Courtesy of David Shoalts and The Globe & Mail:
Dark clouds headed Bettman’s way in 2010
“With financial brush fires billowing smoke on a league-wide scale, the NHL's commissioner races to put out many little blazes while attempting to avoid a larger inferno.
Gary Bettman and the NHL will celebrate the new year with their most feel-good event, the annual outdoor game, but once the warm-and-fuzzies fade from Fenway Park, the commissioner will have lots of fires to put out.
Thanks to the recession and “the usual suspects,” as a banker of our acquaintance put it, Bettman can expect 2010 to be another year in which he makes like the fellow who keeps a dozen or so plates spinning on sticks. The only difference from 2009 is that the Phoenix Coyotes may not be the plate on centre stage.
Oh, the Coyotes will still be a Class A migraine, since they are losing a good $5-million (all currency U.S.) a month that will be billed to the NHL until it completes the sale of the team to the group of businessmen known as Ice Edge Holdings LLC. But once Bettman convinced the governors at their annual meetings last week that those losses will come out of future NHL revenue and spare them from writing cheques, he kept that plate spinning.
But a couple of dark clouds – the New York Islanders and the Nashville Predators – are moving front and centre.”
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