Lots of great points in this thread but not enough about how bad the product is.
Pretty much ever since they decided to start manufacturing outcomes and abandoning organic outcomes, the legitimacy, integrity, whatever you want to call it- was gone. This is more like the WWE than a pro sport as refs will decide the winners or losers with more input. Special teams are not that interesting to watch, no matter how much the NHL wants you to admit. And refs shouldn’t be dictating outcomes because of whatever financial incentives are in place in any given context.
The above, combined with the extreme reduction in physicality, has sucked the game of any and all emotion, which is what crowds feed off of, which is what makes going to games fun. It’s like they totally didn’t understand why people loved hockey, and were in it just for the money. Then you see things like the gambling, ads on jerseys, non-sensical decisions on things like LGBTQ initiatives or how suspensions work, leveraging cities taxpayers to build billionaires and millionaires palaces- and yeah- there’s a lot of resentment out there.
What was charming about the NHL when I grew up is pretty much all but gone. I love the Flames and probably always will, but I’ll go if the tickets are given / free and likely that’s about it. The best thing the NHL can do, is make a change of guard in Bettman et al and get a new group, fresh thinking, and try to salvage the product and fanbase that’s starting to deteriorate.
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