It's overdue for the NHL to try it, other sports that do it well have a way better atmosphere in the buildings, they tend to feed off each other and make the whole building louder. Also takes lot of the younger guys who are there to be loud and get trashed out of the other sections and often makes the rest of the building more family friendly. It is a lot more of an authentic way to encourage an atmosphere than cheezy crap like cheerleaders and giveaways.
Downsides, it encourages hyper partisanship often leading to violence or aggression against other teams fans in the building and when it is done badly it can be pretty cringe inducing. In the AFL for instance (aussie rules football) it is a family section with pom poms etc.
|