Bigshooter
Registered User
- Jun 9, 2017
- 6
- 0
Gary Bettman who is the commissioner of the National Hockey League (NHL) was brought in 30 years ago with one agenda, and that was to grow the game of hockey in the USA. In Canada the game of hockey is like a religion, with winters lasting 6 months all there is, is hockey. Fans are passionate and it's the number one sport. Football and baseball come second and third. Unfortunately for fans in Canada, no Canadian NHL team has won the Stanley Cup for 25 years since the Montreal Canadians have won.
This thesis will explain why no Canadian team will win the Stanley Cup until at least 2050.
Gary Batman's job is to grow the game in the USA, there are currently 23 NHL teams in the USA and 7 in Canada with a new team joining for the upcoming season in the Las Vegas Golden Knights, to make that 24 American teams.
With expansion more and more teams have started in American cities, Ice hockey teams in Florida, Panthers and Lightning, in the desert with Phoenix,, other warm places such as Dallas, LA, Anaheim, San Jose, these are warm climate cities who now have ice rinks. The people there don't really care about hockey, they are more interested in football, basketball and baseball, yet they have ice hockey teams. Why, because Gary Bettman wants them there, because that's his #1 mission, grow the game in the USA. The NHL is a billion dollar industry and with the USA population being 100 times larger then the Canadian population the potential for money revenue is greater in the USA even though the interest is not there.
Now with the weaning attendance in places like Florida and Phoenix, how do you attract more fans? By having winning teams, nobody is going to go see a loser team if they don't really want to see a game in the first place. So you have to create attraction, excitement, what better way then by winning, making the playoffs and winning the ultimate trophy, the Stanley Cup. Now in Canada people will watch hockey no matter what. In Toronto people will pay $500 per seat for a team that has not won a Stanley Cup in 50 years, yet every night the arena is sold out. You don't need to win, people will still come, they have for 50 years.
In 1993 we had the chance to see the Montreal Canadians and the Toronto Maple Leafs play in the final for the Stanley Cup, now this would have been a huge loss of revenue in the USA as why would the Americans care about two Canadian teams, Wayne Gretzky was still fresh in LA, the game was being grown in the LA market, with celebrities, Hollywood, billions of dollars on the line.
So what happened, in the last 5 minutes of the game between LA and Toronto, Wayne Gretzky high sticked a Toronto player Doug Gilmour in the face, there was a cut, there was blood, in the rules that's a 5 minute automatic penalty, but guess what it was never called, the game ended up going into overtime and Gretzky scored the overtime winner and LA magically went on into the finals to play for the Cup. This would also be the last year a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup.
Now you might say how can the NHL control the outcome of games, simple answer, the referees work for the NHL, they control the penalties, goals called back, they are the judges of the games. They can influence a game in any direction they choose. Take the 1999 Stanley Cup finals between Dallas and Buffalo, all season that year the rule was if any part of an offensive player is in the blue ice of the goalie crease when the puck goes into the net, the goal will be disallowed for obstruction of the goalie. 26 goals were called back in 1999 playoffs because someone's skate was in the crease, even if it was just a skate lace in the crease, no goal. Yet the famous Stanley Cup winning goal scored by Brett Hull from Dallas that year clearly shows his whole leg in the crease while he is shoveling the puck into the net to win the cup. The goal should have been disallowed as per the rules, yet it stood and Dallas won the cup. The Stars coincidentally just moved to Dallas from Minnesota 5 years earlier and nobody was watching their games in hot Dallas, so what better way to attract new fans then by winning the Stanley Cup. And who decided that, the NHL, through their referees who let the goal stand that should have been disallowed.
Canada has had 4 of their 7 teams in the Stanley Cup finals in the last 20 years yet none of them have won the cup
2004 Calgary vs Tampa, yep Tampa won
2006 Edmonton vs Carolina, yep Carolina won
2007 Ottawa vs Anaheim, yep Anaheim won
2011 Vancouver vs Boston , yep Boston won
In 2015-2016 season, no Canadian team even made the playoffs.
The game still has a lot of growing in the USA, and Gary will make sure those teams are winning the Stanley Cups south of the border with Canada. And he has his referees to make sure it happens.
Incidentally I predict that Las Vegas will be in the Stanley Cup finals in the next 4 years, I know it's the desert, who cares about ice and hockey, is there even an arena in Las Vegas? But imagine the excitement of a Stanley Cup final right there in Vegas, all the celebrities can fly down from Hollywood, you have the casinos and the main event, just like when they hold the boxing matches there.
I can just see the dollar signs spinning in Gary Bettman's eyes. Way to go Gary 25 years with no Cup in Canada and 25 more to go. Sorry Canadian citizens and fans, after all the NHL is a billion dollar business, it's all about the money, but keep cheering maybe this year Ottawa might have a shot (not) they will be out.
This thesis will explain why no Canadian team will win the Stanley Cup until at least 2050.
Gary Batman's job is to grow the game in the USA, there are currently 23 NHL teams in the USA and 7 in Canada with a new team joining for the upcoming season in the Las Vegas Golden Knights, to make that 24 American teams.
With expansion more and more teams have started in American cities, Ice hockey teams in Florida, Panthers and Lightning, in the desert with Phoenix,, other warm places such as Dallas, LA, Anaheim, San Jose, these are warm climate cities who now have ice rinks. The people there don't really care about hockey, they are more interested in football, basketball and baseball, yet they have ice hockey teams. Why, because Gary Bettman wants them there, because that's his #1 mission, grow the game in the USA. The NHL is a billion dollar industry and with the USA population being 100 times larger then the Canadian population the potential for money revenue is greater in the USA even though the interest is not there.
Now with the weaning attendance in places like Florida and Phoenix, how do you attract more fans? By having winning teams, nobody is going to go see a loser team if they don't really want to see a game in the first place. So you have to create attraction, excitement, what better way then by winning, making the playoffs and winning the ultimate trophy, the Stanley Cup. Now in Canada people will watch hockey no matter what. In Toronto people will pay $500 per seat for a team that has not won a Stanley Cup in 50 years, yet every night the arena is sold out. You don't need to win, people will still come, they have for 50 years.
In 1993 we had the chance to see the Montreal Canadians and the Toronto Maple Leafs play in the final for the Stanley Cup, now this would have been a huge loss of revenue in the USA as why would the Americans care about two Canadian teams, Wayne Gretzky was still fresh in LA, the game was being grown in the LA market, with celebrities, Hollywood, billions of dollars on the line.
So what happened, in the last 5 minutes of the game between LA and Toronto, Wayne Gretzky high sticked a Toronto player Doug Gilmour in the face, there was a cut, there was blood, in the rules that's a 5 minute automatic penalty, but guess what it was never called, the game ended up going into overtime and Gretzky scored the overtime winner and LA magically went on into the finals to play for the Cup. This would also be the last year a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup.
Now you might say how can the NHL control the outcome of games, simple answer, the referees work for the NHL, they control the penalties, goals called back, they are the judges of the games. They can influence a game in any direction they choose. Take the 1999 Stanley Cup finals between Dallas and Buffalo, all season that year the rule was if any part of an offensive player is in the blue ice of the goalie crease when the puck goes into the net, the goal will be disallowed for obstruction of the goalie. 26 goals were called back in 1999 playoffs because someone's skate was in the crease, even if it was just a skate lace in the crease, no goal. Yet the famous Stanley Cup winning goal scored by Brett Hull from Dallas that year clearly shows his whole leg in the crease while he is shoveling the puck into the net to win the cup. The goal should have been disallowed as per the rules, yet it stood and Dallas won the cup. The Stars coincidentally just moved to Dallas from Minnesota 5 years earlier and nobody was watching their games in hot Dallas, so what better way to attract new fans then by winning the Stanley Cup. And who decided that, the NHL, through their referees who let the goal stand that should have been disallowed.
Canada has had 4 of their 7 teams in the Stanley Cup finals in the last 20 years yet none of them have won the cup
2004 Calgary vs Tampa, yep Tampa won
2006 Edmonton vs Carolina, yep Carolina won
2007 Ottawa vs Anaheim, yep Anaheim won
2011 Vancouver vs Boston , yep Boston won
In 2015-2016 season, no Canadian team even made the playoffs.
The game still has a lot of growing in the USA, and Gary will make sure those teams are winning the Stanley Cups south of the border with Canada. And he has his referees to make sure it happens.
Incidentally I predict that Las Vegas will be in the Stanley Cup finals in the next 4 years, I know it's the desert, who cares about ice and hockey, is there even an arena in Las Vegas? But imagine the excitement of a Stanley Cup final right there in Vegas, all the celebrities can fly down from Hollywood, you have the casinos and the main event, just like when they hold the boxing matches there.
I can just see the dollar signs spinning in Gary Bettman's eyes. Way to go Gary 25 years with no Cup in Canada and 25 more to go. Sorry Canadian citizens and fans, after all the NHL is a billion dollar business, it's all about the money, but keep cheering maybe this year Ottawa might have a shot (not) they will be out.
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