I guarantee you that this is a slim minority of fans that the NHL is catering to.
I can bet your ginger beard that if you were to poll the entire NHL that fans would want less East vs West games if they got more divisional games. Division games are where the emotion truly is.
Everyone here gets a certain buzz to their day if the Kings are playing Canucks Oilers, and even the Ducks still because f*** vatrano.
Staples atmosphere when the oilers are there is a complete different animal then when some random team like Lightning or Islanders are in town. No one cares except transplants and they shouldn’t even be a target audience. You don’t target 18-25 year olds for a cigar lounge if you’re trying to make your product pop.
No one cares about Sebastian Aho over here.
They are catering to those that spend money on season seats so, while definitely a slim minority, they are the ones shelling out dollars for every game and are on the hook regardless of team performance. The league wants to sell stars so you still want to get McDavid in Columbus at least once a year.
I thought the eight games against division rivals would be awesome and cause a bunch of bloodbaths but it didn't: it just meant that we had to watch a game against the effing Coyotes again. The game has changed so much on the physical/nasty side of things that trying to force rivalries through more division games still didn't do the trick.
What happens though is that Sidney Crosby and the Pens might not be scheduled to come to LA this season and then he is injured the next season so you've lost two years of potentially seeing him play. While these star players could be hurt every time they come through LA, not having them scheduled at all guarantees that those of us in LA will not have a chance to see a specific superstar or great team.
While Boston has smoked us in some of these recent games here in LA, it has been some of the more exciting hockey I've seen in person during the Bluc era. I'll take that 100 times before another game against Utah or the current iteration of San Jose. Hell, those Boston games have been better than any game against the Ducks in LA for like the last five seasons. Feels like the spicier games against the Ducks happen in Anaheim because they want to get spicy and the Kings have lived to not have to engage physically.
We can talk about buzz and excitement when playing against other teams, but the common denominator is the Kings. They have been a boring ass team that we would not watch on Center Ice if we were a fan of a different team. The way you are talking about Carolina and Aho is how a lot of non-Kings fans would talk about the Kings and Kevin Fiala.
