from Ray Ratto of CSNBayArea,

We are not expecting a Gary Bettman sighting for Game 4 of the Los Angeles Kings-San Jose Sharks series Tuesday night. Or for Game 5 on Thursday, and probably not Game 6 on Sunday, either. And maybe not even for Game 7, either. We remain hopeful for Game 8, though.

Too bad, too. The one time the Bay Area would actually like to see him, he’ll find himself too busy tending to the three series that haven’t been designated as undercards.

And yes, this is still the undercard for whatever other series there is, because that’s the way the sport has always operated. Like the Stanley Cup itself, it is a series of rings, and the further away from the center you get, the less intriguing you are.

Yes, the Sharks are playing the defending Stanley Cup champions in a series that has had enough of everything yet not so much that people aren’t willing to watch more. But they are not members of the Original Six, like Chicago and Detroit and New York and Boston. They do not have Sidney Crosby, like Pittsburgh. And they do not have Canada, like Ottawa.

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