PITTSBURGH -- NHL commissioner Gary Bettman met with the media before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Penguins and Sharks in Pittsburgh on Monday night and gave his yearly state of the league address.
In it, he briefly discussed the potential for future NHL expansion, the league's participation in the 2018 Olympic games, and the use of the NHL's coach's challenge.
Here are five key things to know about what the commissioner had to say.
1. A decision on the Olympics will be made by the end of the year. Based on everything Bettman said on Monday the NHL's participation in the 2018 Olympic games seems to be in jeopardy, mainly because of the cost to send players to the games.
Bettman said the cost is "significant" and is in the area of "many millions of dollars."
The issue is who is going to cover that cost. In previous Olympics the IOC and IIHF have covered the out of pocket costs to send players to the past five Olympics.
Bettman said he has "no doubt it will have a significant impact on their decision" if those groups can not settle the funding issue.
"I'm pretty sure our teams are not interested in paying for the privilege of disrupting our season," Bettman said.
2. A more definitive update on expansion will come before the NHL awards. Bettman had little to offer on potential NHL expansion on Monday, only to say that before the NHL awards, the board of governors will meet and that will he be able to offer a better update on where the expansion process is at that time. The NHL executive committee is also expected to issue its recommendation before that meeting.
That update, in the words of Bettman, will come in one of three forms: Whether there will be no expansion, whether expansion will be deferred to a later time, or whether there will be expansion and if it will be a one- or two-team deal.
The earliest a new expansion team will play is during the 2017-18 season.
If expansion does happen, Las Vegas remains the most likely destination for the NHL.
Bettman was asked about the possibility of the NFL perhaps moving to Las Vegas (the Raiders) and whether he felt the city could support two professional sports teams, or what impact an NFL team might have on a hockey team.
Bettman said the NHL is judging Las Vegas as a potential expansion city based on its own merits and nothing else involving other professional sports leagues.
3. Slava Voynov is not eligible to play in the World Cup. When it comes to the World Cup of Hockey in September, Bettman said there has been no change in the status for former Los Angeles Kings defenseman Slava Voyonov.
Voynov is currently suspended by the league following his arrest in a domestic violence case.
Even with his current status, Voyov was still added to the Russian team for the World Cup. Bettman said on Monday he informed the Russian ice hockey federation that Voynov will not be eligible to play in the series, but that the Russian federation still added him to the team.
4. 3-on-3 overtime accomplished its objective. One of the major rule changes for the 2015-16 season was the addition of 3-on-3 overtime in an effort to cut down on the number of shootouts that were required to decide games.
Bettman was pleased with the results and said that the league had its most overtime decisions ever, the fewest games actually go to overtime since 1999-00, and the fewest number of shootouts (107) since the league introduced them at the start of the 2005-06 season.
5. Bettman supports the coach's challenge system. Along with his satisfaction with the 3-on-3 overtime rule, Bettman is also pleased with the results from the first year of the coach's challenge rule, which gives coaches the ability to challenge goals that might have been scored because of an offside play or because of goaltender interference.
Bettman insisted the point is to help league get more calls correct, and that with or without video review the officials are expected to get the call right. He also added that the first year of the challenge system showed that the officials do get the call right the majority of the time.
He was asked a couple of questions about challenges and the offside rule itself, and that why "getting it right" does not seem to apply to uncalled hooking, holding and obstruction.
"The fact is the game has never been faster and never been more competitive or entertaining," Bettman said. "This notion we call back a goal because a toe is over the line, well, a rule is a rule. I have no doubt if we didn't get it right there would be a lot of screaming that we got the call wrong."
He mentioned the Jonathan Drouin goal that was called back in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals as an example, and that while people in Tampa Bay probably don't like it, people in Pittsburgh would have been screaming if they did not get it right.
Bettman was later asked a follow-up question as to whether the NHL would look at changing the offside rule to make the blue line a vertical line that extends upwards and would not require a player's skate to remain on the ice (which would make goals like the Jonathan Drouin goal count), Bettman said the league did not anticipate that happening and that they are not expecting any major rule changes for next season.
