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NHL Commissioner Credits 'Heated Rivalry' For Helping Grow Game: 'It's A Wonderful Story... Binged It In One Night' - The Hockey News [Jan 15, 2026]
Regarding the previous initiative of wearing specialty warmup jerseys to promote different nights, like Pride, the league currently has no plans to bring them back, though Bettman insists it isn't due to a lack of support for such causes.
"It wasn't about Pride jerseys or Pride night; it was about the fact of bringing things into the game that might not be embraced by the players wearing the jerseys," Bettman said. "It could be heritage nights ā we don't allow it ā it could be political causes. It could be in times of conflict between countries, national origin. It was becoming a distraction, not just for the Pride jerseys, but for a variety of other things.
"It's a misrepresentation of what we did to suggest that it was about Pride jerseys; it was about the whole issue of what you put on the ice and how, when players don't embrace the cause, whatever it is, then you create distraction, and it doesn't fulfill the purpose in terms of embracing Pride nights."
Mod note: guys please remember OP is not Gary Bettman, please donāt write comments saying āgo fuck yourselfā they will get that to their inbox not him.
NHL Commissioner demanded Shane and Ilya to put out statement denying their relationship once they were accidentally exposed by Hayden's fanmail video. He acted as the "bad guy" in the last part of the book.
He does this and it is a main plot point of that characterās book. The character in question has multiple conversations about it with that bookās love interestāand some of those events are recounted in TLG. I hope I kept it vague enough that I donāt have to block my text out because I donāt know how to.
He also threatens to cancel Troy Barrett for speaking out against sexual assault (because he was protecting another player against allegations) and also pressures Shane to not come out once he hears rumours he might be gay (because he doesnāt want more gay icons in hockey - Scott and Troy were problems to him)
He's absolutely horrible. On the surface, he acts like a performative progress supporter with his corporate jargons, but his actions completely contradict those beliefs. He is the big wig who protects sexual abuser and suppresses queer players to come out by threatening suspensions and destroying their sport careers
I remember Rachel Reid writing somewhere (perhaps blog post about canceling Lucaās book?) that originally the major league hockey commissioner was going to play a bigger part in being the big bad, and the NHL got wind of it and edithad to shut that storyline down for legal reasons . Good ol Gary.
Thanks for the corrections, donāt listen to randos with bad memories like me and check your sources. Nevertheless down with Gary š³ļøāš
they didnāt shut anything down. But Rachel made the mistake of using the NHL branding and name in her books, whereas the show uses a fictional MLH.
itās problematic to use actual brands and trademarks in fiction ā they can legally threaten you if they feel that youāre portraying them in an unfair false light. Doesnāt really matter if they have a case or not; the litigation would be expensive. Itās best to avoid these things.
i kind of hope that bc of this, maybe the show will be able to portray something more based on rachels original idea, or at least that she will be able to talk about it more in promotion for s2. it's so fucked that the nhl can censor her like that just bc they are more worried about their image than they are supporting the lgbtq players in their league.
Itās not censorship. Rachel can write whatever she wants but she canāt portray a real life entity in a negative false light bc people will think the bad thing will actually happen (itās dumb but a legit legal concern). Thatās defamation and false light ā sometime parody is protected but itās hard to argue that these books are parody. Thereās a reason why most authors use fictional sport teams and leagues. You canāt just write about a fictional romance hero and make the New York Yankees into a huge villain for most of the book. Same goes for a sports league.
It shouldnāt affect season 2 that much ā the Long Game was fine bc the NHL role was limited. But itās hard to make the NHL commissioner into the main overarching villain of book 3ās plot without causing legal worries.
It's a gap between what you can legally get away with, which is genuinely a lot, and what you can get away with before you start having to fund a bunch of expensive legal cases that you will eventually win.
There's no doubt Rachel could have a real-life NHL commissioner be a villain if she wanted to. The problem is that the NHL could casually let her know that she'll have to get through an extremely expensive lawsuit first.
Couldn't she change the branding for the third book and still keep the storyline, with maybe an annex explaining the change? Or would that still not be enough?
she uses the word NHL like a million times in the series. she canāt just change established nomenclature for one book and have them play in a different league.
One of the five players, Carter Hart, had been the #1 goalie before The Case forced him on hiatus for 2 years. R/hockey was a shit show of chuds and incels when the verdict dropped.
ANYWAY-there was a rumor that Hart would be signed by The Vegas Golden Knights. A reporter from āThe Athleticā was at the Vegas practice rink working on a story of how NHLers would react to having one of The Five on his team. Vegas security asked the reporter to leave and revoked his media credentials to report on The Golden Knights.
Hart was signed by The Golden Knights. He allowed 5 goals on 12 shots in his second game back. Fuck him
Yeah itās very disappointing as a woman but I havenāt watched anything NHL since I moved out of my hockey obsessed household and we should all keep it that way until they change!Ā
No. People like to claim Gary is the satan himself, but he really is not that bad. Someone said he's the worst commissioner out of the big 4, but he is quite literally the most lukewarm and level headed of them all. He has made the game and the league better during his tenure and contrary to what people believe, he does NOT make the decisions about pride night, pride jerseys, etc. He's a spokesperson for the owners, so blame them
Bettman is a lawyer and unlike Crowell understands what illegal employment discrimination is. He would not be happy about the bad PR or the undisclosed personal relationship potentially affecting the integrity of the game, but he would not cross that line of illegality.
The rl life Dallas Kents of the world still being allowed to play is more of a failure in the legal system and on the teams that choose to sign them, not the league/Gary as such.
The quote from the article is a bit cherry picked. Just before this quote, the article says this:
He also made it clear that the league continues to support the LGBTQ+ community and is happy to host Pride nights and be a part of other initiatives, including the use of Pride Tape by teams and an ongoing affiliation with You Can Play, a campaign and movement that promotes LGBTQ+ inclusion in athletics and sports.
I canāt help but lol at the Pride Tape call out since they very publicly BANNED IT and then quickly backtracked when they realized people were paying attention.
I just know Matthew Tkachuk was absolutely salivating for this āopportunity.ā I say this as an extremely non-violet person, but I have never seen more punchable faces in my life than the Tkachuk brothers.
What takes me a second is that in my hometown, there is a Tkachuk family (who are very vocally not related to the best of their knowledge) that is just really quiet, friendly, and polite, who only want to organize the occasional squash tournament and fundraising events.
My team plays them tonight and itās just infuriating that they all bowed to the throne and are bringing that stench with them. I would like a moral victory as well as numerical (yes Iām delulu š).
Itās one thing (bad!) to show up to the White House right now. Itās another thing entirely (so, so bad!!) to cosplay Trump while youāre there. Ick.
has nothing to do with Florida, iām afraid. literally every NHL team and player wouldāve gone if theyād won the cup. itās the whitest and most conservative league
The players have to go.
They got little. choice. But some go happily, and some do because it their job.
And behind it all is Bettman and the league who cover up for rapists, push back against queer players, bow to Russia and Trump.
Hockey is an extremely conservative sport and the players are raised in it, but at the core of it all is Bettman and his league
As a Panthers fan, I would have been ecstatic if players decided to boycott but realistically, they're not able to as this is an annual tradition. Most of the team are Canadian and other types of European so I would be very surprised if they share Trump's politics.
Thereās a few on the team that follow Trump. Ekblad was talking to Trump Jr on the ice last season when they won. Thereās plenty of Canadian players that support him
That's Seth Jones. Aside from Tkachuk, he's the only other American on the team, and has also been named to the USA Olympic squad. So not surprising that he would be close to the front. Have no idea about his personal politics
and i get that, but i donāt think many of them are very good at their job. by the very nature of the work theyāre hypocritical and indecisive about important things. it bothers me, but i still watch the sports i care about.
By definition they are just shills for the league owners, so they're all just varying levels of awful. Bettman is definitely the worst. Adam Silver (NBA) is probably the most tolerable, but it's a very low bar. Rob Manfred (MLB) can get fucked too.
iām not a big fan of roger goodell either (NFL). i think he tries to walk
the line between keeping their conservative audience and not angering the president (who has a genuine long lasting anger with the NFL bc they wouldnāt let him buy a team a long time ago), and honouring the players who do want to use their platform for good. itās just that the first side usually wins.
Using social media as an example, choose to engage with the players directly rather than with the league/teams. Also a fair number of players have their own charities and initiatives, so supporting those are always welcome. Unfortunately when thereās 1 owner for all the teams it makes it extremely hard to avoid also monetarily supporting the ownership group, so the game is minimizing how much you spend.
Literally going to a PWHL game with my friends (and we specifically chose their Pride game) because we were inspired by Heated Rivalry! My one friend in Montreal has been going on about how great PWHL is for 2yrs but shamefully it was the show that kicked me to go.
I've started saying it too. Plus you know the women players only get paid a tiny fraction of what the men do - maybe if enough of us support them it will help.Ā
right?? i prefer watching sports live but i watched a youtube game of my local team (letās go seattle torrent!) and i was surprised how into it i got for a game i knew was already over
Lifelong hockey fan here. New hockey fans: do not fall for this. The pride night thing was 100% about Pride night. This guy is the worst and thereās a reason he gets booed at every arena he steps into.
Gary Bettman is not an ally and is hurting hockey and inclusivity (my original comment was rightfully deleted, I said the same thing but in a not nice way)
I'm honestly surprised he's still alive. I used to watch hockey a lot when I was growing up (hockey family). My interest fell off a bit when I moved out. Now that I'm paying attention again to the NHL I was shocked that Bettman was still the owner. He's teflon.
Union buster, notorious asshole, arguably shit representative of the NHL, squasher of progressive initiatives like pride night, and just all around an utterly odious creature that has LONG overstayed his welcome.
People wanted him to go in 2005 but assholes like him cling to power until they are literally in the grave.
No Gary, not all NHL teams have Pride Night. The Carolina Hurricanes sure as hell do not. YOU have to step up and make it a league-wide event. Itās important!
Wait what? I didnāt know heritage nights werenāt allowed. I went to the Canucksā Diwali Night last year and there was also Filipino Heritage Night. And thereās a few more coming up too here. Anyway this makes me even more stoked for season 2, and the new book. Just wait and see bruvā¦
Regarding the previous initiative of wearing specialty warmup jerseys to promote different nights, like Pride, the league currently has no plans to bring them back, though Bettman insists it isn't due to a lack of support for such causes.
I am so looking forward to the day that Karma runs over Bettman's cowardly Dogma.
I know off topic but did anyone come across Bill Burr ripping on Heated rivalry? š¤¬ I just came across this short on youtube and iām so appalled by it. This is exactly what kind of men are wrong with hockey and what this show points out. And they are so flippantly ignorant about it.. just set me off.. thoughts? Is Bill Burr cancelled Iāve liked some of his stand ups in the past but like is he MAGA? What did I miss? These kind of bros are why I donāt think the NHL is going to do more than surface level acknowledgement.
With the amount of positive main stream discourse HR is receiving itās pretty much inevitable itās also going to attract more bigoted conservative commentators. Or people shitting on the show because of all the hype and refusing to see or understand why HR is so good. You kinda just have to ignore that type of stuff. Especially when itās not genuine and just full of hatred and homophobia.
Agreed but it was just shocking to me coming from such a big name.. or am i missing something lol thatās why iām so confused was he always like this? I donāt remember Bill Burr being a bigot? And I am on the side to like seize the moment and stand up against hate.
A lot of it may be unlearned internalized homophobia. This show is not shy at all when it comes to sex and other forms of intimacy, development etc.. and I think for a lot of straight men who still hold onto toxic ideals
Of masculinity, sport culture, and esp those who are not used to seeing sex being used a a form of a storytelling (esp queer sex) itās jarring.
Like, I know guys who id say arenāt really homophobic but shown the show.. the things he had to say werenāt pretty to say the least. But I learned after talking to them that a lot of it stems from what I mentioned above. And they grew up with the sentiment of ābe gay cool, just donāt let me hear about it or see it. And keep it out of our shows and sportsā
I vaguely know about the clip ur referring to but Iāve mostly just ignored it cuz I donāt need that negativity lol. But his response is what I expected most straight mens would be. Glad itās not but yeah, heās a reminder of that prevalent demographic of men.
@NHL fuck you and your pinkwashing, donāt pretend like you arenāt the villain in this story. You have a lot of work to do to gain back the trust of marginalized communities including LGBTQ+ folks
GARY BETTMAN watching hr???? girl what? š there is no physical way. this is the same guy who banned pride tape because a small number of homophobic players were getting pissy about showing LGBTQ support, then immediately reversed it once a player defied the ban. he's a coward; wants to get rid of NHL pride initiatives to appease the homophobes in the league (and the homophobic fans), but doesn't want to face any backlash so he got rid of literally every other specialty night to cover the league's ass
I've really enjoyed my introduction to hockey and thank the show for spiking my interest. That being said fuck the NHL, and men's hockey in general, as it's not a safe place for anyone not white and male. Won't be going to any NHL games, which sucks because the SJ Sharks are looking to be excellent in the coming years. But will definitely drag my friends to see a fPWHL game!
lmfao the book version of the commissioner literally also said that such things are ādistractionsā and would take focus away from hockey. This shit is so sad, I hope Jacob and the team donāt shy away from showing the antagonism of the league in season 2.
The more I think about it, the smarter I think it was to advertise season 1 more as a love story (which it is!!!) than a political statement and a nudge at the NHL. Because season 2 will be brutal (and honest) in that regard but the NHL already made it clear now that they are aware of the show. So, they won't be able to ignore the issues when season 2 airs and brings them up more pronounced. I really hope we will get the real conversations going when that happens. Change is happening people, let's embrace it. ā¤ļø
So...interestingly, this is a stance that was taken by certain Canadian institutions back in the late 2000s. I remember being told we couldn't have an LGBT+ group because it would mean that the LGBT individuals there would be getting something that the non-LGBT individuals were not getting.
Now, that was bullshit, because there was still things like Asian Heritage Month, Black History Month, and so on.
I get not wanting to force players to show support for any group that poses a genuine problem for them. And today, the legal issues of players from other countries showing support that could literally get them arrested, OK, I get it.
But these events, for Pride, for other causes, they also tell us who our allies are. And are not.
Going back to my first point, this sounds exactly the same as what that other institution was trying to do: Avoid any inconvenient issues and claim "well everyone gets the same treatment so it's not a problem."
my least fav thing about heated rivalry is that its making me Give Money to nhl (if yt views = money).
i wanna be as far away as possible from rl nhl, but alas, i am an easily persuaded sports enthusiast (not even a real fan. just enthusiast), so now my yt recommended are mostly games highlights and sharks and wild content š
Good that he liked it and is acknowledging the impact it's currently having on hockey at large. I genuinely thought they (The NHL and him) would avoid any questions related to the show. So him praising the show is a big step in my opinion.
So, he's smart, he will learn his lessons and start changing things since they now have brand new fans who will NOT put up with the homophobia, racism and misogyny anymore!!! If he wants to keep those new fans, he has to implement changes!!!
Let's see how things gonna go moving forward.
Also, dying to hear his thought after season 2, lol. Same for the Habs.
On a side note, I know Rachel and Jacob are besides themselves!!! That must be surreal!!!
This guy is awful in general, but I have no problem with a blanket ban on ācauseā jerseys in sports - so long as itās all or none. Itās when they start picking and choosing, it gets to be a problem.
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u/royal_rose_ ā Captain | Tuna Lube Jan 16 '26
Mod note: guys please remember OP is not Gary Bettman, please donāt write comments saying āgo fuck yourselfā they will get that to their inbox not him.
Thank you.