Ten Questions for Der Komissar

10. Why was the original schedule cycle, put in place after the cancelled season, permitted to complete its turn next year when close to the 2/3s majority of owners found fault with it?

9. Why are the new Reebok-designed jerseys going to premier next year, after only a trial at the Turin Winter Olympics and the derision that the Buffalo Sabres jerseys endured this year?

8. Why couldn't you decree a return to home-whites and road-darks without eliminating third jerseys because the new Reebok design will debut next season?

7. Are there any more hair-brained schemes currently cooking in the AHL that you're going to bring into the NHL with little or feigned justification like the trapezoid or forcing every player to wear a face shield?

6a. Do you think nobody notices that everything you've done to enhance the league's profile in the USA, including this new draft lottery, is ripped off from the NBA handbook?

6. Can you really justify that it's working?

5. Are you even thinking at this point to find, or create, another network with a better imprint on cable service than Versus?

4. Will you maintain your hardline stance on the Chris Simon incident, and, after a review of his case, decide that he has to sit out some more games at the start of next season?

3. Now that the Penguins are going to remain in the Steel City, are there any more teams which may be relocating in the near future if certain conditions are not satisfied?

2. Are you seriously considering a 20-team playoff system when the league was constantly harangued in years past for letting 16 of 21 clubs into the postseason?

1. Don't you think that having a national network contract with NBC is harmed by the fact that, out of deference for football, games aren't broadcast until after the New Year, and that weekend afternoon games after the turn of the New Year don't have a regular time slot, or a regular day of broadcast, and are not broadcast on more than three consecutive weekends in the regular season?