Jack Todd: Gary Bettman’s vision for the NHL is bad news for Canada

Gary Bettman’s dream is Canada’s nightmare.

The Stanley Cup drought has reached 30 years in the True North Strong and Free, with no end in sight. The Maple Leafs inevitably wilt in the heat of the playoffs, their young, expensive and talented core disinclined to battle the way you have to battle come playoff time.

The Oilers have the two best players in the game but without vintage 2015 Carey Price goaltending, they can’t get over the hump.

The rest, at this point, are wannabes — the Canadiens included. The Canucks have a mess at the top, the Flames will regret the Matthew Tkachuk trade and the departure of Johnny Gaudreau forever, the Jets have a sick dressing-room culture, the Senators can’t quite seem to get there and the Canadiens may have a shot in three or four years, but they’re in rebuilding mode 30 years after they won Canada’s last Stanley Cup.

This is Bettman’s vision. The only thing that could possibly make him happier would be to see his beloved Arizona Coyotes play a Cup final in front of 5,000 people at Mullett Arena on the Arizona State campus.

Outside of southern Ontario, most Canadians would rather see the Kraken or the Golden Knights win it than the Maple Leafs. Edmonton had the best shot this year, with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid at their brilliant best, but they were undone by that gaping hole at the back.

If there’s a cure for the Leafs, it isn’t immediately obvious. Their coach, Young Sheldon Keefe, said he thought Toronto had the stuff to go all the way after they were eliminated by the Panthers — but Kyle Dubas has built his team with far too many players who look like tigers on paper but turn out to be paper tigers.

It’s so bad in Toronto that some fans are pushing for the return of Mike Babcock, which would be like pouring kerosene on a barn fire. Babcock isn’t the solution, but until management is willing to break up that entitled core, there is no solution — and the entire team structure is probably too corporate for massive changes.

Meanwhile, we’re stuck with Bettman’s McTeams and squads from Southern Evangelistan battling for Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Enjoy. Or better still — fire up the barbecue, hit the golf course and forget it until October, when the sport returns to a country where it actually matters.

Yet to the NHL’s ludicrous Department of Player Safety, that incident (by far the worst in the playoffs so far) merited only a one-game suspension for Pietrangelo, who should have been gone for the duration of the playoffs.

Worse, Edmonton’s Darnell Nurse got a game and a $10,000 fine for instigating a fight in which both players were willing participants.

North of the border, the more paranoid fans suspect this is all part of Bettman’s master plan: handicap the Canadian teams while going easy on the Americans. It’s more a matter of sheer incompetence. George Parros is simply awful at his job, but as long as the money keeps rolling in, the NHL won’t give a damn until someone gets killed — and then it will be too late.

Subban on the attack: Why does Karl Subban have to do the heavy lifting? Why does P.K.’s father  have to be the one to demand an end to the nonstop barrage of gambling commercials featuring NHL stars, past and present, that is a constant feature of playoff coverage on every network?

Where is the NHL? Where are the active players? Where is the NHLPA? Where are the governments, federal and provincial?

Impressionable 10-year-olds are watching these games. They’re hearing the likes of Matthews, McDavid and Wayne Gretzky tell them that gambling is just great.

Enough.

And a new ad campaign: We’re waiting for the only Auston Matthews gambling ad campaign we can get behind: Captain Underpants peers into the camera with his trademark smirk, winks and says: “Whatever you do, folks — don’t bet the Leafs!”

Zeros: Alex Pietrangelo, NHL Player Safety, Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Kyle Dubas, Sheldon Keefe, Sportsnet, Bob Bradley, Ja Morant, Mat Ishbia, James Harden, Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria.

Now and forever.