	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL: PREDATORS VS PENGUINS

May 29, 2017

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Stanley Cup Final. This is the culmination of what has been an incredibly exciting, entertaining and compelling playoff season.

But before we begin this evening, on this and every Memorial Day, we honor the memories of the brave men and women who gave their lives to the service of their country.

It hardly seems like a year has passed since we were here together at the start of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final. Time certainly flies. Since that day, last May 30th, we've conducted a World Cup of Hockey, a number of outdoor games, our All-Star centennial celebrations, and we named our 100 greatest players.

Congratulations to the Eastern Conference champions Pittsburgh Penguins, and Ron Burkle, Mario Lemieux, and their partners, and also general manager Jim Rutherford who is seeking his third career Stanley Cup, and is the only modern era GM to win the Stanley Cup with two different teams.

The Penguins seek to become our first repeat Stanley Cup champions since the Detroit Red Wings of '97 and '98.

Next Monday, June 5th, the Penguins will celebrate the 50th anniversary of being granted their NHL franchise.

Congratulations, as well, to the Western Conference champion Nashville Predators and Tom Cigarran, Herb Fritch and their partners. The Predators earned the spot in their first Stanley Cup Final by getting game-winning goals from 10 different players, the third No. 8 seed to reach the Final since 1994. Nashville received its NHL franchise on June 25th, 1997.

Just under 20 years later, here are the Predators, a team built by the only general manager they've ever had, David Poile. This is a team that has thoroughly been embraced by the city of Nashville, a team that has become an incredible part of the community, and one that has created some of its own truly special hockey traditions, as all of you who have been there know.

Pittsburgh and Nashville are separated by only 560 miles on the map. Penguins coach Mike Sullivan and Predators coach Peter Laviolette were born in even closer proximity. Their Massachusetts hometowns of Marshfield and Franklin, respectively, are situated barely an hour apart from one another.

Mike and Peter are the first U.S.-born coaches to oppose each other in a Stanley Cup Final. The teams they coached are a telling illustration of our league's competitive balance in that 17 points is the difference between Pittsburgh's second place overall finish and Nashville's 16th place overall finish.

The competitive closeness that marks our regular season has continued through these remarkable playoffs. The 81 playoff games to date have seen 27 overtimes, 50 one-goal decisions, and 10 more in which a one-goal game became a two-goal game through an empty net score.

The games score has been within a goal 80% of the total playing time. There have also been 32 comeback victories, including 14 contests won by teams that overcame deficits of two goals or more.

The three times a team gave up as many as seven goals in a game and lost, that team rebounded to win the following game. Of the 14 best of seven series played in these 2017 playoffs, 10 have gone at least six games.

Again, a testament to the competitiveness of our league, and obviously a double overtime Game 7 decided the Eastern Conference championship and brings us all back to Pittsburgh tonight.

The media audience engagement with that game was tremendous. On NBC SportsNet here in Pittsburgh, the game did a 29.7 rating and a 47 share, while becoming NBC SportsNet's most streamed game in NHL history, with 24.7 million live minutes. Game 7 was also NBC SportsNet's most watched NHL game ever, when the matchup involved a Canadian team.

We are proud and grateful for the great coverage and production that NBC provides for us, not just in the playoffs but all year long.

In Canada, Game 7 was the most watched game of the playoffs, as an average of 4.29 million Canadians tuned into SportsNet and the CBC. Overall, 11 million Canadians watched some part of the game.

Speaking of Rogers, we are thrilled that our long-term relationship resulted in Rogers being responsible for the number one television program in Canada for virtually every day of the past six weeks.

In our league, it is so difficult to win consistently during the regular season, and as our two finalists have shown, it is no easy task to win 12 times in the playoffs. Now four more victories stand between these teams and the Stanley Cup; the Stanley Cup that will be won during the NHL's hundredth year, our centennial celebration, the Stanley Cup that will be won during the year that we celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Cup's donation by Lord Stanley.

There's one blank panel on the Cup's current bottom ring, and the names that will be engraved on that panel will join the 2,528 names already in place, an honor roll unlike any other in sports.

In facing the Chicago Blackhawks, the Anaheim Ducks, and now the Penguins, the Predators during these playoffs will have played the winners of six of the past 10 Stanley Cups.

The Penguins, meanwhile, defeated a 108-point opponent in Columbus, and then defeated a 118-point opponent, the Presidents' Trophy-winning Washington Capitals, prior to the conference final victory over Ottawa.

As exciting as it's been to see the first three rounds of these playoffs, we are really excited about what is to unfold. A season that began with the international intensity of the World Cup of Hockey concludes now with the ultimate in playoff drama. There's much more activity for all of us, especially our fans, to anticipate.

From this Final, we head to Las Vegas, where on June 21, we will conduct a unique event that will combine the 2017 NHL Awards, and the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft. We will also unveil the Adidas uniforms for all 31 clubs.

Then it's off to Chicago for the draft on June 23rd and 24th at the United Center, the first time we will be conducting our draft in the city of Chicago.

The draft will be accompanied by a FanFest and the centennial truck tour. Also during that week we will announce our schedule for the 2017-18 season, which includes an array of highlights, including during the 17-18 pre-season, the NHL, our teams, our players and our partners will launch our long-term commitment to building hockey in China with the 2017 NHL China Games, which will be presented by ORG Packaging. Those games will be in Shanghai and Beijing. The Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings will play two pre-season games, one on September 21st and the other on September 23rd.

The following week in collaboration with our partner Kraft, we will continue our Kraft Hockeyville grassroots initiatives with a pre-season game between the St. Louis Blues and the Penguins in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, on September 24th, and a game between the New Jersey Devils and the Ottawa Senators in O'Leary, Prince Edward Island on September 25th.

On November 10th and 11th, we'll be playing regular season games in Europe, with the 2017 SAP NHL Global Games. The Colorado Avalanche and the Ottawa Senators will face off at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm.

The following weekend, November 17 through 19, we are planning to commemorate a founders weekend centennial celebration in Montreal in anticipation of the 100th birthday of our league. That's November 26th. We'll announce more details as arrangements are finalized for that weekend.

To honor the 100th anniversary of the first day of games in our history, we will gather on Saturday, December 16th, in Lansdowne Park in Ottawa for the 2017 Scotiabank NHL 100 Classic, an outdoor game between the Senators and the Montreal Canadiens. On January 1st, the Buffalo Sabres and the New York Rangers will face off at Citi Field in the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic. The game will be played on the 10th anniversary of the event that launched our regular slate of New Year's Day games, outdoors. So who better than the Sabres, who hosted the first game in the snow, to be involved in the 10th anniversary game. That will serve as the start of our second hundred years.

Also on the 2017-18 calendar is the 2018 NHL All-Star Weekend, which will be held in Tampa, Florida, during the last weekend in January. We're looking forward to bringing all of the festivities attendant to All-Star Weekend to Amalie Arena and the Tampa Bay area. The All-Star Weekend in Tampa will embrace the community inside and outside of the arena, and it should be fun with the Florida weather and Gasparilla festivities that weekend.

Then the Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs will face off in the 2018 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series, and that game will be played on March 3rd at Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. Just imagine for a second the Navy band playing the Star Spangled Banner on the field, because that will be 87 years to the day that President Hoover signed the legislation that made it the U.S. national anthem. A little bit of historical trivia. That game in Annapolis will launch a series of Coors Light NHL Stadium Series games at our military academies over the next few seasons.

So as I mentioned, there's a lot to look forward to over the next several months as we extend the growth and momentum of what has been truly a successful and memorable 2016-17 season. Let's spend a couple of minutes putting the state of our game in perspective.

Our leading regular season scorer, Edmonton's Connor McDavid, is just 20 years old. Our leader in even strength goals, Auston Matthews of Toronto, is 19. Our league leader in hat tricks, Patrick Laine of Winnipeg, is 19. Our leader in game-winning goals, Rickard Rakell of Anaheim, is just 24. And our overall leader in goals, Sidney Crosby, is just 29.

There is no dispute that our game is young and vibrant, and the on-ice future of our game is incredibly bright.

The fact that the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs featured seven teams that didn't qualify for the 2016 tournament underscores, once again, the competitiveness in our game that is incredible. It creates an incredibly meaningful regular season. Every game, every point is important.

Off the ice, we supported the celebration of our 100th anniversary with the Centennial Fan Arena, which is the touring museum truck and entertainment center that is bringing artifacts, interactive exhibits, and the Stanley Cup to all of our franchise cities, and a number of other cities as well.

This season we also collaborated with Apple, using their technology on our benches. We added Dunkin Donuts, which chose us for its first national sports league engagement to the ranks of our corporate partners. Sonnet chose us for its first-ever national sports league partnership, becoming the official Canadian home and auto insurance partner of the NHL. Mitsubishi Electric Sales of Canada became our official HVAC partner. And we and Scotiabank, building on what is already a 10-year relationship, will be together for at least another five years.

We also connected our sport with more fans than ever through the NHL app, NHL.com, and all the social platforms. We are approaching 400 million visits to the NHL app since the start of the regular season, with unique visitors up 33% over 2015-16.

Thanks to our mobile architecture powered by BAM Tech, the number of our unique visitors increased 16% and our mobile video streams increased by 12%.

As the media world continues to evolve, our NHL.com audience has responded with a strong emphasis on editorial content, approaching 300 million reads on our platforms since the start of the season, which is a 20% increase over last year, and article reads per visit are up 40%.

Our fans have never been more engaged, whether through the greatest NHL teams voting or sifting through the digitization of a hundred years of statistical information, including every one of our now available official game sheets from the start of the league for every game.

The entire library of NHL historical stats, data and documents should be available this coming fall.

Our game is strong and vibrant, and while there's lots of dialogue generated by the Coach's Challenge, as well as video reviews for goalie interference and off-sides, they are working exactly as they were intended to, that is to provide officials with an opportunity to get a better look at plays.

We hear the commentary, Well, it was just off-sides by a little bit. His skate was in the air. The fact of the matter is, it's our job to make sure the rules are complied with, and the video replay through the Coach's Challenge on off-sides has worked exactly as we hoped it would. The rule is the rule. We enforce it.

Most interesting, I know people lose sight of this when they think about the delay caused by a review, generally that's because it's a tough call, there are 13% fewer off-sides calls this past season than there were the last season before we had the Coach's Challenge, which tells you two things: one, the players are responding to the fact that they know it's going to get close scrutiny, and two, my guess is on close calls officials are a little more comfortable letting -- when they're not sure -- an off-sides go, knowing that it get be corrected.

With respect to goaltender interference, let's start with the fact that that is a judgment call. Everybody knows it's a judgment call. If you're on the wrong side of the outcome, you hate the rule, you don't understand exactly what the standard is. All of those complaints.

What was intended with the Coach's Challenge was to address the glaring instance where an official didn't see something that took place. We are extremely comfortable with the fact that the officials in a Coach's Challenge now have an opportunity to take a second look and see if they're comfortable with their call. That's what the Coach's Challenge was intended to do.

Interestingly enough, I think the players are reacting to that as well because the number of goaltender interference penalties is actually down 22% this year compared to what it was the last year before the Coach's Challenge. So in that regard, we think both are working well.

Having said that, we're constantly looking at what we can do to speed it up and improve it and make sure it's working well.

So with so much going on, it's exciting to consider all of our approaching events, all of our outstanding young stars, and we even have a new venue opening in Detroit for next season, Little Caesars Arena. Let's not forget for one of the teams which we'll watch tonight in this Final, there will be a banner raising to start the 2017 season to honor that team's Stanley Cup championship. It should be a great ride as we move forward, and we invite everyone to join us.

On that note, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and I will be more than happy to answer your questions.

Q. Can you give us your take on how you think the Las Vegas expansion start-up has gone. And, Bill, can you address, has there been many needs for the rules on the expansion?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Bill is the expansion expert. He will answer all of your questions.

BILL DALY: I think the Las Vegas franchise, in terms of building an organization, has done a fantastic job. I think they're very pleased with the response in the marketplace. Very, very excited to get underway from a hockey perspective.

I was able to speak with George McPhee and his staff on Friday. We were working to iron out some more of the expansion draft rules. One of the things that we will announce this week will be we've reached an agreement with the Players' Association to broaden the window in which the expansion draft will take place.

They will get the available and protected lists as of 10:00 a.m. eastern time on Sunday, the 18th of June, and they'll have until Wednesday morning at 10:00 a.m. to submit those. They have a 72-hour window instead after 48-hour window.

Other than that, I think we're getting there. There are questions from time to time that we have to deal with, with both our existing clubs and the Las Vegas club, and the Players' Association. We're working through it, though. I think we're pretty much done.

Q. Gary, to follow up on what you had to say about Coach's Challenge and review, do you anticipate any changes to that at all? Is there any appetite to further things that might be reviewed by video?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: I don't think we want to be reviewing anything more by video since it's so well-received when we do it.

But the fact is, one of the things we're going to look at is exactly how much time a coach is going to get to challenge. Sometimes the officials take a little too long to go to the bench. The coaches do a variety of things to take more time to look at the video.

We're going to contemplate the possibility, we have to work this out, of putting a clock on how much time there is once a goal is scored. But beyond that, we think it's working the way it was intended to.

Q. Regarding the status of the upcoming international calendar, could you provide an insight into the plans.
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Well, it's gotten a lot of attention. We obviously are going to play the pre-season games in China, and the regular season games in Sweden.

We had, as part of discussions towards the end of last year, hoped to develop with the Players' Association a robust calendar over a nine-year period that would have included two World Cups, possibly the two Olympics, and what we've been calling the two Ryder Cups in addition to a variety of our different ventures. That kind of got derailed because it wasn't something that we could get traction on with the Players' Association.

Q. Gary, with regard to the rules and enforcing them, we've seen players take sticks to the head. We've seen elbows to the head, cross checks to the head. These have been described as hockey plays. They've also involved a player that has prominently dealt with concussions. How concerned are you with some of the things you've seen happen to Sidney Crosby and some of the other players? What can be done to make this a safer sport?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Player safety is of paramount importance to us, and I believe the Players' Association. All of the initiatives that we do to try and make the game safer, we do together.

I tell you for a certainty, Colie Campbell, Stephen Walkom, will tell you is we don't tell the officials to change the standard for the playoffs. But as we all know, time and space tends to evaporate very quickly in a playoff game. There tends to be a lot more physicality and a lot more adjustments in the course of the series. We expect the officials to call the rule book. If we need to make adjustments on the standard, we won't hesitate to do that.

The second part of your question alluded to the concussion protocol. It is evolving. It is working well. The experts who advise us in terms of what would give us reason to remove players from the game is something that we pay a lot of attention to and constantly evolve. We're constantly looking to get it right.

I know there's always speculation about why this player was or wasn't taken off the ice. The fact is, we look for signs of concussion or possible concussion because, from a player standpoint, they don't like being yanked out of games needlessly.

Having said that, when you enforce the concussion protocol by definition, you're going to take players out of the game who don't have a concussion, but we try to minimize that as well.

We take player safety very seriously. The education we've been doing, particularly with concussions, we think is working. I think it's fair to say in a meaningful double-digit percentage number, concussions were down this season.

Q. Commissioner, as someone who was very involved in the process and discussions to keep the Predators in Nashville 10 years ago, can you give me your sense of pride to see them this far? And with what they've done in the playoffs, might there be an outdoor game or something in the future for them?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Outdoor game in Nashville at some point might be nice. They have a nice outdoor stadium. Actually, a couple to choose from.

I think there probably was too much in terms of the storytelling as to what happened. The Predators weren't leaving Nashville. I know there was an attempt to move them. But as a league, that was something we had no interest in doing.

We're delighted to have Nashville as part of the league. We're delighted at everything the Predators and the Predators organization have done to become part of that community. The Predators don't and didn't belong anywhere other than right where they are.

Q. Commissioner, I'm from China. You mentioned you're going to play two games in China this September. Why at this point in time go to China and play a game? 2022, the Winter Olympics will be in Beijing. Does the league plan to develop in the China market?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: We're working very hard and are very focused on developing the Chinese market, in part because we have been told from the Chinese government at very high levels that there is, leading to 2022, a priority to develop winter sports.

I was told by the Minister of Sport when I was there about a month ago that they would like to see 300 million more participants in winter sports, particularly and including hockey. We said we would work very closely with the government to try and help grow the game at all levels. They said they would help us grow the business of the game at all levels. It looks like the making of a very good partnership.

The issue of the Olympics of 2022, in all my meetings when I was in Beijing, never came up. I think the focus is more about long-term development of the sport, not necessarily what happens for two weeks in 2022.

I can't predict with any degree of certainty what may or may not happen in 2022 vis-Ã -vis the Olympics. But we are committed to working to grow the game of hockey in China.

Q. Gary, is the 2018 Olympics dead as far as you're concerned?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: We made an announcement, how long ago, Bill?

BILL DALY: Six weeks ago.

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Six weeks ago we were very clear and definitive that the teams had no interest in going to the Olympics in Pyeongchang. I know there have been a variety of comments either from RenÃ© Fasel of the International Ice Hockey Federation or from representatives of the Players' Association suggesting that this was still an open issue. It is not and has not been.

Do you want to add to that?

BILL DALY: No.

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: I hope that was definitive enough.

Q. Gary, another one about the Olympics. When the Olympic talks were occurring, what was it exactly that the league was hoping to get from the P.A. or from the IOC or from whoever?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Let me set the stage a little bit differently. Bill will correct me if I'm wrong.

As this was all unfolding, Bill went and looked at his notes from all the meetings we had had over the prior 18 months with either the Players' Association or the IOC or the IIHF. I think I opened every meeting by saying, The teams have fatigue on the Olympics. We're not anti-Olympics, we're anti-disruption to the season. I don't believe that there's any appetite to continue participation.

Having said that, we said, Listen, if there's something you want to tell us that might change the equation, that might interest the teams, we'll listen.

We weren't negotiating. We never negotiated.

In November last year, in a meeting we were having with the Players' Association about the World Cup, debriefing from the one last September, and talking about what to do next, the Players' Association said, Well, let's do it in four years in 2020.

We said, Conceptually that's a great idea, except we each have a reopener, exercisable by notice in September of 2019, effective September of 2020. If we're going to plan a World Cup for 2020, we either need to give up the reopener or pick a different date.

For those of you who were around for it, we went through that routine in 2004, and it wasn't very good. You don't spend a year in collective bargaining at the same time you're doing together a World Cup with the possibility of what could ensue when the World Cup is over.

We said, Pick a different year or let's go back to our constituents and see if there's any interest in giving up the reopener.

What then ensued in that meeting, it wasn't a demand, it wasn't a proposal, it was a suggestion, talking points. We said, You know, if we're both going to give up our reopeners, and we extend by three years, we could encompass two Olympics, two World Cups, two Ryder Cups, build the international business together in a way we hope to, do a whole host of other initiatives.

Under the framework of a robust international calendar and labor piece for nine years, maybe I've got something that will persuade the teams to reconsider their view of the Olympics.

It wasn't a demand. I didn't even know if it was going to fly.

What you may recall happened is we had a board meeting in December, and somehow in advance of that it was leaking out that we had made a demand of a three-year extension to go to Pyeongchang, which wasn't the case. I started getting calls from clubs saying, What is it you're doing?

This wasn't something we had vetted in advance. It was a suggestion as to framework that might make a lot of sense on a whole host of levels. It never generated a whole lot of traction.

Want to add to that?

BILL DALY: No.

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: That's the full story.

Q. Alex Ovechkin has been on record saying he's going to the Olympics whether the NHL is going or not. Ted Leonsis is saying, Whatever Alex wants, he gets. What is the NHL policy, players under contract, your teams and your league, regarding the Olympics?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: It's a great question.

We have an expectation that none of our players are going. But I don't want to get into the gymnastics involved in what that means. There's no reason to pick that fight right now.

Q. How much more patience can you afford to have recording the Coyotes, considering the fact that they're playing their last year under their current lease with Glendale? What is the next step for the owners down there?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: You can answer that one if you'd like.

BILL DALY: I mean, we have a lot of patience for the Coyotes. We're confident there are a lot of good arena opportunities available to them there. Our ownership is focused on cultivating one of those opportunities. There's every sense that they'll be successful in doing that. So we support their efforts.

Q. You mentioned a lot of the young stars, some of the offensive numbers they put up. Is there any concern about goals remaining stagnant per game, power play opportunities are at their lowest point in 40-plus years? This season is that a concern that those opportunities are drying up for the offensive players?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: Actually, I believe that goal scoring was up a tenth of a point. I think even-strength goals were up, as well. I think we're calling as many penalties on a per-game basis as we had.

So the answer is, it would be nice maybe to have a couple tenths more goals per game. I think we've also seen more comeback victories, more lead changes than ever before.

But one of the things that Colie Campbell and Hockey Operations does extraordinarily well is they're watching every game, they're tracking what's going on in every game. We're looking for trends, both good and bad.

The GMs, general managers, meet on a regular basis to take the pulse of the game and see what, if any, adjustments are needed. But I think the game is in as good of shape if not better than it ever has been.

BILL DALY: A significantly lower number of empty net goals this year, as well. More goals league wide, a lot less empty net goals.

Q. Are you totally comfortable with the number of goals being scored? Do you much prefer one-goal games?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: It's interesting. The differential in goal scoring in these playoffs I think is a record low of 1.4. I referred to the three games we had where seven goals were scored. Those weren't particularly pretty or entertaining. The fact is you can see a great 1-0 game, and you can see a horrible 7-1 game.

At the end of the day it's really about the flow, it's about scoring chances, it's about how entertaining the game is. The game has never been faster, never been more skillful.

Yes, people continue to say, as do we, We got to get the goaltenders smaller equipment-wise. Physically they're bigger than they've ever been. There's nothing we can do about that. I'm not an advocate of making the nets bigger, though some people have suggested that.

I think we're constantly looking as a league, and the media on behalf of the fans as well, at what it is we can always change and adjust.

We're in a good place. But that doesn't mean we take it for granted. We're constantly in a self-evaluative mode. If there's an adjustment we think we need to make, at the appropriate time we'll make it.

Q. Jim Rutherford was critical of how Sidney Crosby has been treated these playoffs. I know we hear a lot from fans about feeling like he's treated unfairly. Where do you stand on the treatment he's received these playoffs?
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: First of all, in the last few hours I saw Mr. Rutherford's comments. On both a personal and professional level, I think the world of Jim Rutherford. He's done a great job here, as he did in Carolina.

The timing of what he said to me seems a little odd. That's something you do in a GM meeting, not the day of the Stanley Cup Final. Maybe he's trying to tweak the officials a little bit.

But in the final analysis, we don't want our players getting hurt. I think it's fair to say that all of the teams that have been in the playoffs have played very physically. There are a couple of people who have complained on other teams about some of the things that Pittsburgh players have done. Some of that goes in the category of gamesmanship, some of it goes to the fact we need to be vigilant as a league to make sure players aren't unnecessarily and inappropriately hurt.

As I said, that's something we continue to monitor and will.

Having said that, I take the concerns of all of our clubs, all of our players, all of our owners very seriously on this issue.

Q. What are you thinking for the salary cap with or without the growth factor?
BILL DALY: Projections really haven't changed from the last time we addressed the media on the subject. You're looking at a flatter or slightly upped cap, with no inflator. Then you can run it out to 77 and change if you apply the 5% inflator.

That's a discussion we have to have with the Players' Association. We're actually scheduled to talk about it for the first time this coming week. We'll see where they are.

I'll add that one of the issues that we hear from the Players' Association that causes concern to the players is the escrow. Obviously the higher the cap goes, the more exacerbated the escrow problem becomes.

Certainly our position with the Players' Association has been that we'll manage the cap tighter and keep it lower to try to address the escrow situation, if that's your preference.

We'll hear what they have to say next week.

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: In fact, let me just add to that, that in a conversation I had on Friday, I said that we'd be happy to consider leaving the cap flat. That would dramatically reduce the escrow.

That's the way the system was intended to function. The system had a range built in anticipating that the contracts would be more than the players were entitled to under the 50%.

So if the escrow is a bone of contention, then let's reduce it as much as possible. The way to do that is to not raise the cap.

Q. Gary, I'm curious as to how you expect to grow the game in China when you refuse to make a commitment to send your best athletes there for the Olympics.
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: It was clear to me, including with a very lengthy meeting that I had with the Minister of Sport, which is at the highest level of the Chinese government, that the concern is about growing the game, it's not about two weeks in 2022, in terms of their commitment to winter sports.

There is lots that we can do based on our know-how and our expertise that they're looking for guidance on. We're happy to provide that.

What happens with the Olympics in 2022 is something that we don't have to address right now, so we're not going to.

BILL DALY: We've never been asked to make a commitment to the 2022 Olympics, period.

COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: As I said before, nobody raised the question as to whether or not we were coming in all the meetings I had there over a three-day period.

Q. Where do you go with the KHL now that the NHL players are not going to the Olympics? You can see the Russian teams are trying to get the Russian players back to the KHL.
COMMISSIONER BETTMAN: The KHL will do whatever the KHL thinks is in the KHL's best interests.

We believe currently, in the past, and for the foreseeable future, that the best players in hockey in the world will continue to want to play in the best hockey league in the world, and that's the National Hockey League.

Thank you. Enjoy the Final.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297

NHL STANLEY CUP FINAL: PREDATORS VS PENGUINS

May 29, 2017

Gary Bettman

Bill Daly