from Ian Mendes of Sportsnet,

As for those media members who are suggesting that his presence tonight will be a major distraction, I have a simple question for you: Who controls the stories that are published on a daily basis?

Last time I checked, those of us in the mainstream media dictate the major hockey stories of the day.

So what if we decided that for the next 12 hours, we wouldn't report on the CBA negotiations? What if we focused all of our attention on the Hall of Fame inductees for just one night?

Let's celebrate how special this is for Mats Sundin, to have his induction ceremony in the same city as he played in for so many years. Let's re-live the brilliance of Pavel Bure once last time, while honoring the understated dominance of Joe Sakic and Adam Oates. And for those of us who have had the pleasure of knowing Roy MacGregor, we should have countless stories to tell about his induction into the media wing of the Hall of Fame. There is no shortage of wonderful hockey storylines tonight, so there is no need to focus on the negativity. We've done that enough for the past three months.

If Gary Bettman is present at the event tonight, there shouldn't be a real reason to speak to him from a media standpoint. Unless there is anything new to report on the negotiations - and all indications point to there not being any - why don't we just leave him alone for a night? Besides, he's not going to say anything we haven't heard in the past few days.

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