that have partnerships with the NHL. It's all about dollars and the bottom line for Bettman and if he actually wanted to grow the game and see it succeed, he would have sent players to the Olympics in Korea, where they supposedly are trying to grow the game and he would stop trying to make a franchise like Arizona work.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 25 | 203 ANSWERS Gary Bettman embarrasses himself at nationally televised press conference, openly denies the idea of teams ''tanking'' Do you believe that teams tank for the best possible pick? | ||
| Yes | 138 | 68 % |
| No | 27 | 13.3 % |
| DUH! | 38 | 18.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
