Bettman cools NHL expansion talk as Texas process continues

NEW YORK — Houston, we do not have liftoff. At least not yet. On Tuesday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman grounded talk of expansion to the booming city — or to the capital of Texas — being imminent just three months after announcing the opening of a process to explore the feasibility of a second franchise in the Lone Star State. It was after the June board of governors meeting that Bettman announced the NHL was granting exclusivity to possible expansion in Houston or Austin to the Friedkin family, with Dan Friedkin, the CEO of the Friedkin Group, serving as the…