Gary Bettman thinks the officiating in the NHL is just fine, thank you very much

TAMPA, Florida — NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly gave their annual state of the sport press conference ahead of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday afternoon at Amalie Arena. He addressed some serious issues facing the league right now, like the officiating crisis, the Olympics and the alleged sexual abuse allegations of former Chicago Blackhawks video coach, Brad Aldrich. 

Essentially he said there was nothing to see here. Nothing at all. 

Bad officials? He’s never seen one. Sexual abuse allegations being swept under the rug for a decade? Have to let the investigation play out. The Olympics? Players could get COVID outside of North America!

This was a very standard Bettman press conference. He typically tends to say everything is fine even when it isn’t. But fans don’t like to be misled and his overly-confident assessment of the “best officials in the world” was too much of an overkill to be taken seriously. 

However, it was an informative press conference because it showed where the league stands on certain issues facing the sport right now. 

Here are the key takeaways.