from Ken Campbell of The Hockey News,

The Blame Bettman Bandwagon, which was already bursting at the seams, has been gaining legions of members by the day. It has been very convenient to blame Bettman for everything from global warming to New Coke these days, to the point where it would probably be a good idea for Bettman to ignore Twitter. (Actually, it would be a good idea for everyone to ignore Twitter, but that’s a rant for another day.)

Of course, you’d expect it from fans who are bitter about not having the NHL and can’t get over the fact that Bettman isn’t from Moose Jaw. But as is always the case in times like this when perspective is an early casualty, you’re getting it from people who should know better.

People such as Teemu Selanne, who recently wrote on a blog that Bettman, “is certainly the NHL’s most hated person.” Or John-Michael Liles, who tweeted in all his grammatically correct glory that he, “Just wanted to send out a big congrats to gray (sic) bettman for his 3rd consecutive work stoppage. Impressive stats for someone w no athletic skill.”

So, let’s see here. At last count Selanne has made almost $70 million over the course of his NHL career, which began just a couple of months before Bettman took office. At that time, the NHL had revenues of about $400 million. Now they’re at $3.3 billion. You’d have to be a complete dullard not to realize that Bettman had something to do with that and the subsequent pay raises Selanne received because of those increases.

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