Bettman's Past Comments Reflect Barroway Lawsuit: "Has No Merit"

Has no merit is the Islanders response to this lawsuit.

Folks know here I try and find direct quotes not to waste your time. I will play no favorites here and go where the quoted information takes me.

Gary Bettman owes Charles Wang nothing, and will not protect him to this degree where he opens himself/league up to a lawsuit from Mr Barroway which the fellow BOG members will not be happy about.

Why did Barroway not sue the NHL/Bettman with Wang? 

If Barroway alleges that an agreement to sell the team was made in on 3/10/14 why is Gary Bettman directly quoted as saying the exact opposite not only on 4/24/14 but on 6/4/14?

Bettman did not give some vague statement because the league was not ready to announce a done deal, he flat out said it's Wang's decision and is under no league pressure to make a decision or sell the team.

Bottom line Gary Bettman is directly quoted saying there is no sale/no pressure for Wang to sell long after this supposed done deal was made, that does not sound like a man who received faxed documents about an an agreed sale on 3/10/2014 with specific details of the closing provided. 

Done deal 3/10/14? No. 

I'll see if I can find more quoted updates.

And of course there was Howard Dolgon's mystery buyer a month after this supposed closed sale on 3/10/14? Did Mr Barroway  not read the papers like the rest of us and immediately pick up the telephone and demand what's going on here, we have an agreement from 3/10/14 which was not in any of these lawsuit papers?

Howard Dolgon was speaking almost daily. The updates with his quoted comments were posted here.

Why did Mr Barroway not file his lawsuit on 4/19/14 or shortly upon after learning of this? 

NHL Makes 50/50-No Salary Rollback Offer

NHL.com Gary Bettman announced a new offer to the NHLPA that allows an 82 game schedule beginning 11/2. 

Donald Fehr he needs time to review the offer. 

Both Bettman/Fehr have given video interviews.

NHL.com Transcript of Bettman's Comments

NYIFC Comments:
Obviously this is the final chance for an 82 game schedule. An offer of this measure also means the players existing long-term front-loaded contracts will be honored in full which no doubt most players will want to accept.

If Donald Fehr does not accept the offer, not even the media salesman of x market teams will be able to defend the NHLPA not accepting a 50/50 split given what the avg NHL player now makes in salary. 

The problem moving forward are issues Bettman has within his own circle of owners on salary cap, front-loading, length of contracts, and how many NTC/NMC a team can carry. A league where you have seventy million dollar teams front-loading, or hiding mistakes in the AHL is not a balanced system.

There cannot be collusion not to front-load or make long-term offers, it has to be part of a binding agreement on player contracts with the NHLPA.

Revenue sharing is an internal NHL decision to make among owners governing themselves with regard to their share of revenue. 

Islander News Articles 1/23

Newsday: Eden Laiken has the latest on the back and fourth between the Town of Hempstead with their representative Hempstead Town Attorney Joseph Ra this time doing the mantra that the process would go quickly if the Isles would simply renovate while Paul Lancey on the Lighhouse side maintains that is not economically feasible for the area for them just to do a renovation.

Chief Deputy County Executive Marilyn Gottlieb (Tom Suozzi/Nassau side who approved project) voice support for the project given revenue it would create.

Islanders owner Charles Wang had no comment.

Newsday: Neil Best trots out Michael Bair, President of Msg to make a case why their corporation would strongly want the Islanders to stay here despite the enormous television rights fees they have to pay the club until 2030 as Mr Best talks about ratings for a team Msg/Cablevision puts on secondary networks to drive down ratings and regulate fan interest.

"We consider each of the teams [we carry] of equal value. We don't distinguish between the teams.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
This is the same Msg President Michael Bair who a few months ago tried to make a case why the Devils receive a pregame and the Islanders do not? Lets put fifty Islander games on Msg with weekly programming and specials and then hide the Cablevision owned club on Msg+2 (with poor picture/no HD at times) for fifty plus games a year and then keep them off television all summer and preseason for a decade and then we will get an honest view of the ratings for the Islanders or who has the most fans.

They are now paid all this money to control interest and perception, so are the Devils, when the Islanders signed this deal in the eighties, Cablevision did not own another NHL club.

What is Michael Bair going to say, the teams primary television carrier that now also owns their primary newspaper wants them to move so they can save hundreds of millions? That would officially end all Newsday credibility in their reporting which has been questionable at times even before Cablevision got on board with a staff of former Ranger beatwriters and admitted fans on the staff writing about the club and creating perception which includes Neil Best.

Far too much of it overtly negative which we did not see the years the Rangers were the biggest disgrace in the NHL going on a decade or for the Knicks of several seasons who have fit every criteria of a laughingstock.

NHL.com: Brian Compton has an excellent feature on Clark Gillies where he talks about his NHL debut for New York in Montreal against the Canadians as well as his Islander career.

Espn: Scott Burnside has a wide range of topics among which is the Islanders arena situation where Gary Bettman says he hopes no one is taking Charles Wang for granted.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Mr Burnside as usual has the glass half empty on the team and makes a mistake on the arena lease which he writes expires on July 31, 2015 but would be voided per the Memorandum of Understanding immediately if the project is not approved but does not include the Smg lease which if I'm correct runs until 2014 which is why there has been so much past talk of buying out the league before Mr Wang bought the club.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio previews Bridgeport's doubleheader Friday and Saturday in Portland against the Pirates.

Kurtis McLean, Jack Hillen and Peter Mannino were sent back to Bridgeport.

Islander News Articles 1/17

First time the Islanders have played a Saturday game for a while, our little tradition here will be the put NYIFC in third jersey mode on such days.

Newsday: John Jeansonne has Saturday coverage with Wade Dubielewicz first comments heading into the Devils game who won in Columbus 2-1 Friday with Kevin Weekes in goal here.

Brendan Shanahan was not listed on the scoresheet.

Newsday: Anthony Rieber & Jim Baumbach report NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said this week that the Islanders are not looking to relocate but have comments from what they call a person familiar with the planning of their exhibition game in Kansas City as a showcase game as they recap comments from Mr Bettman on his XM radio show on Thursday.

NY Post: Dan Martin has Wade Dubielewicz's comments with head coach Scott Gordon. There is a chance Dubielewicz could start against New Jersey.

NY Post: Mr Martin also had Bill Guerin's comments who felt he and Doug Weight have upheld their part of the bargain and is very disappointed with the seasons results but hope they can contribute together when Weight returns.

NY Times: Dave Caldwell covered Dubie's comments yesterday with some post-Boston quotes from Scott Gordon.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
The Times went to Islander practice, Lynn Zinser went to Chicago? They did not cover these games when they played at Msg.

What are we all missing here?

NYI Fan Central Comments:
We do not even get two articles for games much less a day off from the Post?

AHL.com: Reports Bridgeport lost against Hershey Friday night at Harbor Yard 5-3 dropping them into third place.

1. HER Osala, (19) (Bouchard, Wilson), 2:24 (PP)
1. BRI Iggulden, (17) (Smith, McLean), 7:11
1. BRI Walter, (9) (Smith, Iggulden), 15:43 (PP)
1. HER Perreault, (7) (Bouchard, Osala), 16:28
2. HER Giroux, (30) (Lepisto, Bourque), 15:54 (PP)
3. HER Giroux, (31) (Aucoin, Perreault), 7:34 (PP)
3. BRI Walter, (10) (Lee), 8:50 (PP)
3. HER Bouchard, (12) (Laing, Sloan), 11:20

Nate Lawson allowed five goals on seventeen shots.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has an full interview with Sound Tigers President Howard Saffan where he makes clear the following regarding Thursday's News and points out attendance is up in Bridgeport this season to fourteenth overall:

"One has nothing to do with the other," Saffan said. "We played a team this year, the Houston Aeros, owned by Minnesota. Proximity, one team versus the other, is fairly irrelevant.

"I'd be kidding you if I didn't say the convenience of Fairfield County to Long Island wasn't important, but at the end of the day, the New York Islanders need a place to develop players in the American Hockey League."

"We've built a good fan base. You can tell by the attendance," Saffan said. "My concern is, working with the Islanders, growing up on Long Island, desperately not wanting to see the Islanders forced off Long Island by politics."

"Charles' vision was to create a development that would be spectacular and draw people to Long Island. That's the premise for the Lighthouse project," Saffan said.

"Over the course of the past 24 months, politicians' timetables and developers' timetables are quite different. Charles continues to lose $20 million a year. (Wang partner) Scott Rechler and Charles are absolutely committed to this project."

"I know Charles many, many years. I've never met a person more committed to Long Island than Charles. The only way the Islanders move, in my opinion, off Long Island is if (town supervisor) Kate Murray and the Town of Hempstead turn down the Lighthouse project in a timely fashion."

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Normally I like to do a summary for everyone but too much for me and I wanted exact wording for you.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio recaps Friday's loss with head coach Jack Capuano and Nate Lawson with in-game blog coverage here and previews Saturday's game in Binghampton here.

Harrisburg Daily News: Covers the Hershey Bears with Patriot News here.

Islander/Sound Tigers/NHL Notables

Islanders website: Jason Lockhart has the weekly prospect watch.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
All Islander Prospect Watches back to last season are archived on NYI Fan Central Prospects Blog by date order.

NHL.com: Released it's voting page for the NHL All-Star game, seems a bit slow to work on day one.

Newsday: Greg Logan has Doug Weight's comments in the Islanders Newsday blog about Bailey learning to play at this level and the youth movement while pointing out the significant injuries this team has had while at the same time now allowing it as an excuse.

Mr Logan points out some may accuse the club of playing for a lottery draft pick this season, but to do so disrespects the effort they've given while fighting to overcome injuries but at the same time felt the club didn't play their youth enough last season to determine and might as well do so now in the case of Bailey.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Mr Logan is correct on injuries but he barely writes about them himself unless it's to complain about league/team policy.

I'm not big on excuses for losing myself but few clubs in this league could sustain the loss of it's starting goaltender, Witt, Martinek, Meyer, Sillinger, it's number one draft pick, now what seems like Comrie and the earlier loss of Sutton-Campoli to start the season that does not even include Bergenheim-Tambellini both hurt in camp.

Not even Nate Thompson could stay healthy, the injury list has been long in Bridgeport too.

Still this team has been in position to win almost every game outside of the Buffalo game and they have been outscoring last year's club.

Folks want to claim they are playing to lose, I disagree because they have done everything but finish games, many nights the Islanders are the better club for a good part of the night.

Are they a flawed club? Absolutely on a lot of levels, but terrible teams get blown out every other night 5-1 or are usually not in the games, so far that is not this group or close.

Regarding last year I have no idea what Mr Logan is talking about not giving the prospects a chance. Last year with all the injuries everyone got a look from Colliton to Matt Keith to Ben Walter along with Comeau. I cannot think of anyone who did not get a few games or more from Bridgeport.

Scott Gordon/Garth Snow not only demoted Comeau but the coach put down his contribution last season which seemed over the top when he gave his initial comments about what he saw on film last year. That is not consistent with what the general manager had to say earlier in the summer.

Newsday: Mr Logan also had more from Gary Bettman on the Lighthouse Project where he does not know about Mr Wang-Rechler's financing on the but urges the green light now. Mr Logan claims Charles Wang said in a meeting with Newsday's editorial board early this year that his financial well is not bottomless and denial of the project might force him to consider selling.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Funny but those comments did not make the paper at the time Mr Wang meet with Newsday's editorial board or the sports pages?

Point Blank: Mr Botta has more on the arena subject/Mr Wang's patience as well as a blog entry here on coaches and young prospects submitting past examples in his experience where a coach benched a prospect for a reason that did not seem to make sense along with a few words on Scott Gordon-Kyle Okposo-Jeff Tambellini.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Good stuff from Mr Botta, but he needed to put the Comeau-Gordon issue center stage because it looks even worse than the disconnect he felt between Ted Nolan and Robert Nilsson.

At some point I suspect if Garth Snow's coach has no use for Blake Comeau, Garth Snow will be forced to move Comeau as he did Nilsson when Nolan had no use for a player. Big barometer in the gm-coach working relationship is to agree on young players and move the ones the coach does not feel is part of the answer.

National Post: Howard Berger reports Jason Blake was furious after being scratched by Leafs coach Ron Wilson for Tuesday's game with the former Islanders comments.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
There is nothing short of re-entry waivers and the Leafs taking contracts from the Islanders in another deal that makes this feasible. Ron Wilson is doing what he was hired for and it's working, if Jason Blake does not like being scratched or placed on a fourth line he has to work harder.

Journal Pioneer : Jason Simmonds has more on the Sound Tigers-Senators game in Summerside PEI on Tuesday.

A few words on Gary Bettman

Canadian Press: Has an interview with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on a host of subjects including the salary cap and playing in Europe full-time in the future.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
A lot of folks like to blame Gary Bettman for a lot of things but what most writers forget to point out is like most commissioners he is in effect an agent for the owners. There are a lot of owners in this league who want to exploit their corporate financial advantage regardless of how much money their hockey operation losses because it's a drop in the bucket to the company overall.

A forty million salary floor is a very bitter pill to swallow for teams without corporate billion dollar ownerships but unless they did this those corporate clubs stuck at a ceiling of fifty six million would be spending close to a hundred million and are more than willing to lose tens of millions for a clear advantage.

The kicker is the league does not talk about who makes or losses money or who shares revenue. They just tell you a few small details about revenue on rare occasion and most of that that only comes from Forbes which is just an estimate by an independant company with no access to any clubs books.

Any club can make a hundred million in revenue, but if your spending a hundred and fifty million in overhead to make that revenue your still losing fifty million which is something the league and those corporations want no part of telling anyone.

Gary Bettman cannot tell teams not to spend when they are allowed to do so.

It's also not Gary Bettman's fault the equipment and training techniques imporved to where the players are bigger along with their equipment. He has had to work with a landscape that is more about the sign of the times. He has gotten many rules adopted to try and improve the speed and entertainment value which I thought we we never see with shootouts, four on four overtime, a goaltenders box, the icing rules.

One of those things Mr Bettman was part of is breaking with Espn which has supporters of that station in the media ripping Bettman but was the right move for a network not willing to give hockey close to it's fair share of programming. Versus is far from perfect with a lot of terrible decisions like not showing finals postgame programs but it would be no better on Espn which is why this was decided in the first place.

I supose it's fair to blame Mr Bettman for the ownership siutuation in Nashville but this goes to the banks and the owners guidelines for acceptance also. If someone is determined to be a fraud and not pay for what they purchase it's tough for a pro sports league to do that kind of pre-investigation of an individuals finances.

One final thing about Bettman, he has to deal with some of the the worst multi-billionaire owners in pro sports in people with giant ego's like James Dolan, Ed Snider, Mike Ilitch the Jacobs family in Boston and the Wirtz family in Chicago among others.

Bettman, Aaron Johnson, Espn and Hejda

Cape Brenton Post: TJ Colello has Aaron Johnson's comments after being honored before tonight's World Championship exhibition game in Port Hawkesbury here where Slovenia defeated Norway 6-4.

Colmubus Dispatch: Aaron Portzline reports the Blue Jackets have re-signed defenseman Jan Hejda to a three-year contract worth $6 million.

Hejda, 29, could have become an unrestricted free agent on June 1. He’ll make $2 million per season through 2010-11. Hejda had no goals, 13 assists and a plus-20 rating that was tied for 10th-best in the NHL.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Just seeing how the market is being set for defenseman, that's why I posted this here.

Scripps Howard News Service: Ray McNulty, blames Gary Bettman for the decline of hockey because they left ESPN.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Mr McNulty is one of those former writers from the NY Post (among other publications) here who obviously had blinders on when Espn/Espn2 decided to drop most of it's hockey coverage when they still had the NHL rights to a point Gary Bettman was better off finding someone who would give the league more attention. The ratings game has been spun a lot of directions, the one the folks who are in ESPN's corner never bring up is how low ratings and coverage were on Espn/Espn2 before the lockout.

For all the abuse Mr Bettman takes he is one person. He does not own Comcast or have the right to tell the Wirtz family how to show the Blackhawks in Chicago or what Ed Snider should do with Comcast Flyers or Mike Ilitch what to do with Wings games in Detroit. You think the Six Canadian clubs care one bit about Espn?

If anyone thinks Gary Bettman does not have resistance one team sued the league for control of it's own website this year and lost.

That owner controls the rights to four NHL teams game telecasts.

There are things to blame Gary Bettman about and some of them are fair but many go beyond the commissioner who is not at fault for equipment and body training methods improving which hurt the product by making the space on the ice smaller. You have to put some things on all the owners, the NHLPA, the folks who own the rights to the games and the competition committee.

Nothing is as easy as Gary Bettman deciding this is what's he is going to do and that's final. How many times has Bettman said x owner owns the club, he gives advice when asked but he does not own x team.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has a blog on the AHL playoffs and a few words on the Islanders/Sound Tigers heading into the World Championships.

Islander News Articles 2/27:

Newsday: Mark Herrmann's game article was on the all the shots the Islanders got but did not finish with Rob Davison, Ty Conklin and Sean Bergenheim's comments.

Newsday: Greg Logan blogged during the game on the Islanders youth and Garth Snow's plan to build.

Newsday: Mark Herrmann's other article had Ted Nolan and Garth Snow's comments on the trades of Chris Simon and Marc-Andre Bergeron and what Mike Comrie brings to the roster. Garth Snow talked about working the kids in, Ted Nolan about having to coach who he has. Mr Herrmann points out this team will not be winning the Stanley Cup.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It could well be true that the Isles do not win the cup this year but it's a little early to write off anyone who has a chance at a playoff spot is out of any chance at winning a cup this year. Conklin had to play very well in the game and the Isles did outwork Pittsburgh for most of the night. Isles took fifty shots and lost, Conklin had to make a few great saves.

Newsday: Greg Logan's article is on Chris Simon's trade with Ted Nolan's comments. Chris Simon declined comments, Mr Logan talked about the compromise between the coach and gm to keep the core players for a playoff run but did subtract Simon so Tambellini could play. Mike Comrie talks about why he wanted to resign here.

NY Times: Dave Caldwell had Ted Nolan, Garth Snow and Chris Simon's comments on his trade to Minnesota, the Islanders moves at the trade deadline and Miroslav Satan's comments that we have basically the same group and do not have to change anything.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Other than noting the game result into the article, nothing was written, why no game article?

Daily News: Peter Botte's game article was on the loss of Chris Simon with Ted Nolan's comments as well as a full article on the Comrie signing and the other Isles moves around 4pm. here.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I'm satisfied, not asking for huge articles but two articles in one day with updates is fair. Let's see more space and a Daily News Islander blog now so this team get's more exposure and more fans attending.

NY Post: Mike Puma covered the beat with a small article on the game and the trade deadline with a small portion of Garth Snow's comments with nothing on Mike Comrie resigning.

NY Post: Also reported Dan Martin's father passed away Saturday.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
My condolences to Dan Martin and his family.

Minnesota Wild Website: Jamie MacDonald has Chris Simon's comments from the Wild site on his trade. The video pondcast included during Minnesota's game Tuesday has a full interview with Simon between periods where he says he was quietly hoping something would happen in terms of being traded.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Dave Molinary recaps the Penguins win after a big day with a lot of coverage on their deadline trades.

Pittsburgh Tribune Review: Rob Rossi recaps the Penguins win.

Anaheim website: Has Brian Burke's comments on adding Marc-Andre Bergeron to his teams lineup and his expectations for him.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Hopefully at some point I can add some comments from Bergeron. Not the worst day going to play on a defense with Pronger and Niedermayer but will he play is the question?

Pioneer Press: John Shipley was critical of Wild management for adding Simon but had reaction from Gm Doug Risebrough. coach Jacques LeMaire, Chris Simon and Gary Bettman where he said I am a believer in progressive discipline at some point, under some circumstances, you get to a point where enough is enough.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Chris Simon made it clear no one has ever missed a game or a shift from one of his suspensions, that may be true but as he has said at times it does not excuse his actions.

Going to be interesting to see the Minnesota press reactions after some media there felt Kyle Okposo was signed by the Isles to distract from Simon's suspension in December.

Yahoo spots.com: Ross McKeon gave Garth Snow a D+ for his trade deadline deals citing he did not improve the offense.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I'm not sure this is a deadline day only grade but he did resign Hunter and Comrie which to me has to be a part of the overall grade.

Star-Tribune: Patrick Reusse was very critical of Doug Riesbrough and has his comments on the acquisition of Chris Simon.

Espn.com: Scott Burnside had a quick paragraph on each team and noted the Isles did not improve but of course feels it's inexplicable but they will hang around the playoffs for a while longer.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
He credits Chicago and Edmonton for modest winning streaks but never credits the Isles. They did have fifty shots against Pittsburgh, close to fifty against Philadelphia and Atlanta so how about a little acknowledgement they simply are not as bad as you expected.

Why would anyone pay for their IN service for such shoddy hockey coverage across the board if the limited free coverage is this bad?

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio had a brief update on the Sound Tigers at the NHL trade deadline with Jack Capuano's comments. Isles on paper demoted Blake Comeau and Frans Nielsen to make them eligible to play in the AHL playoffs. They were recalled immediately after.

The AHL's clear day roster must be submitted by Thursday at 3 p.m., the AHL's Clear Day deadline, is when teams have to set their rosters for the remainder of the season.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio's blog had several updates at the trade deadline.