NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman "put on his imaginary
goalie's equipment mask and tried to make a few kick saves
in defense of his league's solid if unspectacular entry into
the complex, political Olympic family and the three-week
shutdown of the N.H.L. it required," according to Harvey
Araton of the N.Y. TIMES. Bettman: "We never had the belief
that the U.S. going to the gold-medal game would be the
justification of going to the Olympics. There have been a
couple of upsets, which is what we promised going in. Any
of the six teams really could have won. This is a dream
tournament." Araton: "In effect, Bettman was saying his
league had brought an honest competition to the Winter
Games, unlike the 12-man circus" of the NBA's Olympic team
(N.Y, TIMES, 2/20). More Bettman: "When all is said and
done, this will have been a very positive experience that
made sense for us to do." Referring to comments made by
Team USA's Keith Tkachuk that the Games were a "waste of
time," Bettman said, "The player's comments you're referring
to were referring to the team's performance, not the Olympic
experience." NHLPA Exec Dir Bob Goodenow: "The Olympic
experience was an absolutely tremendous experience, not at
all a waste of time" (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 2/20).
SALT LAKE PERSPECTIVE: Bettman, asked if the league
would send players to the 2002 Salt Lake Games: "If all the
vital signs continue to be good, then we would go forward in
doing this again in Salt Lake City. This is about exposure
and building your fan base. This is about more people
getting turned onto the game. That doesn't happen overnight.
... That's why this was never intended to be a watershed
event for us" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 2/20). NHL Senior
VP Steve Solomon, on Salt Lake: "The Olympics falls in
February, over Presidents Day weekend. With those three
days and the next weekend, that's five weekend dates you can
be on live in the afternoon. So you have all those windows
of opportunity. An 8:30-9:30 Mountain Time Zone start would
be a very attractive possibility." But he added, "We have
to sit down with NBC before we make the determination of
whether to go to Salt Lake City" (N.Y. POST, 2/20).
REAX: USA TODAY's Michael Hiestand writes the NHL
"should see Nagano as a pretty big success" when considering
the Games "helped generate attention for the NHL through
news reports and an unprecedented number of hockey-related
national TV ads." He also points to solid ratings from the
CBS telecasts, although Grey Advertising's Jon Mandel
criticizes the network's late starts: "The NHL did the right
thing (in going to the Olympics), and CBS screwed it up for
them" (USA TODAY, 2/20). But in NJ, Adrian Wojnarowksi
called the Olympic experiment "worthless," and added, "Gone
is the hope of a legitimate network television contract.
Gone is the chance for momentum" (STAR-LEDGER, 2/19).
