Bettman has a good thing going here

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NHL commissioner Gary Bettman: can he keep the party going? (CP)

Gary Bettman has been plotting and scheming and pushing and pulling to get his NHL to this point and one would think he'd be all smiles right now.

The NHL commissioner is guaranteed to have a big-market final, his league has regained relevance in the U.S. and his pet project in Phoenix is perhaps on the verge of his preferred outcome.

Now with the mountain top in view he must be feeling some satisfaction.

But there must also be a healthy dash of apprehension in Mr. Bettman's late-night musings these days.

Bettman has never had more of a stranglehold on his power base atop the NHL and his dream may well be within his grasp. But his worst nightmare is also threatening to dash all his hard work.

All Bettman can control, and that's almost everything in the NHL, is going his way.

This spring the NHL will move into the U.S. consciousness like it hasn't in a very long time and for reasons other than brawling.

With the Stanley Cup playoffs heading toward an ultimate showdown including the New York market in the East and either Los Angeles or Phoenix in the West, there is more positive buzz in the U.S. regarding the NHL right now than the league has seen in over a decade.

All this progress, however, is threatened by a fall work stoppage.

Having pushed the rock to the top of the hill, the NHL and its players could see it all go tumbling back down if they can't find labour peace.

The impending collective bargaining agreement negotiations have received little ink of late because there's nothing to report. Union boss Donald Fehr has pushed off serious talks until all of his players are available to take part.

Multi-tasking

Bettman and his inner circle are deep into managing the Stanley Cup, and while they are certainly capable of multi-tasking, not much gets done on other fronts this time of year. Last spring Bettman was able to usher the Atlanta Thrashers out of Georgia and into Winnipeg but most of that heavy lifting was done by Mark Chipman and his crew.

So there will be around two months to work with before the current agreement ends on Sept. 15.

Now, it's quite possible Bettman and Fehr will be able to quickly work out a deal. Publicly, neither side seems very worried, but these are hardened professionals not prone to showing their cards.

No one really knows what the owners want and the same goes for the players. So how it will all play out is a mystery at this stage.

What is known is how damaging a work stoppage of any length could be for the league. Following the 2004-05 lockout that cost the NHL a full season, the league had a lot of work to do to regain lost market share and relevance in the U.S. That work finally seems complete. To undo it would be self-destructive.

Almost a decade later revenues and TV ratings are moving in the right direction. Stopping now and interrupting that momentum would be hazardous.

Here in Winnipeg it would be hard to imagine waiting 15 years for the NHL to return and then have it disappear again after one glorious season.

No one wins and most often the fans are the big losers in these dealings.

The NHL is shooting fish in a barrel right now. This is no time to turn the gun on its own foot.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless

Gary Lawless, Winnipeg Free Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 14, 2012 C1