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Bettman on Shanahan: ‘He certainly has my confidence’

Brendan Shanahan

NHL vice president Brendan Shanahan speaks to reporters during the annual fall meeting of the hockey league’s general managers, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010, in Toronto. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese)

AP

No doubt about it, Brendan Shanahan and the rest of the league’s player safety decision-makers have been put to the test over the last few days. If you ask Gary Bettman and the NHL’s Board of Governors, it appears that they’ve passed with flying colors, as The Canadian Press reports.

“I believe the sense of the room is that Brendan Shanahan and the department of player safety has the confidence of the board of governors. He certainly has my confidence,” Bettman said. “It’s about modifying an element of the game’s culture and we think we’ve made positive, dramatic steps forward.”

Bettman praises Shanahan for his attention to detail and for being “proactive.”

The league’s GMs also gave Shanny & Co. the thumbs up.

“You’re not going to rid yourself of suspensions and what have you, but we’ve certainly come so much farther,” Nashville Predators GM David Poile said. “I mean, look where we were. I’ve been around for a long time, and some of the stuff that happened in the so-called old days, to where we are now, it’s so much better for the players and a so much better game.”

The key many (including Boston Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli) point to is evolving the process to police the game without taking the physicality out of the sport. So far, it seems like league executives believe Shanahan is pushing things in the right direction.

For a roundup of the other Board of Governors issues, including talk about expansion, click here.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins