Quotes from Gary Bettman

The Olympics are very proprietary about letting others promote and market what's going on, so we shut down for 17 days, and they don't let us do a whole lot in return for giving our players to them. We don't get compensated, and we've never looked for compensation.

It takes two sides to make a deal, two sides to negotiate and two sides to make it go bad.

We don't worry about the integrity of our game. I'm more focused on the atmosphere in the arena, and that's something we're comfortable with going forward.

Our sport probably has the best history and tradition of being engaged in international competition.

All have used the economic opportunity of a new arena project to transform their cities into the future.

I would hope there would be a greater appreciation by casual sports fans of the incredible skill and passion of our players.

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.

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

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?

We'll have clinics and educational events and conferences to get more and more young players developing as hockey players.

When you're in other time zones in other places, you don't get quite as much attention; you don't get quite as much visibility for the game, and you give up a lot to do it.

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 message to the kids and our fans is hockey's a great game. There's a lot of hockey being played at all levels. Get involved, do it. We will be back and we will be back better than ever and hopefully as soon as possible. Don't give up on the game. It's too good.

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.

What our fans want, what our fans believe, what our fans are interested in is why we are what we are. But, nevertheless, ultimately we have to do the things that we believe are essential for the long-term health of the game, of the league, and of all of our franchises.

If you're a sports fan, it is really cool when you see the best-on-best for hockey at the Olympics.

I don't really think about having a retrospective on my high-school years. It's not something that, from a positive or a negative standpoint, is a driving force in my life.

Our economics are not baseball's economics. Our game is not baseball's game. Our owners are not baseball's owners, with one or two exceptions. Our union is not baseball's union. What we do has to be crafted and suited to address hockey, to address the NHL, to address our 30 teams and our 700-plus players.

The relationship between concussions and the asserted clinical symptoms of C.T.E. remains unknown.

None of our series are ever static in terms of the dates. We always have a range of flexibility to respond to whatever may or may not happen.

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

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

We just want to see entertaining, exciting games, and we want the officials to do a good job.

At least two or three of the leagues in Europe over the last few months have said to us, 'We hope you go to the Olympics,' and I looked at them, and I said, 'Why?' and they go, 'Because if you don't send NHL players, we have to send our players, and that's way too disruptive to our season.'