Bill Clement Quotations

Now the players have a vested interest in growing the sport because their salaries are tied to revenue, so everyone is pulling the same rope. It was almost as if we had to hit rock bottom until we started building back up. I firmly believe we would not have all the positive things we have if we did not go through a year without the sport. So to me, if that was the price tag that we had to pay, it was absolutely worth it.

I would be extremely disappointed and unbelievably surprised if the standards change. The NHL will be consistent because they know they have to be consistent.

There are so many things that happen on the ice that beg ... explanation.

Our jaws dropped. Oh my god. It's one of the greatest goals of all time. We are starting to talk about him for the Hart Trophy.

Paul is a very low-maintenance athlete. He's never been one to ask for any kind of special treatment. He's not a Terrell Owens kind of guy. He stays out of the spotlight for the most part and he leads by example.

What happened was, the style created the disappearance of stars. Like when the meteor hit and the dinosaurs died. There were no star players. Maybe there were stars, but they just weren't afforded the opportunity to put up star-like numbers and to be visible. Most games looked the same, most players looked the same.

The way things turned out, there won't be as much damage as I once thought and I'm optimistic the fan base will not take as long to build back as I once feared. We have an incredible business model and the sport is back with its wheels on rails.

Allowing the pass across two lines has been a fantastic change. For example, Steve Sullivan (of the Nashville Predators) had breakaway goals (in two recent games), and that never could have happened under the old rules because he was across center ice both times when the pass came.

That gives us a leg up because fans will know when to find us.

I'm really excited for the NHL that they found a partner to lock arms with. It didn't seem as if the NHL and ESPN could find the same page. At OLN, the NHL is a big fish in a small pond. At ESPN, it was a little fish in a big pond.

I'm really excited for the NHL. It's just time, after so much negativity for so long, for optimism. It's almost as if a brick home has been destroyed and been rebuilt with superior bricks.

I have to be journalistically appropriate and voice my opinion if something happens, but I want to do my best to accentuate the positives of the sport.

The game is exponentially more exciting. When I think of the entertainment value of the sport in the five years leading up to the lockout and compare it to the product today, it's almost unfathomable to me the progress we've made in injecting entertainment back onto the ice.