Great write-up, my friend.

Posters above have really hit in the myriad issues which are possibly having an impact.

Initially, post-'Rona, folks were out trying to make up for lost time. Then, inflation hit; hard. And it's only going to worsen. A dozen aggs is $6-$8 here, milk is over $6.50, etc... I think it's more important to put food on the table than pay to watch hockey. That's just the tip of the ice-berg, however. Pushing agendas is proving to be detrimental. Rivalries are fairly non-existent. What else can we deal with?

I'm preparing to ditch DirecTV for a number of reasons, but suffice to say that the additional $180 to watch hockey in addition to the monthly charge is getting to be too expensive. Add in the other streaming services some folks have.

I love the game, but there are many aspects the turn me off. Consider, I live in SC so hockey's a bit of a rarity around these parts. There's a balance to be struck. Our pocketbooks are being hammered, and our sense are inundated with many other "issues and agendas". Sport is supposed to be a respite from the noise around us, but it's not.

Nice work Jeremy.

I believe it might be a couple different issues at play, first is the quality of announcers, most of these guys are terrible.
Secondly,the league is watered down so much more now, with the expansions over the last few seasons.
There just aren't enough quality players around the world,to fill out the rosters.

3rd, I believe the always whining analytic community has turned off many fans. These types are just relentless, with some pretty stupid, irrelevant stats, such as expected goals. Really, are you serious, something is expected, but it doesn't happen, what a joke.

This is the same group than wants to see skill and softness,basically ringette, instead of how hockey is supposed to be played.
As a fan of the game for well over 50 years, I, like my 2 brothers before me,am losing all interest in what was once, the greatest game on earth.

Good article Jeremy!

Idk if inflation is hitting the US like it is in Canada but its brutal up here, can imagine there's lots of subscriptions/tv packages being canceled to save a buck so that's likely effecting the numbers. Its pretty expensive to live for the average person.

I'd agree with what many others have said, the NHL product has gotten too soft, fans don't want to see guys getting knocked out cold but the lack of contact and mostly perimeter play isn't all that entertaining. Also think the terrible reffing and how some games almost seem fixed has angered some fans.

The wokeness has probably turned some fans off. I don't think its that hockey fans don't support these causes or groups but I can't watch a game without it being this night honoring some certain group or whatever, it gets tiring when it literally feels like it's every game and honestly its not really an exaggeration to say that it's almost every game, it is in Canada anyways. People get enough politics and culture wars throughout their day, they don't want it thrown in their face at their favorite sporting events.

Hockey is way down the list in sports popularity in the US, its just the way it is.

I believe there's some other reasons for viewership being down, hockey is a very expensive sport so there's likely less kids playing then in years past, basically less families involved in hockey means less people watching it.

Habits have changed, people binge watch series now so hockey takes a back seat to that and people love these series cause they can watch them without commercials!
How do you get people to turn off Netflix and turn on the hockey game??

Anyway, there's a lot of factors at play, Idk what it will take to turn the NHL viewership numbers around.
- JetFuel

I’ll say this for inflation. I mentioned in the article that I was at CVS today. It was rough because everyone there had just found out the store was closing (part of a 900 store closure over 3 years). I went to get a couple things. A pack of paper plates was almost 9 dollars, a 6 pack of regular size Hershey bars was 8 dollars. Those plates were 2.99 pre shut down, Hershey bars were around 3 or 4 bucks for the 6 pack. I haven’t bought eggs in a while, and my wife said she sees a bunch of people who are putting up their own chicken coops. Believe it or not that was big in NYC pre 1950s. I used to like to listen to stories of the depression era. People got creative, there were some positive effects. At one point people would plant “victory gardens” because produce was in such high demand. My step dad was from England and we had multiple planters of tomatoes, peas, beans, radishes and about 15 apple trees. I know one guy who grows produce on an impressive scale and sells to local restaurants, etc. he also used to rent his bee hives. Farmers pay to have bees brought to their land to pollinate. My hope is that in 10 years we’ll have good, creative stories of how we changed for the better. Right now, things are a little rough. In the 6 years I’ve been on disability, it’s the first time I was grateful for the injury because of how tough things are for the workforce I was with.

It’s seems like a perfect storm.
1. The move to ESPN+ is a disaster. I live 60 - 70 miles outside Philly, and my cable company only offers ESPN+ as a separate package in conjunction with their premier tier programming. Between phone cable and Internet, it’s over $300 a month. Insane!
2. With inflation a lot higher than the actual reported numbers, people’s budgets do not allow for the enormous cost. We used to be able to watch games on basic cable with no blackouts. Now you have to pay for everything, and then search all
Over the place for what channel it MIGHT be on. That’s just plain ridiculous.
3. The Flyers for one, flat out STINK! GM here is incompetent, to say the least.
4. The game has turned into the ice capades. The instigator rule is the worst thing to happen to hockey. Seeing unscripted fights, standing up for teammates brought people out of their seats, to get a better view. The last great nasty rivalry series between the Wings and the Avs was Epic!! When will we ever see that again?
5. Scheduling the Kraken against the Flyers is ho hum. More rivalry games with the nastiness is electrifying the building. Mr Bettman is trying to cater to casual fans in hopes of more revenue. He has neglected the hardcore hockey fans for years by making the game kinder and gentler. It’s HOCKEY ffs!!
6. Go woke, go broke!! Hockey isn’t exactly a non contact, soft sort. While EVERYONE is welcome, shoving things down people’s throats, doesn’t unify, it breeds resentment and contempt. Most people love everyone around them, myself included. However, singling out or pushing an agenda is divisive. People will come to their own ideas in their own time frame. Pushing an agenda does nothing to foster an inclusive environment. It’s human nature.

Add all this up, and the perfect storm forms.

It had to happen at some point.

Bring back some “old time hockey, Eddie Shore, aye”!!!
- Hokeeguy9

Spoken like a true Broad Street Bully!

Revenue is up, despite less U.S. viewership.

"Bettman also told reporters that the league is, “give or take,” approaching $6B in revenue this season. It’s unclear whether or not the figure is an end-of-season projection or how the league currently stands, but either way, it’s an increase from last season’s total revenue of roughly $5.4B. Despite declining viewership numbers in the United States, advertising opportunities for the league and its sponsors have never been more plentiful with the incorporation of ad patches on jerseys and the usage of digitally projected ads on the boards during gameplay."

Very good article.

I think you also have to look at the product. Bettman has done a few things right but other things not so much. The trapazoid, the shootout, all the gimmicks are old and stale and fairly well hated. 4 on 4 or now 3 on 3 even the players are leaning to a longer OT instead of a shootout for example.

League parity is great, no issue with the cap but it has kept the trades down so less excitement there. Not to mention you can literally write out 5-6 teams by this point in the season. Now that isnt a new problem but.... look at some of the markets this year. Not good for tv numbers.

The officiating is beyond rediculously bad and many times you just cant watch the game. Its attrocious.

Speaking of attrocious all of the coverage with the meaningless talking heads. I miss HNIC when intermission was breaking down the games, showing out of town scoreboards, MAYBE a quick Peter Puck cartoon and then back to the game. Now it is whatever new agenda the leauge wants pushed by McLean and company. Do we need someone interviewing coaches on the bench during a tv time out? Do we really care?

I think it is a lot of factors not just one, and it adds up to a meh feeling from actual fans while the league caters and continues to prop up the league on corportate revenues. Fans are really the ones left out in the cold. Have been for a while and its only getting worse. They need to fix the actual product... that product is hockey nothing else.

Revenue is up, despite less U.S. viewership.

"Bettman also told reporters that the league is, “give or take,” approaching $6B in revenue this season. It’s unclear whether or not the figure is an end-of-season projection or how the league currently stands, but either way, it’s an increase from last season’s total revenue of roughly $5.4B. Despite declining viewership numbers in the United States, advertising opportunities for the league and its sponsors have never been more plentiful with the incorporation of ad patches on jerseys and the usage of digitally projected ads on the boards during gameplay."
- HenryHockey

Henry,

Glad you got a chuckle from it. My other two teams are the wings and bolts.

As far as the revenue being up, it is from contracts that were signed a few years ago. It doesn’t mean the advertisers, etc are happy with what they paid for. I suspect there will be refunds and cancellations by many of them, and the next contract will be much lower.

When I was a kid, I lived in Hershey, PA. Some of the kids in school had dads that played for the Bears. I played for the junior Bears league. Going to those game was unreal. It was so loud with real hockey fans, banging on the HVAC vents, the brawls….It was incredible! Compare and contrast that with the milquetoast product of today, with all corporate seats filled with casual fans, or empty seats, the woke nonsense, and you are left with 🤮

Be well my friend

Griffins win again tonight 4-3 in the shootout against Texas Stars. 4 game win streak. The team seems like it's starting to gel and get it's mojo.

Zadina with a goal tonight. Vrana with two goals tonight... he's got 5 goals in his last 7 games. You gotta wonder how soon until he gets called back up if he keep scoring at this pace. Ned in goal has made a huge impact for the Griffins. Getting Matt Luff back from injury has helped too.

Center ice isn’t cheap. I’ve never subscribed. I did subscribe to the NHL app when I was still working (on disability now) so I could watch other games. The games I miss on TV i have to listen to and it’s actually kind of relaxing. We camped all over Michigan when I was growing up and would listen to old radio shows: Sherlock Holmes, Lone Ranger, etc while sitting at the campfire. I enjoyed that so much. Just cook a dog over the fire pit and hang out. Those simple times seem to go by so fast
- Jeremy Laura

No it isn't cheap. It's 250$ for the season but i always figured this like my season tickets to the Wings games plus i can watch any other game i want so in that sense it isn't too bad. Sportsnet stealing games like Detroit vs Buffalo and games like that which don't have anything to do with teams in my region really pisses me off. I should still be able to watch them on Center Ice even though Sportsnet or TSN are broadcasting them. Trying to force people to pay for those channels when you don't want them is stupid. Like i said though, i can get all the games for free so if they want to play it like that, they just won't get any more money from me. I upgraded my internet connection to fiber optic so streaming HD is not an issue.

I’ll say this for inflation. I mentioned in the article that I was at CVS today. It was rough because everyone there had just found out the store was closing (part of a 900 store closure over 3 years). I went to get a couple things. A pack of paper plates was almost 9 dollars, a 6 pack of regular size Hershey bars was 8 dollars. Those plates were 2.99 pre shut down, Hershey bars were around 3 or 4 bucks for the 6 pack. I haven’t bought eggs in a while, and my wife said she sees a bunch of people who are putting up their own chicken coops. Believe it or not that was big in NYC pre 1950s. I used to like to listen to stories of the depression era. People got creative, there were some positive effects. At one point people would plant “victory gardens” because produce was in such high demand. My step dad was from England and we had multiple planters of tomatoes, peas, beans, radishes and about 15 apple trees. I know one guy who grows produce on an impressive scale and sells to local restaurants, etc. he also used to rent his bee hives. Farmers pay to have bees brought to their land to pollinate. My hope is that in 10 years we’ll have good, creative stories of how we changed for the better. Right now, things are a little rough. In the 6 years I’ve been on disability, it’s the first time I was grateful for the injury because of how tough things are for the workforce I was with.
- Jeremy Laura

Those prices are crazy. Prices here have gone up on most things here but not as bad as that. You can get a pack of 30 eggs for around 8$. A dozen eggs is 4.29$ and that grocery store isn't the cheapest. Paper plates i usually get from Dollarama and its like 2 or 3$ per pack but they are not huge packs. I sometimes get them at Costco which is cheaper because the pack is huge.

There are also labor shortages here with so many places looking for people and they have a hard time finding people. Only problem is a lot of jobs are in sectors like construction, welding and trade fields that most of the younger generations don't want to do so they have to recruit workers from Mexico and other countries to fill jobs.

I’m watching fewer games because I refuse to pay for 7 apps. When you spread the games all over the multiverse, how are we supposed to find them. I haven’t got that kind of energy. You want viewers, make it easier to find and then pay for games.

The all star game is another animal entirely. Nobody watches that because it’s a joke.

I’m watching fewer games because I refuse to pay for 7 apps. When you spread the games all over the multiverse, how are we supposed to find them. I haven’t got that kind of energy. You want viewers, make it easier to find and then pay for games.

The all star game is another animal entirely. Nobody watches that because it’s a joke.
- GreenArrow63

this is a long winded way of saying you really don't like hockey that much

I’ve almost stopped watching hockey entirely. The cost is just too damned high. Instead I just listen to the games using the Sirius app. Lets me follow the game while cooking, doing chores, running at the track, etc. It’s both convenient and VERY affordable.

Erne was waived today. Zadia was already on the roster, so is Ned or Vrana coming up or is Stevie making room for a trade? I think we will find out tomorrow if it is internal the Griffs played last night and Ned won and will play tonight as well. Zadina had 3 shots on net.
I get a feeling Ned is coming up.
- HenryHockey

It’s to make room for Berggren. He was sent down last week and didn’t have a roster spot with Zadina taking one

I think there are a lot of reasons that viewership is down:

1. Too many teams
The product has become watered down and a lot of games are just flat out boring.

2. The NHL does a terrible job of marketing star players. I’m a Flyers fan living in Jacksonville Fl. I wouldn’t expect locals to know who Travis Konecny is, or guys like Carter Hart or Kevin Hayes, but locals also haven’t heard of Cale Makar, Connor McDavid or Adam Fox. Yet folks who don’t actively follow the pro sports know who Lebron James, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods are. More importantly, casual fans of the major pro sports can usually name dozens of players across multiple teams. I’d be surprised if a casual Red Wings fan could name one player from the Coyotes, Kraken, Senators or Devils.

3. The balanced schedule is an interest killer. New York fans don’t want to watch games vs West coast teams at 10:30pm and San Jose Shark fans probably don’t look forward to 4:30pm weekday games vs New Jersey or Buffalo

4. Tanking
I’m pretty sure fans in Chicago are turning off their TVs in droves. Same goes for Anaheim, Arizona and San Jose. No one except diehards wants to watch a team that is not only losing, but is actively trying to lose.

5. Bad markets
The Panthers were in first place last season and still couldn’t sell out games or draw ratings. Phoenix will never be a hockey hot bed.

How do you fix it?

1. Relocation
Move Florida to Quebec and Arizona to Houston. Both teams can stay in their respective divisions. Houston is a major market and will be a natural rival for Dallas. While Bettman won’t want to add another Canadian market, at least it will be a market that supports its team.

2. Unbalanced scheduled
Eliminate the conferences and stress the divisions. Reduce the regular season schedule to 80 games. Play each division rival 8 times for 56 games. Play the other 24 teams once alternating home and away each season. This will create rivalries and reduce travel costs. Have the top 5 teams in each division make the playoffs with 4 vs 5 playing a best of 3 qualifying round. The winner plays 1 and 2 plays 3 in the division semis and the final 2 play for the division championship. Heck, each division can give out their own trophy to the winners. Finally the 4 division winners can be ranked by their regular season records for the Cup semis and the final 2 advance to the Cup final.

3. Get rid of the shootout and increase OT to 10 minutes. Also, if a minor penalty is called in OT let them play 3 on 2 or even 3 on 1 if 2 men short. The few games that end in a tie are ties. All games should be worth 2 points too. A win is a win and worth 2 points, a loss gets you 0 and the rare tie gets each team 1.

4. MARKET YOUR STARS!
The league and individual teams need to do everything possible to market their star players.

The NHL will never be the NFL in the U.S. but there is still room for growth. However continuing to run things in the same way they are being run today is not the answer. Getting rid of Gary Bettman and bringing in some fresh, younger blood in leadership positions would be a good start.

I think there are a lot of reasons that viewership is down:

1. Too many teams
The product has become watered down and a lot of games are just flat out boring.

2. The NHL does a terrible job of marketing star players. I’m a Flyers fan living in Jacksonville Fl. I wouldn’t expect locals to know who Travis Konecny is, or guys like Carter Hart or Kevin Hayes, but locals also haven’t heard of Cale Makar, Connor McDavid or Adam Fox. Yet folks who don’t actively follow the pro sports know who Lebron James, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods are. More importantly, casual fans of the major pro sports can usually name dozens of players across multiple teams. I’d be surprised if a casual Red Wings fan could name one player from the Coyotes, Kraken, Senators or Devils.

3. The balanced schedule is an interest killer. New York fans don’t want to watch games vs West coast teams at 10:30pm and San Jose Shark fans probably don’t look forward to 4:30pm weekday games vs New Jersey or Buffalo

4. Tanking
I’m pretty sure fans in Chicago are turning off their TVs in droves. Same goes for Anaheim, Arizona and San Jose. No one except diehards wants to watch a team that is not only losing, but is actively trying to lose.

5. Bad markets
The Panthers were in first place last season and still couldn’t sell out games or draw ratings. Phoenix will never be a hockey hot bed.

How do you fix it?

1. Relocation
Move Florida to Quebec and Arizona to Houston. Both teams can stay in their respective divisions. Houston is a major market and will be a natural rival for Dallas. While Bettman won’t want to add another Canadian market, at least it will be a market that supports its team.

2. Unbalanced scheduled
Eliminate the conferences and stress the divisions. Reduce the regular season schedule to 80 games. Play each division rival 8 times for 56 games. Play the other 24 teams once alternating home and away each season. This will create rivalries and reduce travel costs. Have the top 5 teams in each division make the playoffs with 4 vs 5 playing a best of 3 qualifying round. The winner plays 1 and 2 plays 3 in the division semis and the final 2 play for the division championship. Heck, each division can give out their own trophy to the winners. Finally the 4 division winners can be ranked by their regular season records for the Cup semis and the final 2 advance to the Cup final.

3. Get rid of the shootout and increase OT to 10 minutes. Also, if a minor penalty is called in OT let them play 3 on 2 or even 3 on 1 if 2 men short. The few games that end in a tie are ties. All games should be worth 2 points too. A win is a win and worth 2 points, a loss gets you 0 and the rare tie gets each team 1.

4. MARKET YOUR STARS!
The league and individual teams need to do everything possible to market their star players.

The NHL will never be the NFL in the U.S. but there is still room for growth. However continuing to run things in the same way they are being run today is not the answer. Getting rid of Gary Bettman and bringing in some fresh, younger blood in leadership positions would be a good start.
- BiggE

Agree with #2 on your list.

I still have a problem watching ESPN in the mornings, on most days will have zero percent of NHL news.

I think there are a lot of reasons that viewership is down:

1. Too many teams
The product has become watered down and a lot of games are just flat out boring.

2. The NHL does a terrible job of marketing star players. I’m a Flyers fan living in Jacksonville Fl. I wouldn’t expect locals to know who Travis Konecny is, or guys like Carter Hart or Kevin Hayes, but locals also haven’t heard of Cale Makar, Connor McDavid or Adam Fox. Yet folks who don’t actively follow the pro sports know who Lebron James, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods are. More importantly, casual fans of the major pro sports can usually name dozens of players across multiple teams. I’d be surprised if a casual Red Wings fan could name one player from the Coyotes, Kraken, Senators or Devils.

3. The balanced schedule is an interest killer. New York fans don’t want to watch games vs West coast teams at 10:30pm and San Jose Shark fans probably don’t look forward to 4:30pm weekday games vs New Jersey or Buffalo

4. Tanking
I’m pretty sure fans in Chicago are turning off their TVs in droves. Same goes for Anaheim, Arizona and San Jose. No one except diehards wants to watch a team that is not only losing, but is actively trying to lose.

5. Bad markets
The Panthers were in first place last season and still couldn’t sell out games or draw ratings. Phoenix will never be a hockey hot bed.

How do you fix it?

1. Relocation
Move Florida to Quebec and Arizona to Houston. Both teams can stay in their respective divisions. Houston is a major market and will be a natural rival for Dallas. While Bettman won’t want to add another Canadian market, at least it will be a market that supports its team.

2. Unbalanced scheduled
Eliminate the conferences and stress the divisions. Reduce the regular season schedule to 80 games. Play each division rival 8 times for 56 games. Play the other 24 teams once alternating home and away each season. This will create rivalries and reduce travel costs. Have the top 5 teams in each division make the playoffs with 4 vs 5 playing a best of 3 qualifying round. The winner plays 1 and 2 plays 3 in the division semis and the final 2 play for the division championship. Heck, each division can give out their own trophy to the winners. Finally the 4 division winners can be ranked by their regular season records for the Cup semis and the final 2 advance to the Cup final.

3. Get rid of the shootout and increase OT to 10 minutes. Also, if a minor penalty is called in OT let them play 3 on 2 or even 3 on 1 if 2 men short. The few games that end in a tie are ties. All games should be worth 2 points too. A win is a win and worth 2 points, a loss gets you 0 and the rare tie gets each team 1.

4. MARKET YOUR STARS!
The league and individual teams need to do everything possible to market their star players.

The NHL will never be the NFL in the U.S. but there is still room for growth. However continuing to run things in the same way they are being run today is not the answer. Getting rid of Gary Bettman and bringing in some fresh, younger blood in leadership positions would be a good start.
- BiggE

I'm not sure what changing OT has to do with attracting more casual fans but I'm definitely on board with ditching shootouts and loser points.

- No more loser points or shootouts.
- Play 3 on 3 OT, but with one or two additional rules to prevent time-wasting tactics and force more shots and possession changes. (For example, 10 seconds to get the puck out of your own end once you have possession, and once you cross the NZ/OZ you can't take it back out.)
- 10 minutes on the clock. Open to increasing that to 15 or even 20 if there are still too many ties.

To me this seems like a good compromise if you want to (1) get rid of shootouts so games end with actual hockey players playing something resembling actual hockey, (2) get rid of the mutual incentive that teams have to slow down and "play for overtime" if they're tied in the third period, (3) simplify the standings, (4) make sure every regular season game ends in a reasonable amount of time, (5) have as few ties as possible.

Another suggestion: implement Gold Drafting to eliminate tanking. Terrible teams still have the best shot at drafting the best players, because they're eliminated earlier, but it incentivizes teams to keep winning games down the stretch instead of losing them.

I can’t believe people think there are still rivalries in the NHL. Rivalries no longer exist in the No Contact League. I laugh when I see someone post let’s see more divisional games. If you changed the jerseys of the kings, leafs, penguins no one would no the difference most games look the same. I think in the NCL it would be more fair to play everyone equally and then seed the teams 1-16.

I can’t believe people think there are still rivalries in the NHL. Rivalries no longer exist in the No Contact League. I laugh when I see someone post let’s see more divisional games. If you changed the jerseys of the kings, leafs, penguins no one would no the difference most games look the same. I think in the NCL it would be more fair to play everyone equally and then seed the teams 1-16.
- saintdog19

Rivalries existed when over 90% of the league’s players were born and raised in Canada. These players grew up competing over and over through out Canada against one another, as rivals. Look at today’s all star game vs. the games in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s these guys came to play and win!

I think there are a lot of reasons that viewership is down:



2. The NHL does a terrible job of marketing star players. I’m a Flyers fan living in Jacksonville Fl. I wouldn’t expect locals to know who Travis Konecny is, or guys like Carter Hart or Kevin Hayes, but locals also haven’t heard of Cale Makar, Connor McDavid or Adam Fox. Yet folks who don’t actively follow the pro sports know who Lebron James, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods are. More importantly, casual fans of the major pro sports can usually name dozens of players across multiple teams. I’d be surprised if a casual Red Wings fan could name one player from the Coyotes, Kraken, Senators or Devils.


- BiggE

But everyone knows how Ivan Provorov is!

I'm not sure what changing OT has to do with attracting more casual fans but I'm definitely on board with ditching shootouts and loser points.

- No more loser points or shootouts.
- Play 3 on 3 OT, but with one or two additional rules to prevent time-wasting tactics and force more shots and possession changes. (For example, 10 seconds to get the puck out of your own end once you have possession, and once you cross the NZ/OZ you can't take it back out.)
- 10 minutes on the clock. Open to increasing that to 15 or even 20 if there are still too many ties.

To me this seems like a good compromise if you want to (1) get rid of shootouts so games end with actual hockey players playing something resembling actual hockey, (2) get rid of the mutual incentive that teams have to slow down and "play for overtime" if they're tied in the third period, (3) simplify the standings, (4) make sure every regular season game ends in a reasonable amount of time, (5) have as few ties as possible.

Another suggestion: implement Gold Drafting to eliminate tanking. Terrible teams still have the best shot at drafting the best players, because they're eliminated earlier, but it incentivizes teams to keep winning games down the stretch instead of losing them.
- Sven22

I like the idea of an alternate draft rules. Maybe that would slow down so many teams trying to offload players at the TDL.

From the Great MAGA King President Trump: Everything woke, turns to sh!t! Well the NHL sickens me, with all of the Social Justice circle jerk, when they should stick to the essence of the game. Time to purify and make the product more competitive. The current playoff setup is boring and flawed. Either go to two Conferences with 16 teams each, or go to a one league 1 - 32 format. I'm sick of seeing the same teams playing each other every year in the playoffs. The Leafs and Lightning knew they were playing each other by the end of November. So what are those fan bases supposed to do for the next 5 months, until they play again in the first round? Penguins/Caps is another one that's had its day. There needs to be a freshening of the playoff brackets.

Then there's the idiotic All Star game that really has little to offer. Time for Gary Bettman to either fix it, or get out of the way. The game is worse off, with all of the no hit games going on. Boring.....................

No it isn't cheap. It's 250$ for the season but i always figured this like my season tickets to the Wings games plus i can watch any other game i want so in that sense it isn't too bad. Sportsnet stealing games like Detroit vs Buffalo and games like that which don't have anything to do with teams in my region really pisses me off. I should still be able to watch them on Center Ice even though Sportsnet or TSN are broadcasting them. Trying to force people to pay for those channels when you don't want them is stupid. Like i said though, i can get all the games for free so if they want to play it like that, they just won't get any more money from me. I upgraded my internet connection to fiber optic so streaming HD is not an issue.
- dcz28

Directv, this season was only $69USD for Center Ice. Canada? Almost $250 CND.

Outstanding article Jeremy and a ton of great responses from your responding readers - some of the best I've seen in a long time. Not everyone who commented on this piece is on the same boat but they're all heading in the same general direction which is what counts.