Hockey lets it ride

New Jersey State Police have charged Phoenix Coyotes Associate Coach Rick Tocchet for financing a gambling ring, and implicated six current NHL players plus Janet Gretzky for wagering in it.

Those of you who follow this page on a regular basis know that my primary sporting allegiance is to Major League Baseball, not the NHL. Baseball invented the gambling scandal in 1919 when Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series. Pete Rose held the Major League record for career hits, but his spot in the Hall of Fame was rubbed out when it was discovered he was betting on his own team. The actions of Tocchet and Co., from the initial reports, pale by comparison. If the NHL wants to be taken seriously in the U.S. media market, they need to do a better job at sullying their reputation.

That isn't to say that Gary Bettman and the league's Board of Governors should not be taking this incident seriously, and also taking a good look in the mirror. The only hypocrisy sports media has offered is the fact that the charges against Tocchet broke during NHL meetings in Las Vegas. Allow this page to point out that for any 'concerns' about gambling coming out of the league office, the NHL has no problem with having their games on government-run sports lotteries like SportsSelect or SportsAction, allows the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, and Vancouver Canucks to run their own lotteries, and thinks Isle of Capri Casino is a good partner for the Pittsburgh Penguins to build an arena with.