Pour ma part, ces séries 100% américaines de la ligue nationale de garry Bettman sont sans intérêt. Les équipes du Canada vont rarement loin depuis qu'il est là et les 6 dernières finales opposant une équipe du Canada vs une équipe des e.-u. Ont été gagnée par celle des e.-u.. Hasard? Pas certain, moi
Gary Bettman has taken the league to new heights and turned it into a bonafide major league sport. He made the league and its owners much more wealthier and same goes for the players. It's a much faster & more skilled league than it ever was. It's a league where the large majority of its players are skilled hockey players where in the past way too many so-called 'players' were in the league for other reasons (e.g. pugilistic skills). At one point NHL hockey wasn't that much different than pro wrestling.
The reason why there are no Canadian teams left in the playoffs is simple: the ones that did make the playoffs were beaten by better teams. As for the ones that didn't make the playoffs their ineptitude is as much to blame as anything else. Eugene Melnyk has proven to be detrimental owner for the lowly Ottawa Senators. Some of the people he hired have made questionable personnel decisions. For example trading their 2019 first overall pick to Colorado for Matt Duchesne, only to see them finish dead last this season & Duchesne being traded away to Columbus at the trade deadline. And what the hell were the original owners thinking when they built that damn arena way out in Kanata?
Gary Bettman isn't the one who traded PK Subban to Nashville for an aging Shea Weber. Gary Bettman isn't the one who granted thirty-something Carey Price a 10-year/$84 million contract when a good chunk of that money could instead be used on younger skilled players and to rebuild the sagging franchise. Bettman isn't the one who traded prized defensive prospect Sergachev to Tampa for the under-achieving (lazy!) Jonathan Drouin and granted him a multiyear contract extension even before he had played his first game with the habs. The Max Pacioretty & Alex Galchenyuk trades are still up in the air as far as their value and i wouldn't be surprised if the habs once again end up regretting those trades. Time will tell.
Take the Leafs. They hadn't made the playoffs in years until they finally cleaned house and hired top-notch people to run the team. Then their fortunes changed and they became a contending team.
Opposite of this are the Edmonton Oilers. They've been a miserable mess for a decade or so. Their failure year after year allowed them to pick the top young players in hockey including the best hockey player in the world (Connor McDavid) yet they had another poor season and missed the playoffs again. That's not Gary Bettman's fault. Actually Gary Bettman is likely the main reason why Edmonton still has a team. Bettman introduced revenue-sharing in order to help financially struggling teams including several Canadian teams who have to deal with a weaker Canadian dollar.
Calgary. They finally had a good season but faced a hot team in the playoffs. Winnipeg. Had a disappointing year and only have themselves to blame. Maybe it's time for Paul Maurice to go. Winnipeg should also thank Bettman for allowing the second NHL franchise in Atlanta to relocate to a Canadian city with a so-so market.
Vancouver. Same thing year after year. They probably held on to the Sedins for too long and should have spent that money on younger players. The way they handled the Roberto Luongo saga was a miserable mess! Not Gary Bettman's fault.
Gary Bettman has been great for NHL hockey and hockey in general. Poor management and bad trades are the main reason why several Canadian teams haven't had any success lately. And that's a fact.
