PITTSBURGH — It was Olympics — not NHL expansion — that drew the most attention as NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman gave his annual State of the League address before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday.
Here were the five highlights from this 30 minutes in front of reporters here:
1. Bettman goes cold on Olympics
NHL players have participated in the past five Winter Olympics, but Bettman sounded less-than-enthused about the chances players will be in South Korea in 2018.
The issue: The International Olympic Committee and International Ice Hockey Federation apparently aren’t willing to help subsidize the costs — including insurance and transportation — as they’ve done in past Olympiads.
“I am pretty sure our teams are not really interested in paying of the privilege of disrupting our season, Bettman said.
2. No expansion answers
Bettman didn’t have an update on NHL expansion, which he said won’t be decided until the board of governors convene at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas on July 22.
“I am not going to handicap what is going to happen,” Bettman said.
He did, however, give the three scenarios: No expansion, expansion will be deferred to later date or there will be a one- or two-team expansion.
3. Three is company
Bettman praised the change to a three-on-three overtime this regular season. It had been four-on-four previously for the five-minute OT.
“The change to a three-on-three overtime achieved exactly what it was intended to do,” Bettman said. “We had the most overtime decisions ever, the fewest overtime games since 1999-2000.”
Bettman added it led to the fewest games decided by a shootout (107) since the the shootout was added in 2005-06.
4. No World Cup for Voynov
Defenseman Slava Voynov may have signed with a KHL team, but his suspension in the NHL still stands. Bettman said that means he wouldn’t be allowed to compete in August’s World Cup.
“There has been no change in his status,” Bettman said. “He's been suspended from the league. The Russian Federation was told that he was not eligible to play in the World Cup.”
Voynov was a member of the Los Angeles Kings when he was arrested after a physical altercation with his wife in October 2014. He ultimately served two months in jail and returned to play in Russia after the league handed down a lengthy suspension.
5. The coach’s challenge works
Bettman praised the coach’s challenge, which allows a coach to ask for a review under limited circumstance as long as the team had timeout available: offsides that lead to a goal and goalie interference on a scoring play.
The coach’s challenge has taken some heat for when, as Bettman described it, a goal is called back “because there's a toe over the line.”
“The better question may be, ‘Do you want to have an offside rule?’” Bettman said. “I'm not advocating that we should get rid of the offside rule. As for the notion ‘The rule was only violated by a little': Either you enforce the rule or you don't. If we don't get it right, we say, ‘It was only over a little,’ the other team, fans, everybody is going to say: ‘How are you enforcing your rules?’”
