Sharp-dressed NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, wearing a nicely tailored blue suit, white shirt and light blue tie, was smiling and humming quietly as he strode into the Sierra Ballroom in the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles for his annual All-Star Weekend media briefing.

Bright and well-prepared, Bettman was lightning quick with a stat or a number to put a shiny, happy face on every issue.

How's attendance? "Up 1 percent over last year, when we set a record," he happily pointed out.

Is the All-Star game a burden on selected players in an Olympic year? "Since we play a game every 2.3 days, as tight as the season is, there's a whole lot less wear and tear on players being here than playing the regular season this weekend," Bettman said with a smile.

Why is goal scoring down? "We're down 218 goals in 809 games," he said without blinking. "That amounts to one goal every 3.7 games. While on balance, my preference would always be to have a little more scoring than a little less, I hardly view this as a crisis."

Certainly, Bettman -- blessed with a mind for numbers -- has a grip on the right spin. And, he knows how to use the statistics to his advantage. But, remember, any statistic can be used to illustrate a number of points.

When Bettman says attendance is up, I believe him. But, at the several rinks I've visited this season, I continue to see too many empty seats.

When he says this season isn't really compressed, he's right. The numbers certainly back him up. But, maybe teams shouldn't have a game every 2.3 days. Perhaps, even without the Olympic break, the schedule needs to be 70 games, rather than the current 82.

And, when the commish says goal scoring isn't a "crisis," I wonder how many goals could be scored if the league would do more to crack down on the constant hacking and whacking, which stunts offensive flow.

Numbers aside, Bettman's best moment of the 30-minute press conference came when he addressed the league's future challenges simply, without using any quickie stats or impressive numbers.

"We must have an economic system that enables all of our clubs to be economically viable, stable and competitive, all where they're currently located," Bettman said, with a dead serious look, alluding to the league's need for a salary cap.

He continued, "All of our fans long-term need to know that at the start of the season their team has as good a chance of winning the Stanley Cup as any other team, that it can't be based solely on how much teams spend on payroll."

Then he put the exclamation point on things by saying, "The Players' Association knows my view on all of this. At some point, hopefully sooner than later, we'll reason together, hopefully, and deal with that."

No numbers. No smiley face. No cute answers. No spin. Just reality. Actually, it was something that looked real good on this sharp-dressed commissioner.

E.J. Hradek writes puck for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ej.hradek@espnmag.com.