NHL Commissioner meets with Kyle Beach, offers league's help
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has talked to Kyle Beach about what the league can do to better protect its players after Beach said he was sexually assaulted by an assistant coach in 2010 and his allegations were largely ignored by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Amid scandal, Quenneville resigns as Florida Panthers coach
Joel Quenneville resigned as coach of the Florida Panthers on Thursday, two days after the second-winningest coach in NHL history was among those implicated for not swiftly responding to allegations by a Chicago Blackhawks player of being sexually assaulted by another coach during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Quenneville's meeting with Bettman may decide Florida fate
The Panthers are rolling this season but coach Joel Quenneville being named in a report detailing how the Chicago Blackhawks mishandled sexual assault allegations that an assistant on his staff sexually assaulted a player during the team’s Stanley Cup run in 2010 could derail Florida's hopes.
NHL to investigate claim Sharks’ Kane bet on own games
The NHL said it will investigate an allegation made by Evander Kane’s wife that the San Jose Sharks forward bet on his own games and has intentionally tried to lose for gambling profit. The league said Saturday night on Twitter that it was made aware of the social media posts by Anna Kane and plans to conduct a full investigation. The NHL said: “The integrity of our game is paramount and the League takes these allegations very seriously.”
news.yahoo.comBob Plager, a St. Louis Blues great, dies in a car accident
“Few men in the history of our game were more closely connected to a city and a franchise than Bob Plager was to St. Louis and the Blues,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “In the lineup for the Blues’ inaugural game on Oct. 11, 1967, he assisted on the first goal in franchise history and committed the Blues’ first penalty that night – thus commencing a 54-year association with the organization.”
chicagotribune.comNHL could net over $600 million for rights package, but it needs NBC
Media pundits believe the rights package of NHL's new seven-year deal with ESPN is worth $400 million per year. But post-breakup, ESPN continued to value NHL content by centering coverage around longtime analyst Barry Melrose. Dan Cohen, senior vice president of Octagon's Global Media Rights Consulting division, said the NHL could solicit more than $600 million annually for its entire package. He added that the NHL "would be best served to renew its other rights package with NBC, who has invested heavily in marketing the NHL and who can offer a tri-cast distribution model." "Something that has as much volume as hockey, they can go with a tri-cast model across ABC, ESPN, and ESPN+/Hulu."
cnbc.comNHL says it will hold a 24-team playoff tournament if season resumes
The National Hockey League moved one step closer to resuming its season that was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced Tuesday the league officially ended its regular season and will skip to a playoff tournament to determine its 2019-20 Stanley Cup champion. The National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) executive board approved the 24-team postseason format proposal on Friday. The league will rank teams in each conference by percentage points used from March 11 standings, one day before the league suspended games due to Covid-19. The NHL is the latest league to gingerly resume operations after suspended its games due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
cnbc.comNHL commissioner outlines plan to resume play, hopes to start playoffs over the summer
National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman on Tuesday announced the league's plan and tentative timetable to resume play. Bettman said the 2019-2020 NHL regular season is effectively over, and play will resume with the Stanley Cup playoffs. Once play is allowed to resume, the top 12 teams from each conference will enter the playoffs. The remaining eight teams in each conference will play best-of-five elimination series to determine which teams move on to the first round. Bettman said the league hopes to move to phase two of return to play in early June.
cbsnews.comNHL Commissioner Gary Bettman: No COVID-19 in NHL reported yet
Commissioner Gary Bettman says while no cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus have been reported in the National Hockey League, he wanted to get ahead of a worst-case scenario by pausing the season. "When the NBA had a positive test and they had to cancel a game at that moment, I decided to get ahead of it and not wait for one of our players to test positive," Bettman told CNBC's Scott Wapner. Bettman says while he's not aware of any NHL player testing positive for COVID-19, teams in the NHL have shared locker rooms that were also used by the National Basketball Association's Utah Jazz. Two Jazz players have tested positive for COVID-19. That's not just my hope for the NHL and sports it's my hope for the country."
cnbc.comNHL relies on 'good judgment' of players on social media as it expands in China, embraces sports betting
Bettman said he hopes the service will allow NHL fans to feel "comfortable if they are placing bets." NHL China Games, sponsored by the Chinese company O.R.G. The Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks became the first to NHL teams to play in China in 2017. The feud between the NBA and China hasn't had any blow back on the NHL so far. He said the NHL hasn't has adopted a social media policy for its executives and players in light of the NBA's plight in China, saying the NHL hasn't issued a "memoranda" on the matter.
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