from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

I have always believed that there is a lot of, “I told you so,” in Gary Bettman, who even when he didn’t, most often insists that he did.

That is what I think is at the root of the odd solo dance conducted by the NHL commissioner who in October, kind of out of nowhere, tantalizingly dangled the concept of a meaningful salary cap increase for next season before last week slipping into his familiar guise of Grinch in indicating to the Board of Governors that no such thing would be happening.

Instead, under terms of the collective bargaining agreement that was adopted in July 2020, the cap will be set to increase by just $1 million to $83.5 million, making 2023-24 another in a string of seasons in which at least half the league will be strangled by the cap. That is because the massive escrow debt incurred by the NHL Players’ Association during the pandemic will not be paid off by the end of this season.

Of course it won’t. We are told that last spring, the NHLPA advised agents that the debt would not be satisfied until the end of the 2024-25 season. The idea that somehow the debt would evaporate two years ahead of schedule is the type of concept based on voodoo economics.

But, like a practiced carny, Bettman threw it out there before reeling it back in. Magic!

continued, plus two more topics, including this one...

The hellacious open-ice hit that the Wild’s Ryan Reaves laid on Filip Hronek on Wednesday is legal under current rules. That tells you all you need to know about the efficacy of current rules in protecting players from brain damage.