Gary Bettman

“When you look at the team that Jimmy Rutherford has put together and the players that he has, this is just a great story of excellent in professional sports.”

“The issue of how the game is played is something that's constantly being reviewed internally with the Players' Association, with the general managers, and it's something that we continue to monitor on a daily basis.”

“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.”

“The fact is, I view part of what I do is, if necessary, on difficult issues, be the lightning rod.”

“I don't feel that it's either necessary or appropriate for me to comment on what the NFL either says or does.”

“We went from journalism, in newspapers that gets heavily edited, to blogs, where you can express your opinions, to tweeting, where you can say anything, and it gets repeated and becomes fact when it isn't. It's something the entire world is going to have to come to grips with.”

“My rooting interest these days is first and foremost competitive hockey, and secondly in officials not making a mistake.”

“Relatively, a very small percentage of betting takes place on hockey and even baseball because of the nature of the game and the scoring.”

“I don't see the Hurricanes relocating, period. I think the Triangle is a terrific market.”

“You can have the biggest markets in the world, but if the game isn't exciting, compelling, and competitive, it's not going to generate a lot of interest.”

“We are not giving up on the Coyotes in the Greater Phoenix Area... The team has got a number of options and is going to pursue them, so nobody should think that team is moving other than out of Glendale.”

“I view myself as a dealmaker.”

“Whatever you do needs to be sustainable over time, and taking the money in the short term and taking it in a bubble - like buying an Internet stock in 2000 - may not be sustainable.”

“There's no question that the Kings have been, are, and can be great hosts for any major events.”

“NHL clubs don't like having to shut down at a critical part of the season and disrupt our season for anything, let alone a situation where we're not given an opportunity to promote our presence.”

“While players say they like the five-day break, they're also saying they don't like the compression that goes along with it, and that's something that is of great concern to us as well.”

“If you want to know how I feel, I'll summarize it in one word - terrible.”

“On the issue of behavioral health and the like, the program we have in place has always been available to former players as well.”

“I don't think taunting chants at players on the other side of the ice is intended to be sexist in the slightest. It's like when you call a goaltender a sieve, they chant that. Is that now inappropriate also?”

“I think it's fairly clear that playing hockey isn't the same as playing football.”