Perhaps that's why Bettman seemed to be downplaying the Games' importance last month at the All-Star Game in Vancouver. With the games on so late, the TV ratings will not be impressive. That's not the impression the league gave all season, when nearly every marketing tool carried an Olympic slant. Anaheim and Vancouver opened the season in Tokyo. The league's pocket schedules included important Olympic dates.
Fans attending games play Olympic trivia on the scoreboard.
And the All-Star Game format was changed to show off the league's international diversity. The huge leap might come in 2002. If nothing else, fans won't have to stay up until 2 a.m. to find out who won. The information you receive on-line from Mercury Center is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright-protected material.