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Gary Bettman finally says something nice about hockey in Canada

Originally posted on Hockey Unplugged | By Axel Williams | Last updated Sep 23, 2024 10:10 PM ET

Gary Bettman has always been controversial when it comes to being the commissioner of the National Hockey League, but he takes it in stride.

Since becoming commissioner in 1993, a Canadian team has not won the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens. Furthermore, Bettman has taken teams out of Canada and has expanded to the Southern United States. This has been much to the chagrin of Canadian hockey fans who feel as though Bettman has screwed them over on numerous occasions.

Recently, however, Bettman actually had a nice thing to say about hockey in Canada. While talking about the new Amazon Prime deal, Bettman noted that Amazon is loving Canada as a market and they want to do big things over there.

' When you look at the whole package of how Prime is investing in us, it makes us feel really good about how important they think hockey is in Canada."

Meanwhile, the first Amazon Prime game will be on October 14th and it will feature the Montreal Canadiens taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Ultimately, this is going to be a cool new era for NHL broadcasting.

For better or for worse, Bettman has grown the game. While it has sometimes come at the expense of Canadian fans, there is no doubt that hockey would not be as popular as it is down south without the guidance of Gary B.

This article first appeared on Hockey Unplugged and was syndicated with permission.

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