[Itse]

I think the gate driven league -thing for NHL is in part a result of there being too many games in a season. When no single game really matters, there's not much reason to tune in for every game. When people don't tune in for every game, it's harder to find people to talk about the games, which gives you even less reason to watch the games. Unless of course you're attending personally, because that's a completely different experience.

The increased parity in the playoffs just adds to this by making the regular season virtually meaningless. Personally, I'm already mostly waiting for the playoffs. The regular season is now just a really long pre-season.

This is a major difference in soccer btw, where the cup and the league are different tournaments from each other. In soccer every game actually matters. Two championships in a year also doesn't hurt to build interest.