I will not get drawn into discussing other Canadian clubs.
Betman’s prime objective has been to increase the American fan base and revenue for the NHL. All NHL key staff know this. His tenure has also resulted in Canadian teams not winning the Cup, is this a coincidence?
This is simple, the Canadian market is saturated. Earning extra revenue here is not a smart business plan if this is Betmans objective.
The US market is dominated by Football, baseball and basketball. Betman knows that winning NHL teams bring fan/ TV revenue into the NHL. If he plays his cards right he CAN gain market share from other dominant US sports.
Kerry Fraser went public and explained that refs would tilt games with PPs to keep them close ie keeping US TV audiences tuned in. If you can explain why he “blew the whistle” on this league behaviour I am interested to hear your view. He had nothing to gain as a retired respected NHL official, but highlighted that bias is present.
For example, in 2011 the Canucks dominated every stat in the regular season. They were more skilled than the large US market Boston bruins, the bruins established that they could not beat the Canucks with skill in the first 2 games, the. turned to goon/ bully tactics. NHL staff understand their bosses priorities and allowed this to happen. The east coast media also played a very large role and made it popular to hate the Canucks which galvinized the behaviour of favouring the large US market. Even the CBC joined in, IMO the CBC behaved like lemmings. I for one will always support all Canadian teams in the playoffs and will not turn my back on them like the CBC did in 2011 with Vancouver.
Another example is Betmans expansion policy which costs new entrants a huge amount of money but at the same time allows the new US teams to create a winning team through new expansion draft rules which favour new (US) teams entering the market. Vegas is a good example, Seattle will enjoy the same benefits. Where is Quebec?
Betman’s behaviours and tone is consistent. This influences everyone who is on his payroll.
For the Canucks to succeed they need to build a skilled team with significant toughness to self police themselves. This is the only way the Canucks will overcome the revenue bias.