expansion/contraction.

You know, I think what bothers alot of "traditional market" hockey fans about some of the expansion franchises isn't necessarily that they exist, but more that we're constantly being told how few people in those markets care about hockey, how pretty much everything ESPN shows gets better ratings than the Stanley Cup finals, how no one even realizes that there is no season right now, how the NHL has an absolute joke of a TV deal, and basically how people are laughing the NHL because it's trying to be one of the four major sports and yet it isn't anywhere close. So the attitude that develops is "well fine, you don't like hockey, so be it. give it back to us who actually care". It's embarrasing to love something so much, to share it with other people, and then have it pretty much flatly rejected. The attitude then becomes "well give us back the game, we'll put it in places that actually care".

Couple that with the coincidence (or not just a coincidence) that it was around the time that expansion started happening that the quality of the game dropped AND the fact that alot of traditionalists see the NHL as selling itself and The Game out by changing rules and instituting things like the Fox Trax (or whatever it was)to the game so that it can be sold to people who just don't give a flying fuck about the sport.

I like the idea of selling hockey to the rest of the world and trying to make it more popular, but I also realize that there are some places that just aren't going to take to it at all, especially when some areas have no cultural link to the game. I'm quite willing to give the expansion teams a chance, but I'm not so sure that hockey's popularity will grow regardless of how much advertising there is. I think it's too early as well to call it a failure as well, but I certainly won't be supprised if there are some areas where it just doesn't stick. Some markets seem to be doing really well, like San Jose and Columbus.... but I think the jury's still out on some other ones.