from Stephen Brunt of the Globe and Mail,

Five years ago, the Stanley Cup went unraised, a dark spring for anyone who loves hockey, but for Gary Bettman, a time of triumph.

The commissioner of the NHL had won the great war that his bosses (the franchise owners) empowered him to fight, shutting down the league for a year by lockout, crushing the players’ union, vanquishing his No.1 foe (then-players’ association boss Bob Goodenow), creating a blank slate on which the new business rules of the sport would be written just the way he wanted them.

Friday, Bettman spoke to the press in advance of this year’s Stanley Cup final between the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers, and could honestly make the case that, on several fronts, the NHL is better off now than it was then.

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