I thought it was a joke, I pretended to go along with it, just to scare Chicago. Then my agent said, 'Bobby, these guys are serious.'

I feel, first of all, very privileged that these people think enough of me that they made me commissioner. And it's almost like, as Yogi Berra said, 'deja vu all over again.'

All I've done all my life is just tried to better the game for our players and for those people watching.

First and foremost it's important that we're able to put something back in the game, which we have always done. We're doing this to help needy charities along with the police forces in different towns and cities.

They'll put themselves back 20 years, ... If they think they can successfully ice 30 teams in the markets they're in right now and have a viable product, it's just not going to happen. Remember baseball? Baseball is just getting back to where it was before the '94 strike - and that's the national past time down here. Nobody gives a crap about hockey down here - nobody. I coach kids' hockey down here and you can start to see the disinterest in the game here with the kids.

Somewhere in my wildest childhood I must have done something right. Being able to make a boyhood dream come true is one thing, but to have a kid come along and thrill his dad like Brett Hull has thrilled me over his career is too much for one guy to handle.