Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NHL. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged-in Predators fans, and other fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts.
As if 2020 wasn’t weird enough, the once-impossible has now happened—hockey fans like Gary Bettman.
In the latest SB Nation Reacts survey, fans were asked if they were confident in NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Despite booing him for doing just about anything, fans actually gave Bettman a literal vote of confidence from behind their computers. More than 50 percent of fans trust the commissioner.
Taking things even further, fans responded that they would rather have Bettman than any other commissioner among the four major leagues.
Fans were asked if Bettman was a better commissioner than his three counterparts—NBA commissioner Adam Silver, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. In each instance, NHL fans selected Bettman.
The questions come as all four commissioners deal with how their sport will return from COVID-19. The NHL, NBA and MLB are all expected to return in late July while the NFL is on roughly its usual schedule.
We can’t be sure how much of the confidence in Bettman is for his response to the coronavirus, but that’s definitely been the only big sports news recently and it would be surprising if it didn’t play some role.
To vote in the Reacts surveys and have your voice heard each week, sign up here.