NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hopes for ice-cool start
The sport is enjoying good times and hopes to keep it that way as rivals NBA and NFL suffer in the wake of race and domestic abuse issues
With the NBA trying to recover from the Donald Sterling fiasco and the NFL reeling from a string of domestic violence cases, the National Hockey League opens a new season free of controversy.
With a US$5.2 billion Canadian television-rights deal and guaranteed labour peace right through the 2021-22 season, it seems as if NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is looking forward to the 2014-15 campaign with a smile.
"The game on the ice has never been more exciting, more entertaining, more competitive," Bettman told the Canadian Club of Toronto last month. "We're coming off our best season ever and we think this year is going to be even better.
We're feeling good about where we are, we're feeling good about the future
"The fact is this is the most stable our franchises have ever been, the healthiest we have been ... we're feeling good about where we are, we're feeling good about the future."
Certainly the NHL's problems have not all suddenly vanished in a blur of billion-dollar rights deals, record revenues and soaring attendance.
There is still the troubling issue of concussions and threat of a costly lawsuit as well as the debate over fighting.
The Canadian dollar has taken a pounding in recent months and the NHL will surely keep a close watch because the seven teams in the game's spiritual home and financial engine earn revenue in Canadian dollars but pay players in US currency.
The big concern for hockey-mad Canadians, however, is not the performance of their currency but their teams: no Canadian team have captured the Stanley Cup since 1993.