Gary Bettman is in Philadelphia tonight for the Rangers/Flyers game and did a Q & A with the media...
from Randy Miller of NJ.com,
• On whether he likes shootouts:
Bettman: “I like the shootout in the way we use it. I wouldn’t like the shootout in the playoffs, and the fact is I like the shootout better than ending a game in a tie. And so the issue is can we tweak overtime so maybe there are slightly fewer shootouts? But the fact is, no matter what your opinion is – from the media or hockey person or fan – watch the buildings when the shootouts are going on. Everybody is on their feet. Everybody is interested. Everybody is watching. When games were ending in ties, that wasn’t so much the case in overtime. ... Nobody is looking for a fundamental adjustment. We’re looking more for a tweak to see if maybe we can get a few more games decided in overtime, but the shootout is a concept that’s here to stay."
• On the salary cap going up next season from $64.3 million this season:
Bettman: “The system is designed to deal with fluctuations in the Canadian dollar because hockey related revenues, which is used to compute the salary cap, is done in US dollars. So if the Canadian dollar goes down, the cap isn’t as high. Don’t hold me to this, we’re somewhere in the $69 million to $70 million as a guess. We’re don’t have all the data. We don’t have all of the reports from the clubs yet. That would be a wild guess. It’s a ballpark guess.”
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