Gary Bettman

Here come the Hawks, the mighty Blackhawks. Admit it, hockey fans in the city: You never have been happier to hum that hokey song in your head. You have missed the winter soundtrack of your sport in our city. You cannot wait to hear the familiar music...

It's why our games have shootouts, extra innings, overtime or penalty kicks. Sports fans like to have a clearly defined winner and loser, and they want to pass judgment quickly. Ties have become unacceptable even if a deadlock accurately reflects the...

With any luck, terms like hockey-related revenues, variance, defined-benefit pension, make-whole provision and disclaimer of interest will soon seem like nothing but murmurs from an old nightmare. But on Monday, as several members of the Kings skated in...

Negotiations between the NHL and the players association resumed Thursday at the league’s Manhattan offices following lengthy talks that went past midnight EST and involved a federal mediator for the third time. Although it was widely assumed...

Sitting in a hockey locker room, Steve Chase became the latest die-hard fan fed up with the NHL lockout.  Living in Los Angeles, Chase believed the league had squandered all the goodwill built in the area after the Kings won the Stanley Cup. His...

The latest round of NHL labor talks ended with the two sides in different rooms from each other.  The players’ association and league negotiators met separately Wednesday with federal mediators in suburban New Jersey, holding discussions that...

NHL muckamuck and Gary Bettman sock puppet Bill Daly said last week he was out of ideas for saving this locked-out season. Excuse me, but when exactly did you or the NHL have even one idea? Besides making the players indentured servants, I mean? You...

The NHL's Board of Governors gave unanimous approval Wednesday to the collective bargaining agreement it had tentatively reached with the players' association. The next step will be for players to ratify the deal. That electronic voting process is...

TORONTO -- NHL labor negotiations will resume today, with mediators rejoining the talks at an undisclosed location in an effort to save the hockey season.   The Canadian Press on Tuesday reported the restart of bargaining between the league and union,...

Kings enforcer Kevin Westgarth went through the same emotional extremes felt by everyone else who had an interest in the labor talks held last week in New York between the NHL and the players’ association. But Westgarth was a member of the players&...

NEW YORK -- The dribs and drabs -- almost like an annoying dripping faucet -- have taken a sizable toll. All has proved quite costly in terms of the pocketbooks of the players, owners and arena workers. For some perspective, the last hockey game...

Half-baked Jake is back in all his half-bakedness … News: The steroid-dripping Baseball Hall of Fame ballots are distributed. Views: After leaving the box unchecked twice, I'm voting for Killingworth's Jeff Bagwell. My fuller view of one of the...