Pod Excl: Who Has More Power: Ownership or Bettman?

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1:04and Tyson Ruicki discuss who has more power in the NHL ownership or Commissioner Gary I would have felt like that's man. Hotbox with a cigarette to just take some colds and it's free for all Friday. I have a tobacco pipe because I do like nicotine, I do like tobacco, I do like the smoke, I don't because it's not healthy and I want to be able to live to see my kid grow old and hopefully have a bar mitz for something like that one day. I want to be around. Of course. But I love to smoke. I would love to have a little drama whiskey, a nice beer, and just a couple of

2:09drags out of my pipe. Where drags out of my pipe? I just don't follow that. I just don't follow that. Oh, it's Friday. Yeah. And Tyson, what do you got for us today? Well, I'll tell you. I don't want to wait off my shoulders by the way. Well, five minutes ago, you should have gone, I'm going to go and let you guys. And if you're wondering, you're listening to this again, we're just giving some man-to-man wisdom to Tyson. That might not necessarily be an experience. I just say life experience. Life experience. I appreciate that. 27 only. 27 only. Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting up there. I'm a man. I'm a wife. I used to think that when I was 27 to 35 in July. 35. In July. Good Lord, man. You should smoke a pipe. You're in here. Yeah. And Jim, you're turning 54? 54. Yeah. And if you're in Iraq, you're coming up. It's soon, right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't really. If there's one thing where you should add to the end of that conversation is numbers matter, but not to me. And I'd bother them too. Yeah.

3:10Men live. And numbers. Some of the other days. Some of the other days. Men and women are different as the business. Some of the other days. How old are you now? And I said 52. And you're like, you're 53. How do you not know? I'm like, I don't care. Well, I had to. That's funny because I had to think about it. I honestly didn't care. I actually had to think about that. I said, am I still 33 turning? No, no, no. I'm turning 35. I thought I was 33. I thought for a second I was 33. No, I'm not. My mom will cause you. You're bird days in a month. And I'm like 51 and 52. Oh, I. And it drives other people. What do you got to worry about? What do you got for us today, Tyson? Well, you know, we kind of talked about the tanky situation and how maybe you can solve it. But now it's all about Gary Batman. And I wanted to get you guys thoughts on Gary Batman. Gary. Where did things stand currently? Because you know, like the commissioner is supposed to be like kind of a buffer between the owners and the GMs and the players. They're just in coach. Right. And you know, when you listen to Roger Gidell talk, you get the impression that he's speaking for the owners.

4:11Without a doubt. Yes. With Gary Batman, I get the impression he's trying to convince the owners that his idea is right. He's 73 years. And I think Gary Batman, I think you're absolutely right. And I think he has such a good track record. Look at where the league is under him. I think he's got such a good track record that I think he's got a cons. That's sort of his superpower is he's able to pull all the ownership together into one sort of direction. And if you're an owner of the NHL team since he took over in the 90s, what do you have to complain about? Oh, seriously. If you're Arizona. Yeah, if you're Arizona one. He tried to do everything that he did. Yeah. Like the one thing I will say. Okay, I'm just wondering. Okay, I'll cut that part up. Okay, go ahead. Keep going. So what I will say is that at times Gary Batman is a little bit too stubborn. Yes. Like when we look at the playoff format in particular. Yeah. That is something that it's, it was Durantin's course. They need to switch it up though. And it's just something that he's not going to do.

5:12He is dead set in the fact that he wants to play off form at this way. And then, you know, like stuff like the Winter Classic as well. Like it was such a unique event. You know, you play it once a year on New Year's Day and you get to go to a sweet venue that you never get to play games. And now it's just over done. Yeah, the stadium. They never should have done the stadium series. Right. And so it's just like there should have been the Heritage Classic in the Winter Classic. And then now like with the player's safety stuff and you know what Eric Tolsky says. Hey, like what's going on with the headshot stuff? And then for Batman to be like, oh, did Tom Dundin tell you to say that? Is that what he told you to say? And it's like, well, I thought this was a discussion here. Gary, like, it seems like he's done a little bit more competitive lately than you should listen. Because he's one of the owners. Right. He's like lately, Batman's a little bit competitive. Well, he's holding containers. 73 and he's always been stubborn. But I agree he represents the owners and you're right. He's done phenomenal things with them as commissioner. Like there's a lot of things he's led them down though. And probably this is what weighs into it at 73 is 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago.

6:16He's led them down some paths, probably had to convince a few of them and it's worked out. Yeah. So he probably has that in his mind. He's got cash in. He has cash in. But that being said, you're right. Look at all the other commissioners. And it is clear that they work for people. And Gary is always that 50, 50. Yeah, I represent the owners, but also I'm representing. He represents himself. I think it's because he has done some great things that he's kind of look back and go. I'm like, he could very easily look at Roger Godel. And Roger Godel makes more and is worth more and is more valuable because of the NFL. But yet he could look at Roger Godel very easily and go, I've accomplished way more than you ever have his commission. Even though the NFL keeps growing. And I think that's a fair assessment. Yeah. I think he's, when you look at the other commissioners, they basically. Adam Silver is the owner's due. Adam Silver is doing a terrible job. Yeah. Well, he's the NBA. We've talked about that. But again, he probably is. So like Adam Silver is he more like Roger Godel or is he more like Gary Beck? I don't even know when Adam Silver is like he will.

7:17He takes a player's side. He takes the management side, takes the owner's side. Like he just takes everyone's side. He's a people pleading. Yeah. And no one, nothing ever gets done. Sorry, Jim. Go ahead. No, Gary 73. And when it's all said and done, he'll be the commissioner that you could look back at and literally say, I did that. Like we're not going to sit down and go. I'll remember when Chipman and Jacob said all these owners did this. It'll probably be like Gary did this. Well, look how he stewarded the leak. Look at these. Look at these rule meetings. Right. Look at the buildings, the NHL plays in now. Look at the, look at the parody and the league and the players coming up from all over the world. Look at the growth of the game in the United States over his tenure, which was the number one. Like if there was a number one job that he needed to do was he needed to grow the game in the United States. Look at the game and its growth in Europe and the players that are coming out of there. More and more, more skilled, better and better and better. Look at where the, look at where hockey is from the youth. Look how good the kids are these days. The global game is growing. Yeah, I agree. He's been stubborn on some stuff.

8:17Look at the money that's coming in. And that's who he, that's who, that's who, that's like you can't, but you can't, you can poke holes in his tenure as a commissioner once everything is said and done. But you're looking at a molehill compared to the mound that he's got. But Roger Gidele can't do that. Like Roger Gidele. No. Gidele cannot sit down if he was to retire now and go. You know, even the league has grown and even those salaries are on and all the all those jobs there's jobs harder. He can't sit there and go while I did this. But there's some things in the NHL like Gary, I think it could sit down and go. I legitimately did this. I came up with that. I enforced it. Whose job has been harder? Roger Gidele's are Gary Bedman's. Oh, Gary Bedman's for sure. Roger Gidele essentially just doesn't have to do anything. Yeah, he doesn't have to do anything. Look what is he really honestly like? What does Roger Gidele like if you gave him the upcoming season? What does Roger Gidele have to accomplish? So here's the thing. Nothing. Nothing. Remember Colin Kaepernick taken a knee and every time Roger Gidele said something, you clearly could tell that that's what the owners were telling him to do.

9:19Like we have so many corporate sponsors that they're fine if you take a knee but not during the anthem. Like you do not disrespect our flag and all of a sudden the league started. I don't know. I never felt like this is what Roger Gidele feels. This is what the owners feel. But if there's a Colin Kaepernick incident in the NHL, I think Gary would be, Gary would direct it. Like I think Gary would be the one going, no, owners, we don't want to do that. We want to make sure we have this, this, this, this, like the Chicago Black Hawks. The sexual assault scandal. Just exactly as you just said. He has more weight with the owners. I think that any other commissioner where every other commissioner has, they basically are an employee of the owners. Gary I think has a kind of a partnership with the owners. Two teams. One cup. The prime time stage is set for the TGL presented by SoFi Finals, Los Angeles Golf Club versus Tiger's Jupiter links. Keep up, it's playoffs. Tune in Monday, March 23rd, 9 p.m. Eastern on ESPN2,

10:21and Tuesday, March 24th, 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN, and on the ESPN app.