gary bettman thought that the nhl need to flourish in the southern states and non traditional hockey markets for the nhl to be a player in the big leagues.. he added expansion teams to these markets and moved existing teams there as well. in order for them to be more marketable right away it would be better for them to be more competitive and not get blown out most nights. if only there was a way to restrict talent and manufacture less scoring, the games would be more competitive, closer in scoring and more exciting to watch especially for fans in the new markets. he battled the media and fans of the game (for almost his entire tenure) about lack of scoring, obstruction, rules and many other things. alway insisting there is nothing wrong, that the state of the game has never been better. while the fans were complaining about the lack of scoring and officiating goalie equipment was gradually and surreptitiously becoming bigger and bigger. players coaches and fans didn't know which penalties would be called from game to game or period to period. it would have made more sense if they specified when a penalty would be called ( for ex. hooking is only to be called in the first 10 minutes of the first two periods) rather than arbitrarily or worse yet because the other team had the last penalty. over sized goalie equipment is a more obvious example of cheating than steroids. i remember watching a game on television and during one of the intermissions they were showing some netting patrick was using between his legs. outrageous! the fans and media are screaming "what happened to the goals?, we hate the trap, no more obstruction" and this guy's got webbing between his legs and everyone knows about it. he should have had a lengthy suspension at the very least if not abolished from the league. i always chuckle when i hear an announcer exclaim "great glove save" and always the goalie hardly (if at all) moved his glove until the puck was in it and then embellishes with some theatrics. want to see some great glove saves (they were exciting to watch) watch some hockey games before bettman was the commissioner. i am sure players would gladly give up composite sticks if goalie equipment was as big as it was in the eighties, before bettman came along. most of the goals these days are what used to be called garbage goals, nothing wrong with some garbage goals but a great passing play, a beautiful sniper shot, or a sweet deke are more entertaining to watch. statistics should have an asterisk denoting how many and which years were played while bettman was commissioner. fans boo him at any appearance he makes i know this is embarrassing for the nhl but the nhl IS an embarrasment as long as he is the commissioner. and yet again during the stanley cup final (what the whole season is played for)it seems officials were instructed to put the whistles away. it is not good for one market to keep dominating and also to give gary's poster boy(he is a great player but a terrible loser he should grow up and set a good example for all his young fans) a cup.