Montreal Bloggers Foolishly Stake Reputation On October 18th Habs-Sens Game. Bettman: "What The Hell Is A Blog?"

OTTAWA (SLC) -- In his first public statement since being discovered in flagrente dilicto with Kansas City business man Tim Leiweke, NHL Commissar Gary Bettman announced today that the League would observe with considerable interest wagers being placed in cyberspace between two competing fan sites.

"While it isn't something we, as a league can officially condone", Mr. Bettman said when contacted in a bathroom stall at the Minneapolis International Airport, "we'll be keeping a close eye on it to see if it's something we can leverage in our next round of negotiations with Versus, OLN or any other nascent and obscure television network who may wish to broadcast our exciting product without actually paying us for it".

The Commissar's comments came in the wake of today's announcement that two "blog" sites, Four Habs Fans (Monter Monstrial Montreal) and Five For Smiting (Ottawa) had placed a wager on the October 18th game between the expansion Montreal Canadiens, and the league leading Ottawa Senators. From today's press release:

Terms of the wager were hammered out in an intense negotiation session conducted at a local gentleman's club. It was decided, following numerous breakout sessions with agents from Champagne Consulting, that the winner of that night's game would be permitted to post unedited on the loser's website, "as gloating, irreverent, insulting a post as the writer can muster".

Rumours that one of the founding members of Four Habs Fans had already conceded defeat remain unconfirmed as of this writing. When asked for comment, Canadiens assistant coach Kirk Muller responded "I LIKE SOUP!"