Gary Bettman might be the happiest guy on the face of the earth right now

The guy known as the most inept Commissioner in sports might be able to grow his league due to the  extenuating circumstances in other major sports leagues.

So watching the Blackhawks tonight got me thinking. Now for those of you who don't know, the Blackhawks are a Chicago based hockey team that plays in the NHL, or National Hockey League. Hockey is a sport played on ice with skates and sticks and a round rubber puck that you shoot into a small goal. 

You may be aware that the NFL has recently cracked down hard on what the league thinks are dangerous hits in an effort to prevent or avoid head injuries. To contrast that, MMA leagues, which promote violence as its primary selling point, have reached a very high level of popularity in an astronomically short amount of time. You may also be aware that the NBA has locked out its players for four months now and no one can guess when the lockout will be lifted or a CBA will be reached. 

Now Gary Bettman, who has been ripped to shreds during his tenure for mishandling the NHL and overexpanding into markets that shouldn't have hockey teams to begin with, has an opportunity to capitalize on the aforementioned circumstances. 

The NFL, far and away America's most profitable sports league, has started removing the ruthlessness that defined it in previous decades and has started to penalize players for hits like this:

Meanwhile, NBA arenas look like this:

And UFC and similar leagues are getting rich off of this:

I'm not trying to go into a sociological introspective or get behind the psyche of the typical American sports fan. The trend is that violence sells in sports. MMA is getting more popular. ESPN ran its Jacked Up segment until the NFL complained and more and more evidence came out that these hits had long term effects that would go unseen for years. The NHL offers an outlet on a day to day basis for the hard hits and violence that the NFL offers. 

The 82 game format is the same format used in the NBA and the games are played about as frequently. Not to mention, you can actually take off your gloves and fight like a couple of bar room pugilists during prohibition at any point during the game or whenever the situation calls for it.

The NBA has the most to lose right now obviously. Players are missing paychecks and owners are losing revenue. Business that thrived off of the business of the NBA like bars and restaurants are taking massive hits. Meanwhile the NHL has the most to gain, which is a broader audience who may begin to pay more attention to hockey with the absence of professional basketball. And for that Gary Bettman has an opportunity to capitalize on other leagues' radically changing landscape, and to try to lure in sports fans looking to get their fix. If I'm him I'm using the next few weeks to market the shit out of my product in any way I can.