Let's not forget the minor detail that the college conferences that span coast to coast do not routinely play every team in their conference every year, at lest in football. So the travel impact is limited, especially when the total schedule is 12 games (including non-conference games), with normally half being at home. They are more willing to go coast-to-coast in basketball because they can consolidate their cross-country trips to one or two per season, rather than some major share of 41 games road games.
And travel/time zones are just one of the problems.
Let's play. Suppose the Canadian media companies all get together and demand this "or else." Then the US franchises and media say, okay "or else it is." Then what?
The counter proposal is to divest the NHL into two leagues, one consisting of the 25 US franchises and whatever Canadian franchises want to be part of that pie, and the rest of the Canadian franchises can have the NHL name and whatever revenue they generate. No revenue arrangements between the two rival leagues other than they can meet every year in a championship round and split that pot.
Which league do we think the Canadien, Maple Leaf, Oiler, Canuck, Flame, Jet, and Senator franchises will go to? Will they follow the money, or the flag? And how about the better talent......which direction will they go?
The Canadian media companies are not dumb. They, too, will follow the money.
And I'm a guy who wants to see one of the Canadian franchises win a Cup to break the string, and I want to see the Maple Leafs win one before I die because they are the only remaining original or second six team I have not seen skate with it (they last won it the year before I discovered hockey as a kid). And "before I die" is not an insult, because I was saying the same thing about the Blues before 2019. But trying to engineer it so it happens will implode, as it always manages to.
Newton was onto something with that pesky third law. The equal and opposite reaction seems to apply to a lot more than physics, and in the other places it does, it is usually more than equal.