NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman Accidentally Brought Some Serious Cringe To The Hall Of Fame Ceremony

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman — like any league commissioner — gets a lot of guff from fans. That said, I've always been something of a Bettman apologist because of how he helped grow the game by expanding into "non-traditional markets" like Florida, Texas, and Vegas… although there were a couple of lockouts in there.

However, even I cringed pretty damn hard when I saw the uncomfortable moment that played out at Monday's Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

This year's class included Duncan Keith, Zdeno Chara, Joe Thornton, and Alexander Mogilny, the latter of whom was one of the biggest "wait; he wasn't in yet?!" inductees in recent memory.

READ: MOGLINY, CHARA, KEITH, AND THORNTON HEADLINE 2025 HOCKEY HALL OF FAME CLASS

I mean, come on. He had 1,032 points in 990 NHL games played and was the first Soviet player to defect to the West. It was long overdue.

Fortunately, given how long he had to wait to get the nod, it wasn't Mogilny who was on the receiving end of the cringe; it was "Jumbo" Joe Thornton.

Or, as the commish called him, "Dumbo."

Oof. 

That faux pas was uncomfortable, but the apology was so cringe-inducing I almost threw the phone I was watching into the backyard just to make it stop.

Lucky for me, there's a pause button. That's a much cheaper way of stopping it.

My Bettman apologist tendencies might be showing again, but I think I can see how this happened. Everyone knows Thornton's "Jumbo" nickname, but I think his brain got scrambled by the first word of that sentence being "Duncan."

We've all been there… It's just that we weren't normally inducting the next crop of Hall of Fame hockey players.

Fortunately, of all players to do that to, Jumbo seems like a cool, go-with-the-flow kind of guy and won't care that much.

That said, Gary Bettman should probably prepare to spend the rest of his life occasionally replaying this moment while he's trying to fall asleep.