Goons Need Not Apply in New NHL

The new commissioner of the National Hockey League stood in the lobby of the world’s most venerated hockey building, the faces of Maurice Richard and Jean Beliveau and other Membres Du Pantheon staring down at him, and he began to speak in a strange tongue.

He spoke of the 21st Century, and how the league will have to prepare for it, mind-blowing advice for a league that still needs to prepare for 1955.

He spoke of “expanding our fan base,” which might entail actually cooperating with network television, changing some camera angles and, gasp, using “computer enhancement” on the TV screen so that the puck looks like a puck and not a runaway poppy seed.

He spoke of “telling more people who the great stars of this game are and letting them know that Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux can do the same things on ice that Michael Jordan does in the air.”

Gary Bettman, born in New York, educated at Cornell and reared on NBA hoops, stared his largely Canadian audience in the eye and testified that he sincerely believed “Canadians would be thrilled to know that more people in the U.S. loved ‘their’ sport. To the extent that we can make the sport look better on television, and therefore get a larger following on television, I don’t think it detracts from the game at all.”

Four days into the job, Bettman spoke Thursday at The Forum with the NHL media, convened here for the All-Star Game, and tried to assure yet another group that he was not a hockey agnostic from the heathen hinterlands dead set on tainting their sport with florescent orange pucks, nets as large as garage doors and Michael Jackson crotch-grabbing atop the Zamboni machine in between periods.

For the record, Bettman says he’s “personally against orange pucks.”

Bettman, however, has roots in the NBA, where he was David Stern’s right-hand executive the last dozen years. Knowing what he does, Bettman can’t help but look at the NHL in 1993 and see the NBA, circa 1981.

“When I came to the NBA in ‘81,” Bettman said, “there was a fairly good debate over which was the No. 3 and the No. 4 sport. At the time, the NBA had a little better television coverage and the NHL was doing better in attendance.

“The NBA dealt with its issues, eliminated its distractions and marketed and promoted itself. And the sport flourished, because people started focusing on ‘the game.’

“The NHL has not had a comparable boom period. I think there’s a growth opportunity here--that’s one of the reasons, obviously, I took the job--and my task is to get our house in order, so we can have a boom period as well.”

The growth has already begun--into San Jose, Tampa and Ottawa. Anaheim and Miami are next. Expansionmania has swept the NHL and the purists have called it obscene.

There’s not enough talent to go around for 12 teams, let alone 24, they say.

Each new team debases the very essence of the game, they say.

Look at the Ottawa Senators, they say.

Bettman has. He has seen the standings, the 6-46-4 record. He knows about the “Yelnats Puc”--”Stanley Cup” spelled backward, the Ottawa Citizen’s running gag on their team and its quest for the worst regular-season record of all-time.

Bettman believes there is nothing wrong with this.

“Ottawa’s not supposed to be great,” he said. “But they won last night (Wednesday against Edmonton) and I bet that building was rocking. That’s all part of the expansion process.

“The people who show up at all the home games will always remember this season, will always remember that game.

“Next year, they win a few more games than they won this year and the year after, a few more games. If you started out as an Ottawa Senator fan, you live the growth and you live the dream. That’s what it’s about. In five years--that’s when you judge how good an expansion franchise has been or whether you have a problem on your hands. Not in Year 1, 2, 3 or 4. Where’s the team in five years?”

Circle 1998-99 on your calendar, Orange County.

Until then, Bettman advises the Disney entry to “make sure people understand the game and the great players in the game. An expansion franchise doesn’t sell the prospect of winning a Stanley Cup. What an expansion franchise sells is the opportunity to see world-class hockey at its highest level, the league’s great stars and a fun evening of entertainment on a regular basis.”

Disney knows selling. Last December, it sold Bruce McNall, the head of the expansion committee, on the idea of allowing an NHL rival set up shop 35 miles down the freeway, in the heart of a region that provides McNall’s Kings nearly 20% of their season-ticket base.

McNall said “fine”--and pulled in a $25-million territorial fee in the transaction.

Bettman was asked if he smelled any conflict of interest here.

“What actually transpired in the expansion process happened before I was elected,” he replied. “Whether or not I would have handled the expansion process differently is not of particular importance, because the owners unanimously approved the expansion.

“From my standpoint, having Disney and Blockbuster Video in the league is a great opportunity for this league. I can think of great things we can do together to help promote not only their own franchises but also the NHL.”

The sooner the better, Bettman says. The Anaheim and Miami franchises have the option of starting play next season or in 1994-95 and, given his druthers, Bettman would like to see the puck drop in Anaheim Arena nine months from now.

“It would be easier if both came in this year,” he said. “But easier is not the basis on which you run a business. You want the business aspect to run smoothly so it doesn’t interfere with the appreciation of the game.. . .

“Blockbuster and Disney will know when they’re ready to go forward. If they say they’re ready to go this year, my job is to do the best I can to make it work.

“I want to make sure we have our ducks in a row, no pun intended.”

On that subject: Bettman was asked if he planned to take any action on Michael Eisner’s “Mighty Ducks”--like maybe an executive decree banning the use of those two words on any NHL letterhead.

“When it comes to business, I wouldn’t try to talk Michael Eisner out of anything,” Bettman said with a grin. “I think his record, and Disney’s record, speaks for itself. I’m sure anything he does will be terrific.”

In Gary Bettman’s NHL, change is good and change subsidized by media-savvy mega-corporations is better. It might not be Eddie Shore, old-time hockey, to quote the goons in the Paul Newman cult classic “Slap Shot.” Bettman recently re-watched the movie, an affectionate stereotype of the sport, but a stereotype nonetheless.

“I didn’t love it,” he reported.

In Gary Bettman’s NHL, new ground ought to be broken, not faces.