As the sun sets on another New Year's Day, Gary "Beaver" Bettman gets ready for bed, putting on his Sidney Crosby Dr. Dentons and getting ready to dream his big dreams...

Hey Wally...

Yeah Beav?

I guess the Winter Classic went pretty well. At least nobody's telling me I screwed it up this time.

Sure Beav. Putting a hockey game outside is pretty swell. It gets lots of people watching on TV, and people come from all over the world to see the game. I think it's pretty neat for this much excitement about a regular-season game.

Yeah, Wally. This is a pretty great way to make money for the league.

Yeah Beav, you've made a lot of money, that's for sure.

Now I guess I should figure out how to make more money.

More money?

Sure. If people will pay this much money on tickets, merchandise and advertising for one Winter Classic, imagine what we could make on two?

Two?

Sure Wally. We can have two Winter Classics every New Year's Day, have a Nationally-televised doubleheader! I'm pretty sure we'd make more than we'd make off of one.

Well, sure Beav. But having more than one at a time doesn't make it a "Classic" any more, does it?

Why stop at two?

How many Winter Classics do you want to have?

Well, there's 30 teams, we can have fifteen if we want!

Fifteen Winter Classics?

Yeah, Wally! Wouldn't that be swell?

All at once?

Boy, oh boy! Can you imagine?

Gee Beav, what would you do about the warm weather teams? They can't have games outside.

Gee Wally...maybe they can have their Winter Classics inside.

Like, in arenas?

Sure, Wally! We can have 15 Winter Classics, and put them all in arenas, that way the people in warm weather areas won't have to worry about the warm weather ruining the ice!

What about the cold weather cities?

We'll put their Winter Classics in arenas too! That way we don't have to worry about snow or cold or junk like that! Boy, this is gonna be swell!

Hey Beav?

Yeah Wally?

What makes fifteen Winter Classics in arenas different from a full-slate night in the NHL?

Gee Wally, they'd all be Winter Classics, that's the difference!

But how are they Winter Classics if the games are in the same place all the other games are in?

Gee Wally, I guess I didn't think of that...

Gee Beav, maybe you should just stick to the one Winter Classic a year. This way it's more of a big deal.

Yeah, Wally. It is kind of a big deal.

Sure, Beav. You've got something that everyone likes, maybe that's enough.

Maybe Wally. But I still think more than one would be kind of swell...

And with that, the two boys go to sleep, with certain disaster averted. At least for now. Stay tuned to see what new hijinks ensue in our next episode of LEAVE IT TO BETTMAN!