Atticus   

“Moving the sport from one network to another isn’t enough to cure pro hockey’s ills. If the league wants to get serious about its long-term survival, it should eliminate several teams. I propose that we say goodbye to the entire Southeast Division. So long, Florida Panthers, we hardly knew ye.

My experience in Manhattan notwithstanding, there are a lot more casual puck-watchers up north. During Carolina’s semifinal matchup against the Buffalo Sabres, hockey ratings in western New York were between three and seven times greater than in Raleigh. Ridding the league of the Hurricanes would keep those ratings-boosting Sabres fans in front of the tube. (Angry Hurricanes fans should note that I was conceived in Chapel Hill, N.C.) Then, maybe the hockey writers could find something else to write about. Like hockey.”

— from “Ice Guys Finish Last” by Chris Shott

I want to say Atlanta is different because so many Yankee transplants live here, but it’s not.

If the NHL saved only the Capitals from the Southeast Division and also eliminated the Predators, the people whose jobs moved them here from the Northeast and the upper Midwest would go back to following their Devils, Flyers, Bruins, Rangers or Red Wings on a full-time basis. These folks already still root for those teams when they come to town to play their adopted Thrashers. They would simply revert to focusing all their devotion on their hometown teams and occasionally get their fill of live hockey by attending a Gladiators game.

It’s this general apathy about the sport that probably makes the hockey purists (and most of Canada) cringe that the Southeast Division is on the verge of scoring its second-straight Stanley Cup.