The Outsider : Commissioner Gary Bettman Has One Big Advantage as He Tries to Turn NHL Around: He’s No John Ziegler

Where are the scars, Gary?

Gary Bettman, the NHL’s new commissioner, never picked up facial bruises playing games in Trois Rivieres, Quebec. He didn’t travel snow-covered freeways to get from Kamloops, British Columbia, to Medicine Hat, Alberta, so he could scout some raw-boned defenseman. And he hasn’t made a trade with Glen Sather.

Hockey people are comfortable with hockey people. They talk the same language, using a curious blend of cliches and hockeyisms.

Although former NHL President John Ziegler spoke in mostly convoluted run-on sentences, he was the ultimate hockey insider. He was schooled in the Detroit Red Wings’ organization and was a perfect front guy for the clubby world of the back rooms of the NHL.

Now, in a sense, the doors to those back rooms have opened and the NHL finally seems ready to join the modern era. Two 40-something yuppies--Bettman, formerly third in command in the NBA, and Bruce McNall, chairman of the board of governors, hold the top two spots in the NHL’s hierarchy.

McNall has never been spotted on skates. Bettman can skate but confesses to an inability to skate backward with ease.

“What I bring to bear is 12 years in a major professional sports league and I know how to run a sports league,” said Bettman, 40. “That’s why the owners hired me. If I worked for General Motors and Ford tried to hire me, the fact that I don’t know about everything about Ford’s particular line of cars is irrelevant.

“I don’t think I have to be a ‘hockey guy.’ I wasn’t hired to be a GM. I certainly wasn’t hired to be a coach. And certainly not as a player.”

Bettman’s last comment drew laughs from an assembled group of about 40 journalists on Thursday at his first large news conference since becoming commissioner on Monday. More important, he laughed, too.

Ziegler never had much of a public sense of humor, especially about himself. The former president almost always wore a yellow power tie; Bettman wore an interesting purple creation with what looked suspiciously like pink flowers. The only apparent similarity between Ziegler are Bettman is diminutive stature. Bettman is a sprite-like 5 feet 8--at least that’s what it says on his bio sheet, and that may be a generous measurement.

Ziegler’s news conferences tended to be tense affairs. His answers were never really answers. But Bettman was instantly at ease during his 45-minute session, playfully ordering a reporter to introduce himself. Later, Bettman spotted another reporter with a media badge saying he was from an Ottawa newspaper.

“Big win last night,” he said of the Senators’ 3-2 victory over Edmonton on Wednesday.

Every victory is huge when a team has recorded only six.

It could have been noted that Ziegler would never have noticed, or even mentioned, a game, since he almost never attended. But no one brought up Ziegler’s name, which was probably a good thing. Bettman isn’t big on comparisons, including the hot one currently making the rounds:

Gary Bettman and Bill Clinton.

Two new leaders.

Two young leaders.

Two men entrusted with prodding once-proud and now floundering enterprises out of the past and toward the 21st Century.

“The similarities are superficial,” Bettman said. “We are both in our 40s and represent change.

“But because of the importance of the pressing world issues (Clinton faces), I get uncomfortable with the comparison. But the problems I have to wrestle with will give me a better night’s sleep on a regular basis.”

Already, Bettman is working on building accord, reaching out to previously alienated groups. Thursday, he had a short meeting with former star Gordie Howe and his wife Colleen, trying to take a first step toward repairing the damaged relations between the NHL and its retired players.

Howe has been critical of the way the league has treated its retirees. Currently, the league is embroiled in a long-running dispute with them over pension distribution.

Bettman’s own lawyers are looking at the pension case.

“I want to understand better how it happened,” he said. “Given my choice, I wouldn’t be in a dispute.”

Earlier in the week, Bettman read in one of the New York papers that Wayne Gretzky wanted to speak to him during the All-Star weekend, hoping to pass on some of his and the players’ concerns. Right after the Kings-Canadiens game on Wednesday, Bettman went to the dressing room to meet Gretzky and set up a meeting.

And even before he officially started on the job, Bettman had a couple of informal meetings with Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHL Players Assn. Their relationship will be particularly important, since one of Bettman’s major goals is to reach a new collective bargaining agreement before the old one expires Sept. 15.

“The fans don’t want to read about labor negotiations,” Bettman said. “They want to read game stories and stories about people.”

Bettman believes that the negatives surrounding the NHL have, in part, prevented the league from carving out a more significant niche in the United States.

The missteps and mistakes have always seemed to draw more attention than anything Gretzky or Mario Lemieux did on the ice.

“I can remember coming to the NBA in 1981,” Bettman said. “At the time there was a fairly good debate going as to which sport--the NBA or the NHL--was the No. 3 or No. 4 sport. Well, the NBA flourished because issues were addressed and fans began to pay attention to the game and its stars, and not the off-court issues. Now our task is get our house in order so we can have a boom period as well.”

For Bettman, the lawyer, it all ideally flows in a logical, systematic order. His educational background and professional career have reinforced his beliefs.

“I grew up wanting to be a lawyer,” said Bettman, who went to Cornell and then New York University Law School. “I guess I didn’t stray too far from that.”

Straying from the NBA, where he made his name in devising the salary cap, has an element of risk. To many, the NHL is still a risky business.

“I’m a family-oriented person,” he said. “And for many years, the NBA was really my family. I valued my relationship with David Stern. I realized I was giving up a lot.

“This was an incredible opportunity of a lifetime. I didn’t want to look in the mirror every morning while I was shaving and wonder what might have been.”

Bettman has strayed only in affiliation, not philosophy. He sees what the NBA has in 1993--mass international appeal, saturation advertising--and dreams of the same, some day, for the NHL.

“Not enough people know who Wayne Gretzky is,” Bettman said. “Not enough know who Mario Lemieux is. We need to tell more people that Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux can do the same things on ice that Michael Jordan does in the air.

“We’ve got a great game, and the fans we have love the game. But we have to turn more people into fans by exposing them to the game and the great stars we’ve got.”

During the 100th anniversary season of the Stanley Cup, Gary Bettman, rookie hockey commissioner, figures that’s the least he can attempt to do.