A reporter asked Steve Yzerman, the Tampa Bay Lightning general manager, if bullying is an issue in the NHL.

“Just on the ice,” said Yzerman, drawing laughs from his media audience. “We believe in bullying on the ice, some more than others.”

This was the scene in the lobby of the NHL’s Toronto offices on Tuesday, after the league’s general managers broke from their annual fall powwow and shared some of the fruits of their day’s work with the assembled media.

There were, according to various GMs, plenty of issues placed upon the table.

Bullying was discussed in light of a headline-grabbing NFL story of the moment. So was the idea of extending NHL overtimes in an effort to settle more games before the shootout. But as for that recently-simmering topic of getting tougher on fighting — well, it didn’t sound as though Tuesday will go down as the moment the bedrock shifted beneath hockey’s eternal debate.

It’s been a little more than a month since a handful of influential voices made bold statements in favour of broad changes in the wake of a horrific injury to Montreal enforcer George Parros on the season’s opening night. At that time, Yzerman led a chorus of executives that included Carolina’s Jim Rutherford, Pittsburgh’s Ray Shero and Chicago’s Scotty Bowman, all of whom pronounced it time to consider big changes in the way fighting was regulated and punished.

But Tuesday made it clear that uttering smart and hopeful words in the media and carving out consensus among 30 GMs are two very different things. Perhaps it was only a coincidence that Yzerman said his favourite part of Tuesday’s meeting was “lunch.” As for how he stomached the dialogue around the game’s thorniest issue?

“Yes, it was discussed,” said Yzerman, speaking of fighting. “My impression coming out is there’s not a real push for making any changes to the rules on fighting.”

That may or may not be the case, as there did appear to be at least a couple of pro-fighting types who appeared open to further discussion on harsher penalties for certain types of fisticuffs. But perhaps you’ll forgive Yzerman for sounding unapologetically blue.

The GM was a little more than 24 hours removed from learning that his best player, Steven Stamkos, would require surgery to repair a broken tibia suffered in Monday afternoon’s loss to the Bruins. Yzerman said the surgery went well, and that Stamkos has vowed to come back stronger. But that hardly minimizes the sting of knowing that Stamkos, who was leading the league in points when he went down, won’t soon be available to help the Lightning continue their strong start to the season, or that he may possibly have to be excluded from Canada’s entry at the Sochi Games. The Tampa Bay GM, who’ll have final say on the Olympic roster, wasn’t prepared to say Stamkos will be a no-go at the five-ringed circus.

“In regards to the Olympics, we’ll wait and see,” Yzerman said. “I don’t have a timeframe on how long he’s going to be out. I haven’t been given one. And I do know when they tell me, it’s going to be a pretty broad range. So I expect him, knowing him, that he’ll be on the shorter end of the rehab process rather than longer.”

Among those in favour of making NHL games longer, Detroit GM Ken Holland has been a long-time advocate of tacking on a period of 3-on-3 overtime to the current five minutes of 4-on-4. On Tuesday he said he’s never felt more traction for getting his idea implemented than he did on Tuesday.

Still, there appeared to be varying opinions on the best way to extend OT. There was talk that an eight-minute overtime would be more practical than a 10-minute one. There was talk of changing ends at the end of the third period to make it a longer skate to the bench that would encourage longer overtime shifts. There were concerns over deteriorating ice conditions and what to do about them. Leafs GM Dave Nonis said he looked forward to further discussion on the issue when next the executives meet. Still, if you were betting, it sounded like a decent punt that, come the 2014-15 season, there’ll be at least a few more minutes of overtime before the shootout settles all.

Could there be a more minutes in the penalty box or more games in the press box for those who fight? Boston Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli said he’s not against the concept.

“I’m for (fighting),” Chiarelli said. “I’m also for further regulation of it.”

Why does the GM of the Big, Bad Bruins feel there’s a need to tighten restrictions?

“There’s just incidents and types of fights that don’t look good. We’ve see one. We saw the goalie fight (between Ray Emery and a reluctant Braden Holtby). We’ve seen lopsided fights. We’ve seen staged fights, I don’t like staged fights,” Chiarelli said. “We’re the Bruins. We’re a physical team. We have guys that can fight, and I like the way we’ve built our team, and I think our fans appreciate it, too. I’m certainly amenable about talking about further regulation.”

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The Boston GM said it was his impression, judging from the tone of the discussion on Tuesday, that at their next meeting the general managers will recommend a suspension be attached to goaltenders who wander from their crease in search of fisticuffs.

“We all agree we don’t want the goaltenders involved in fights,” said Holland.

As for additional penalties for fights involving skaters, it’s tougher to say. Last month, Yzerman floated the idea of automatically ejecting players who drop the gloves and tangle. Rutherford was quoted as saying that fighting “has to go.” But the pushback was inevitable.

Bettman was telling a sports-business conference in Toronto on Monday that fighting acts as a “thermostat,” citing a 2007 fight between Vinny Lecavalier and Jarome Iginla as some shining example of organic rage. Bettman said he’d rather have those players punching each other than swinging sticks.

“We probably wouldn’t even be having the fighting discussion right now if there wasn’t a freak play with George Parros losing his balance and falling (in a fight with Leafs counterpart Colton Orr on opening night),” Bettman said at the sports conference.

Still, the idea of bigger deterrents remains intriguing to voices on various sides of the debate. Bettman told the conference audience that he’d recently spoken to Emery and asked him if he would have engaged in his absurd fight with Holtby if it would have come attached to an automatic 10-game suspension.

“What? Are you crazy?” was Emery’s reply, according to the commissioner.

Listening to the GMs on Tuesday, it sounded as though an Emery Rule will be in the offing. And as for rule to cover the rest of those instances of punch-trading that don’t look particularly good for the league, let alone the brain health of its work force?

“If somebody wants to change it, there needs to be a new consensus,” Bettman said this week. “That’s why the discussion’s ongoing.”

The discussion will continue in earnest when the GMs meet again in March.

“There are different ways to further regulate (fighting), and that may happen,” Chiarelli said. “Over time, it probably will.”