Bettman proud of NHL's handling of postseason

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman arrived at the Edmonton bubble almost three weeks ago. After all of the sleepless hotel nights, restaurant meals, and time away from his family, he realized how much the league had accomplished in a small amount of time.

The NHL had two goals heading into the postseason. One was to keep all of the players safe, and the other goal was to award the Stanley Cup. Bettman was extremely pleased with the work done by the league, especially after it all came to an end on Monday night, when the Tampa Bay Lightning were crowned the 2020 Stanley Cup Champions.

Since arriving in the bubbles on July 26 in Edmonton and Toronto, the league gave out 33,174 COVID-19 tests to team personnel and players. Not one single test was positive during over a month of activity. In this time, the NHL played an astounding 130 games in 59 days.

“There were sleepless nights, and there were skeptics,” Bettman stated. “But I believed that with our collaborative effort across all our constituents, we could do this.”

Bettman also went on to say that it was more a sense of feeling proud of everyone involved rather than a sense of relief.

Partnering with the NHLPA, the NHL created the 24-team tournament and bubble city system along with the biggest concern of the postseason: no fans. The players and team personnel all bought in, which included wearing masks, social distancing, and showing the world that professional hockey could still be played during a global pandemic.

Bettman received the opportunity to hand out the Stanley Cup for the 27th time in his life, and in what is most likely going to go down as the weirdest season in NHL history.

"Afterwards, when I slipped out behind the players and they started passing the Cup, Julien came up to me and said, 'See? Isn't this great?' " Commissioner Bettman said. "And I agreed with him, because it was."

The Lightning are accepting the Stanley Cup from Gary Bettman as a team.

What a moment. pic.twitter.com/YlNYIZGgh9— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) September 29, 2020

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