Bettman: There’s Still Plenty of Work Ahead

The Stanley Cup finals should be a celebration centered on the awarding of a trophy unique in professional sports for its significance and history.

But instead of rejoicing in what has become a dramatic series, Commissioner Gary Bettman spent much of his annual state-of-the-league news conference Monday explaining why the NHL can’t seem to promote itself properly.

The Dallas Stars on Sunday flouted NHL regulations and refused to make all of their players available for interviews. TV cameras were lined up to capture the words and faces of Mike Modano, Brett Hull, Joe Nieuwendyk and Ed Belfour. But the Stars chose to ignore those rules, and by extension, ignore fans who want to know what players think and feel.

Bettman said the Stars will be sanctioned appropriately, which likely means a $10,000 fine. That can’t compensate for what the NHL lost when the Stars wasted a chance to champion the cause of hockey.

And the NHL needs to be championed. Nielsen overnight ratings for Game 3 of the finals, the first televised by ABC, were a 3.1 rating and a 6 share, paltry for a championship game of a major professional sport.

“It’s a good start,” Bettman said of the ABC numbers. “If you’re going to judge the ratings week by week and game by game, you’re not going to get a complete picture. Saturday night is a very weak night for the networks and a very weak night for our demographics.

“I am comfortable with where we are. We’re getting great production. They’re investing a lot of time and energy. At the end of the day, over time, I think we’re going to see sustained growth in a market where all other [sports ratings] are declining.”

Bettman touched on a number of issues, including Wayne Gretzky’s involvement in the Phoenix Coyotes’ new ownership group.

“I think this is a positive development for the Phoenix Coyotes,” Bettman said. “There is still some work to be done, but his presence bodes well for the future of the franchise.”

The sale is not as far along as the proposed sales of the New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders and Colorado Avalanche, which may be voted on at a June 20 Board of Governors meeting.

Bettman also said that the Calgary Flames are progressing in their drive to sell 14,000 season tickets, a level they said they need to reach financial stability and avert a sale or move.

“I’m hopeful they can see as good success as the Senators in Ottawa and the Oilers in Edmonton,” Bettman said, referring to previous ticket drives that built solid bases for those clubs.

Bettman said he hasn’t had formal talks with the NHL Players Assn. on a new collective bargaining agreement but said the league and the union “are in a constant dialogue.” The current labor pact expires on Sept. 15, 2004, and both sides have built war chests in anticipation of a lengthy stoppage.

“This collective bargaining agreement has worked in an erratic fashion,” Bettman said. “In the first two years, revenues grew faster than salaries grew and it looked like things were getting healthier from a league point of view. Then for two years, salaries grew faster. The past year, according to the PA, there was 5% [salary] inflation, which I believe is the lowest in a decade, so we seem to be healthier in that regard.

“The collective bargaining agreement has been almost pendulum-like, and I hope it begins to narrow its swing.”

BIG APPLE, BIG PROBLEMS

No worms popped out of the silver apple that Madison Square Garden President Dave Checketts gave Glen Sather last week. But Sather, appointed the New York Rangers’ president and general manager after signing a deal believed to be $15 million for five years--plus stock options--has a few parasites to banish before the Rangers can end their three-year non-playoff streak.

The Rangers’ usual response to a problem is to throw money at it, as in the free-agent spree last summer that saddled them with Stephane Quintal, Theo Fleury and Valeri Kamensky. Their second response is to import ex-Edmonton Oilers, as they’ve done with Adam Graves, Mark Messier, Kevin Lowe, Craig MacTavish, Wayne Gretzky and now Sather.

Maybe Sather can tell them that the idea isn’t to spend a lot but to spend wisely. Fleury was lost in the rugged East, although Sather insists the pesky right wing “can be a great player again.” Kamensky was injury prone. Quintal complained about New York and asked out; his remarks may have paved the way for Sather, whose Ranger claim to fame is sharpening Jean Ratelle’s skates during the 1972 finals after the trainer was hit in the head with a puck.

“Hockey is a sport that the importance of chemistry, of people working together, has not been lost on me,” Checketts said. “Nor the importance of tradition. I didn’t see that when I was looking for a general manager of the Knicks, but I did see it for the Rangers.

“I wanted somebody who played here, who knows what it’s like to put on a Ranger sweater. That’s why I reacted at the end of the year when Quintal said he didn’t want to put on a Ranger sweater.”

After 24 years in Edmonton, Sather went from one of the NHL’s smallest markets to its largest. He said he had an epiphany at the trading deadline, when the rival Colorado Avalanche acquired Ray Bourque and Dave Andreychuk and he couldn’t make a counter move because of a tight budget. “And I can’t believe it’s going to get any better,” he said of the plight of Edmonton and other Canadian clubs.

“I know there are a lot of people looking for me to fail. There’s a yin and yang in everything in sports. I think in New York, there’s a great opportunity here to have some fun and build a good team. I don’t think there’s success unless you win the Stanley Cup . . . I have plenty of things to prove. There’s a challenge every day in the hockey business. It’s not like a building you build on Madison Avenue and it’s finished.”

Sather’s work has just begun. He reportedly wants to hire Lowe as his coach, but Lowe has family ties in Edmonton and may stay to take Sather’s GM job. Sather also may sign the fading Messier when the former Oiler and Ranger captain becomes a free agent July 1. Sather certainly will dump a few high-salaried veterans, although the Rangers will have to eat parts of those contracts. And he probably will give a bigger chance to younger players who were ignored by former coach John Muckler. “He’s going to do what he has to do to make us a winning hockey team,” Graves said.

Said goalie Mike Richter: “Mark Messier and Adam Graves talk about [Sather] as a father, and I feel like I know him. You have to look at his total record and respect him.”

Sather’s recent record isn’t great: the Oilers have had eight consecutive losing seasons and their drafts have been mediocre. But Sather, 56, was the most capable person available. “We want this to be his last stop, and his contract reflects that,” Checketts said. “We don’t want to have a great year or be a flash in the pan. We want to be a dynasty and have players in the pipeline.”

So this self-described “outdoorsy western-Canadian kind of guy” will try his luck in the jungles of Manhattan. “My first responsibility is to try and build a winner,” Sather said. “I still believe you can’t buy a winner. It has to be built through drafts and trades. . . . The ability I have is to get a bunch of good people together who can work together. I never looked at myself as the key [to the Oilers’ success].”

SLAP SHOTS

Bob Clarke, the Philadelphia Flyers’ president and general manager, is making Eric Lindros choose between the team and his parents. Clarke said the Flyers would retain Lindros’ rights, but that his father-agent is not welcome back. “If he comes back, it’s going to be as his own self,” Clarke said of the center, who possibly could be traded. “We don’t want his mom and dad. We’ve had enough of them.” Clarke was alluding to what he says are Carl Lindros’ repeated telephone calls to the team at the hint of a problem. . . . Devil General Manager Lou Lamoriello will become a free agent when the club’s sale goes through, but Harvey Schiller, chief executive officer of YankeeNets, has said he wants Lamoriello to stay. With the Ranger job filled, there’s probably nothing else that will tempt Lamoriello.

The Devils must decide if they want Larry Robinson to continue as their head coach next season. Robinson started as an assistant to Robbie Ftorek and took over when Ftorek was fired with eight games left in the season, but his status hasn’t been settled--and that’s by design. “We just talk about what we’re doing today,” Lamoriello said. “That’s an ownership decision. We decided we’re not going to let anything personal or professional get in the way of what we’re doing now.”

Former King Mike Murphy, an NHL vice president, remains in contention for the Calgary Flames’ general manager job. Detroit assistant GM Jim Nill and Atlanta assistant GM Les Jackson also are in the running . . . Colorado Coach Bob Hartley may be on shaky ground after the Avalanche’s loss to Dallas in the West finals and General Manager Pierre Lacroix’s proclamation that “the best team lost.” Bryan Trottier, one of Hartley’s assistants, could replace him. But did Colorado fall short because of Hartley or because Joe Sakic and Sandis Ozolinsh were invisible against the Stars?

Gerald B. Wasserman, head of the company that won licensing rights to manufacture and market game and replica jerseys for all 30 NHL teams, isn’t just another businessman. During his youth in Montreal, he was the emergency backup goalie for visiting teams, which in those days didn’t carry spare goalies on the road. “I got $10 a game and a seat beside the Canadiens’ bench,” Wasserman said. “There were 35 home games, which meant I got $350, and my fees at McGill [University] were $340. It was a great deal.” The Hockey Company is the worlds’ biggest manufacturer of hockey equipment and apparel.