Gary Bettman emphatically shot down any idea that the NHL would participate in the 2018 Olympics.
The commissioner was considerably less clear when asked about the abuse Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has endured this postseason.
Second one first, given this is Pittsburgh after all. Crosby has endured a concussion this postseason, took a Mark Stone elbow to the skull, got his eye poked by Marc Methot and was squirted with water by Mike Hoffman, among other things.
Nobody wants injuries, Bettman said, but he also didn't seem to have a huge problem with the treatment of Crosby.
"We don't want our players getting hurt," Bettman said. "I think it's fair to say that all of the teams that have been in the playoffs have played very physically. There are a couple people who have complained on other teams about some of the things that Pittsburgh players have done. Some of that goes in the category of gamesmanship. Some of that goes to the fact that we need to be vigilant as a league to make sure that players aren't unnecessarily and inappropriately hurt.
"As I said, that's something we continue to monitor and will. Having said that, I take the concerns of all of our clubs and all of our owners very seriously on this issue."
The "concerns" that Bettman referenced involved general manager Jim Rutherford, who told Ken Campbell of the Hockey News that teams are getting away with more and more abuse of star players, enough that the league should be concerned about backsliding to the way things were in the 1970s or 1980s.
Bettman learned of Rutherford's comments _ made Sunday in a one-on-one interview during media day _ on Monday afternoon and was not overly thrilled to hear them.
"On both a personal and professional level I think the world of Jim Rutherford," Bettman said. "He's done a great job here as he did in Carolina. The timing of what he said, to me, seems a little odd; that's something you do in a GMs meeting, not the day before the Stanley Cup final. Maybe he's trying to tweak the officials a little bit."
As for player safety, Bettman said it remains of "paramount importance" and that they'd like the rulebook to be called as it's written. Bettman also acknowledged that, in the playoffs, that doesn't always happen.
"We don't tell the officials to change the standard for the playoffs, but as we all know, time and space tends to evaporate very quickly in a playoff game; there tends to be a lot more physicality and a lot more adjustments in the course of a series," Bettman said. "We expect the officials to call the rulebook. If we need to make adjustments on the standard, we won't hesitate to do that."
On the Olympics, Bettman shot down any speculation from the NHLPA or IIHF that things could still work out, that it's an open issue.
"It is not and has not been," Bettman said.
As far as where the league stands on Olympic participation, Bettman attempted to clarify the league's stance.
"We're not anti-Olympics," Bettman said. "We're anti-disruption to the season."
So the impasse remains, and players won't be allowed to represent their countries.
Bettman also shot down the perception that he tried to sweeten the pot by offering Olympic participation in exchange for three more years of labor peace.
"We weren't negotiating," Bettman said. "We never negotiated."
Deputy commissioner Bill Daly had a few newsworthy items: Las Vegas will get an extra 24 hours to choose its team after protected lists are submitted, while the salary cap should stay around $73 million or potentially $77 million if the NHLPA exercises a 5 percent inflator. Negotiations for that will commence this week.
There's no shortage of folks unhappy with how NHL replay has unfolded, but Bettman apparently is not one of them.
"While there's lots of dialogue generated by the coach's challenge and video reviews for goalie interference and offside, they are working exactly as they were intended to," Bettman said, citing stats that occurrences of goalie interference and offside are down.
The only thing Bettman would like to see if the process sped up a bit.
The last bits of news involved the NHL All-Star Game, set for Jan. 27-28 in Tampa Bay, Fla., and a Stadium Series game involving the Maple Leafs and Capitals, scheduled for March 3, 2018, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md.
