2020 has been a strange year, but one hockey tradition won’t be going away.
It’s a longstanding tradition in the NHL that fans boo league commissioner Gary Bettman when he comes onto the ice and hands out the Stanley Cup to the winning team at the end of the season.
With the NHL opting for a unique 24-team return-to-play format with no fans in the stands, many fans thought that the longstanding tradition of booing Gary Bettman would come to an end. That doesn’t appear to be the case.
The NHL has asked fans to submit crowd noises and cheers for them to implement over the speakers at the empty-arena playoff games. According to ESPN hockey writer Greg Wyshynski on ESPN Daily, the NHL accepted “boos” that can be played when Bettman hands out the Stanley Cup in front of no crowd.
Listening to @wyshynski on ESPN Daily and he noted that the NHL accepted recordings of "boos" from fans and that Bettman understands that this might be used when he presents the Cup and that's amazing
— Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) July 31, 2020
The NHL often gets lots of hate for how they do their business, but there’s no denying that they are nailing this return-to-play plan.
