Fuck me, I just know I'm going to end up like Saddoboxer talking to myself in my thread. It's a shame what has happened to the NHL. In my opinion, it's every bit as exciting as football or basketball (though I can't stand basketball). I remember after the '94 Ranger Stanley Cup victory (boooo!), Sports Illustrated came out with a cover that said something along the lines of "NHL More Popular That the NBA" or something like that. Of course, then the game descended into "dead puck era" - the more boring, defensive, uninteresting and unenteraining epoch the sport has ever seen.