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“It’s better than I ever imagined,” he told the Chamber a couple hours earlier.

At the media gathering, testimonials, compliments, accolades, glorification and rave reviews came almost non-stop by the one commissioner of the one league with one franchise in the one town where he should never be booed, considering the part he played to get to this day.

Bettman said he knew what this building could be when it was on the drawing board and when he took a visit during the construction stage. But this was the finished product and his first tour through the completed facility.

But seeing it completed for the first time popped his eyes out and knocked his socks off

“Seeing it finished is nothing short of phenomenal. The way it’s put together is ingenious. The way it has been created and crafted, it has everything imaginable. The finishing touches, the way it flows, the sight lines , I can’t say enough good things about it.

“When you see the entire Ice District, you can see it’s going to be transformational for Edmonton for decades to come. It’s very exciting to see and it’s very rewarding to see. And it’s very good to see the team perform better than it has the last few years.”

When your correspondent asked him to compare it to the other 30 arenas in the NHL, Bettman wasn’t shy about calling it the best and putting the rest of the rinks at a lesser level.

“This is best of class,” he said. “One of the things I love about it is that I can see features from our other new arenas in here and I can see features I’ve never seen before and they were put together in a way that you come here and you feel good about being here.