from Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,

Fans in South Florida brought the heat Friday night, doing their presumed duty and echoing boos throughout BB&T Center when the NHL commissioner took center stage to open the annual showcase for hockey's future.

Gary Bettman smiled, as he always does, before pointing to a packed upper concourse. He shouldn't have had to say another word. That point was enough.

On the last Friday of June in a sun-soaked city, Floridians had come inside to watch unknown teenagers take their NHL baby steps.

For Bettman, the full house in South Florida surely was more enjoyable than a private round of golf at a nearby club. If the Florida Panthers' run to the 1996 Stanley Cup Final marked the South Florida market's equivalent of a hole in one, the support South Floridians showed for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft was at least a double-eagle.

Bettman doesn't play to a golf crowd. His is hockey, a crowd equally rough and unreasonable.

Certainly, hockey fans everywhere are justified to hold a grudge against Bettman for the three work stoppages that stain the first page of his resume. But that resume is thick with other accomplishments, too.

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