Bettman’s act is getting old

Making a mistake once is forgivable. Nobody is perfect.

Committing that same mistake a second time starts to raise suspicions of one’s decision making. Most people learn their second time around.

But repeating the same mistake for a grand total of three blunders on the same issue? Now any sense of credibility is completely jeopardized.

Such is the case with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

Since being named commissioner in February 1993, Bettman is now enduring his third league-wide lockout.

The first occurred during the 1994-1995 season, not even two years after obtaining his position as overseer for the entire league.

It lasted from Oct. 1, 1994, to Jan. 11, 1995, and sacrificed 468 regular season games in the process.

The second lockout of 2004-05 was even worse. It resulted in the first time in history that a major professional sports league in North America terminated an entire season because of a labor dispute. It was also the first time since 1919 that the Stanley Cup was not bestowed upon a champion.

It seemed like a huge blow that could not be overcome. The NHL was already playing fourth fiddle to the NFL, MLB and NBA, and this gave fans no reason to switch their viewing interests to hockey.

Luckily for Bettman and the rest of the league, young superstars like Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby helped bring back the casual fan with their electric play and intense rivalry.

But now, Bettman’s incompetency of being able to run a professional league has led to yet another lockout.

This time, he shouldn’t count on his superstars to bring fans back.

Ovechkin has publicly criticized Bettman and the league, saying their decisions leading to the lockout has been “stupid”. He signed with the international Kontinental Hockey League to get some playing time during the lockout, and he threatened his return may not happen if the labor situation is not properly resolved, according to an interview with the Washington Post.

Crosby is still one of the best players in the league, if not the best, but because of concussion issues has missed 101 games during the past two seasons. There’s no way he can bring fans back by missing that many games, no matter how spectacular his play.

There is more promising young talent out there, like Boston Bruins phenomenon Tyler Seguin, but nothing that compares to Ovechkin and Crosby in their top forms.

It’s important to note an occasional labor dispute is almost inevitable.

The king of American sports, the NFL, just experienced one during summer 2011, but the league handled it incredibly well and only sacrificed one preseason game.

The NBA endured its own lockout last year. That was supposed to be nearly impossible to resolve, but it still ended with a 66 game regular season.

The MLB suffered a huge players’ strike in 1994, which cancelled the World Series.
But since Bettman has been named commissioner of the NHL, five lockouts resulting in the loss of regular season games have occurred between the four major sports leagues of North America.

With almost the entire NHL preseason cancelled and no new labor talks scheduled, it’s safe to assume that number will reach six before long.

That would make three of the six such lockouts during the past 20 years the NHL’s doing. Bettman has overseen all of them.

The NHL can’t afford to make the same mistakes over and over again when they’re already at a popularity disadvantage.

It’s time for a new commissioner.

­— tlstutzm@indiana.edu