NHL got rid of themed jerseys, but Pride tape is ok now?

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See website for details. But also the Hurricanes won back-to-back games over the weekend. They are one game away from a bona fide winning streak, according to the great philosopher Lou Brown, who of course was the manager in Major League.

There you go. The NHL did something last year or in the summer that I felt was incredibly near-sighted when they eliminated all of the pregame jerseys. Those special jerseys for military appreciation, hockey fights, cancer, or whatever teams wanted to lend their support to because they sell jerseys, auction them off, raise money, additional money. They did the same thing about Pride Nights.

And of course, nobody was complaining about military appreciation. We all know what it was about. They went as far before the season to ban Pride tape.

They reversed course. Scott Burnside, Burnside on Hockey, the newsletter. You should get it if you are in love with the sport like many of us.

So I want to start there. I give the NHL credit, but it's limited credit because it was silly to ban Pride tape at the beginning. What are your thoughts on what the NHL ultimately did?

Yeah, Adam, thanks for having me aboard. It's always a treat to catch up, whether it's a long distance like this or whether it's at PNC Arena or whatever. Yeah, and having been around the game a long time, I do think the NHL doesn't like to admit mistakes. They just don't. That's sort of how Gary Bettman has handled. It's been his approach to a lot of things over the years is to never acknowledge, at least very few times, acknowledge that things haven't gone the way they wanted, if there have been mistakes or whatever it is. And you're right, I thought it was incredibly short-sighted that the league sent a note out to the team saying that players wouldn't be allowed to use Pride tape. I think what you saw was that there were a number of players who didn't like the idea at all. There were a number of executives. Brian Burke, for one, immediately came out and was critical of this. Brian Burke has long been at the cutting edge of supporting Gay Pride and all kinds of other social initiatives.

He was critical. There were corporate entities. Scotiabank, a longtime sponsor of the game in Canada, offered to give away thousands of rolls of Pride tape. And again, I think it's this notion that the NHL missed the mark in an effort to kowtow to a handful of narrow-minded players who didn't want to be part of supporting Gay Pride, which is disappointing. Travis Dermott became sort of symbolic for a lot of NHL players.

He wore a few strips of Pride tape on the shaft of his stick, basically in defiance of the NHL's ban. It was shortly after that that the NHL put out a one-sentence press release and acknowledged that they were going to allow players to be involved in social efforts during the season. That's where we're at.

It's a torturous way to get to where we should have been at from the beginning, but to me it doesn't matter how you get there. When you finally have players able to express themselves, and how long have we been talking about this notion that hockey is for everyone? Clearly, that hasn't been the case. This takes another step towards making that a reality instead of a kind of ironic catchphrase, which has been for the last year or so with some of the decisions made by the league. Again, steps in the right direction, good for the league to understand. I don't think you can understate the impact of the NHLPA on this. Certainly they heard from their membership that they weren't happy with this. That there were many players who wanted to express themselves and felt hamstrung by this rule from the league.

Good on getting to this point. Ten percent of the population is homosexual. It stands to reason that players have somebody in their family who is gay, or a friend, a neighbor, somebody that means something to them. I go back to the initial decision to eliminate all pre-game jerseys. There were eight players that came out and said, I won't wear them. It's their prerogative to not wear them.

That's fine. Nobody should have to do anything. It was their prerogative to do that. And the NHL just kind of went, oh well, I guess we can't have nice things. I love Gary Bettman, but I think he completely blew this one.

I want to move on to another issue. We'll get to hockey in a second, I promise you, Scott. Shane Pinto was banned 41 games. Maybe I've missed it in the reporting on this.

And maybe you covered it more in-depth than the news media, but they say it was, he didn't bet on NHL games. Play for free at luckylandslots.com. Daily bonuses are waiting. No purchase necessary.

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See website for details. So all I could think of is you've been on 41, docked 41 games. Did you bet with a bookmaker? What exactly did he use an illegal platform like we have seen in English football with players getting 10 month bans? What exactly did Shane Pinto do so wrong that got him a half year?

Yeah, it's a little bit unfortunate. And I'm not blaming the league necessarily on this, but certainly when they announced the 41 game ban, which initially appeared that was the first ever ban for gambling on the sport. But I believe 80 or 90 years ago, there was another incident. This is certainly the first one since the 04-05 lockout. And certainly the first gambling issue since gambling and legal wagering has taken not just the NHL, but all of pro sports by storm. You know, you can't turn on your TV or your computer without having all kinds of betting apps or opportunities presented to you if you're a sports fan. So the press release was it was very brief, very specific, though, when they the league indicated that Shane Pinto did not himself bet on NHL games, if that had been the case. And that really is the that's the the really the end point in terms of the league's policy on gambling is that NHL players can legally wager on other sports.

There is no margin for error on gambling on NHL games. Had Shane Pinto been found to have wagered himself on NHL games, you would be talking probably a lifetime ban, you know, with a potential for appeal after X number of years. We would not be seeing Shane Pinto if the investigation had shown that he had wagered on NHL games itself. But I believe what we're talking about here is that from a legal betting platform, it's likely that someone had access to Shane Pinto's account, perhaps was making legal wagers for him while he was in training camp in Ottawa or whatever he was doing, but also wagered on NHL games. And so the account was somehow flagged. There are, you know, right from the get go, the best safeguard against game fixing and match fixing and all those things. Those those are the legal sportsbooks.

Yes, the folks in Vegas. So obviously something red flag appeared. The investigation did. It took the NHL to the point where they believe that Shane Pinto didn't bet himself on NHL games, but something if there was a compromise somehow with his account. And that led to it's an enormous ban to half a season.

He's not he is without a contract. And when he does get to a point of signing a deal with the Ottawa Senators, it's it's hard to tell how much money he will have lost for this lapse of judgment. And I think the fact that the NHLPA helped to, I don't want to say broker, that's not the right word, but they helped to come up, work with the league on this suspension. Shane Pinto immediately apologized.

The senator said they'd be welcoming him back at an appropriate time. Everyone seems to have understood that what happened should not happen and could not happen. It did 41 games. At the end of the day, I think it's probably a very cautionary tale for, you know, anyone connected to an NHL club about just how careful you have to be if you are going to be wagering on sports. And you've got to be careful. And Shane Pinto is, as I say, has become a cautionary tale on that front. Yeah, and Ottawa without him for at least half the season, also started the season without Josh Norris, two big parts of that team.

Four and four is not terrible. Hurricanes are five and four. It's sort of a little bit of a surprise that the defense has been such a mess. But let me ask you before I close on the Hurricanes, let me ask you, who has caught your eye around the league? Vegas is amazing and Boston, it doesn't make a difference. Boston could put me in a Bruins uniform.

We would win a game. Who else has caught your eye around the league? Yeah, no, it's been a fascinating first, not quite a month yet, of the regular season. As you mentioned, the Hurricanes playing uncharacteristically loose defensively. Although, you know, Andrei Svechnikov just coming back in the lineup, I don't think you can understate his importance to the team. Freddie Anderson of the lineup briefly.

You're trying to integrate the top four defensemen in Dimitri Orloff. Listen, this is a good team. They're going to be in the playoffs.

I don't worry about them. It's been fun to watch some of the teams that weren't expected to perform very well. Philadelphia has won.

Carolina is in Philly tonight. John Tortorella has always getting maximum effort from a team that is still very far down the evolutionary ladder. You know, the first year for new executives, Danny Brier and Keith Jones. I love what they're doing there.

It's an honest approach to what they're building with that team, and they've had some early success. Same in Montreal. I mean, you don't give out a Jack Adams in October, but boy, if you did, Marty St. Louis would be near the top of the list. Canadians, this is after they lose Kirby Doc, I think in Game 2 to a season-ending knee injury. But this team continues to find ways to win.

They're very, very young. They obviously aren't going to have Carey Price anymore. Again, it's probably going to be a long season in Montreal, ultimately. But boy, what a nice first month they have had, and come-from-behind wins.

Again, high effort every single night from them. Same in Vancouver, too. Rick Talkett, really.

I have all kinds of time for Rick Talkett. His first full season as a head coach in Vancouver. Been very difficult times for the Canucks, and they are off to a really nice start as well. That sort of juxtaposes the real struggles for Calgary and Edmonton, which is a bit of a surprise to me. Scott Burnside.

Over time, Scott B. on Twitter. If you're a hockey fan, you know. And maybe if you're a hockey fan, you also know that the newsletter is great. I appreciate your time, sir.

Hopefully see you at PNC Arena very soon. Yeah. Anytime, Adam. You know that. You got it.

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