Bettman says NHL getting closer to player- and puck-tracking

BOSTON -- With the 2018 NHL Trade Deadline three days away (Monday, 3 p.m. ET), moderator Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet couldn't help but ask Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik for his scouting report on Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson, as rumors swirl of interest in Karlsson by the Lightning.
"Tampering fines are very expensive, so I'm listening very carefully," said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, sitting next to Vinik in a ballroom at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on Friday.

"Erik who?" Vinik rejoined, maintaining his poker face as the crowd in the ballroom laughed.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Bettman and Vinik touched on topics as varied as the ceremony by the Florida Panthers on Thursday after the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, technology in the game, the Olympics and the job Vinik has done in Tampa.
Bettman had come to Boston from Florida, where the Panthers honored the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in a ceremony that included a speech by Parkland resident and Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo. It was the second time this season that an NHL team had commemorated a mass killing; the Vegas Golden Knights honored the victims of the mass shooting on the Vegas Strip in their home opener Oct. 10.
"I can't begin to discuss or to say how horrific the whole situation is in Parkland, and was in Las Vegas," Commissioner Bettman said. "It's the second time we've had to do that this season. While I'm typically more articulate than this, this hits too raw a nerve. It's too emotional. It's too raw."
Commissioner Bettman said that the NHL and the Panthers consulted with the Golden Knights and the Boston Bruins, who held their own ceremony after the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013.
"It's about trying to help the community unify and heal," Commissioner Bettman said. "Unfortunately, we're getting too much experience in this."
From there, the conversation turned to video review and technology in the game.
Asked about video review and whether it would stay, Commissioner Bettman said, "There's no choice. We have to do the best we can for our fans and for the game to quote 'get it right.'
"If it's going to take you four or five minutes to analyze a goaltender inference call, then it wasn't so obvious and you should stick with the call on the ice. Let's not overthink it."
Meanwhile, the League is getting close to player- and puck-tracking, Commissioner Bettman said. He said he was hopeful it could make its debut possibly as soon as the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 2018-19 season, but likely for the 2019-20 season, after testing in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and the NHL All-Star Game.
"We are committed to getting it done," Commissioner Bettman said, citing a new chemical composition for the puck that will perform exactly the way the current puck works. "Because we think particularly with the speed of our game to have that mine of incredible data will bring fans closer to the game and give the hockey people some more stuff to work with."
With Germany defeating Canada in the Olympic men's hockey semifinal, Commissioner Bettman was asked about a recent quote by NBC Sports chairman Mark Lazarus in Sports Illustrated, in which he said ratings have been affected by the NHL not participating.
Does that help the NHL's bargaining position going into the 2022 Olympics in Beijing?
"I think their hockey ratings are down somewhere in the high 20, low 30 percent range," Commissioner Bettman said. "Not surprising because it's not a best-on-best tournament.
"I know there's this perception out there that we were looking for some grand negotiation with either the Players' Association or the IOC or the International Ice Hockey Federation. It wasn't about that. It was about the fact that we think it's too disruptive to our season."
Asked what it would take to get NHL players to Beijing, Commissioner Bettman said, "I don't know that we want to go to China."
For now, there has been no reaching out between the two sides, Commissioner Bettman said. Though he did say he sent Rene Fasel, the president of the IIHF, an email saying, ''Good luck, have a great tournament.''
"He said, 'Thank you, I miss you.' I said, 'I miss you too, but not these two weeks.' "
Ultimately, the focus on the conversation included the job Vinik has done as owner of the Lightning, who have become one of the premier teams in the NHL. Vinik, who referred to the Lightning as a "fixer-upper" when he purchased them on Feb. 5, 2010, said his acquisition started with a lunch.
To which Commissioner Bettman quipped, "A very expensive lunch, ultimately."
But the partnership has been successful, as both sides agreed, with Commissioner Bettman lauding Vinik's Lightning Community Hero Program. Entering Friday, the Lightning were the top team in the League, with 85 points in 61 games, and a favorite to win the Stanley Cup.
"He's actually Exhibit A as to the difference ownership can make," Commissioner Bettman said. "Because this is one of our great franchises now, both on and off the ice, and it was all started with ownership."
Said Vinik, "I can't imagine not doing this until the day I die."
"Another satisfied customer," Commissioner Bettman said.
On his own future with the NHL, after 25 years as commissioner, Bettman said he isn't eager to go anywhere any time soon.
"I love what I do. I'm energized," Commissioner Bettman said. "At some point you reach an age where you probably don't have the same fastball. At that point you have to recognize that you need to not keep doing something that's this important, this visible and this complicated. But I don't foresee that.
"I continue to be energized and excited about what I do. … I'll continue to do this as long as the owners will have me, and I'm energized to do what I do."