Do you think this is directly related to the change in the game?
It absolutely is. A significant part of the changes are designed to appease NBC suits and/or where a bargaining condition with the NBC contract, which convienatly goes along with Bettmans Vitrue Manifesto, to make the NHL “more family friendly-prime time appropriate”, and go along with the Feminism “Woke” trend, to appeal to a mainstream audience.
As the data clearly shows, it’s not working, and if having the opposite effect.
If NBC doesn’t reup, or even bails out of this contract because of bad ratings, . . . heads should roll