from Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette (before yesterday's game 6),

Who owns hockey? The NHL owns hockey.

Hockey at its highest level is now run by a couple of dozen American billionaires and a New York lawyer. Even if they vote as a bloc, the seven Canadian teams have virtually no power other than their contribution to the bottom line: without Canadian fans to fill the arenas and that foolish mega-deal with Rogers to prop it up, the salary cap might be due for a precipitous drop, but with less than a quarter of the teams based in Canada, this country’s economic clout is limited.

The trend is inescapable. The NHL in the spring of 2016 has never been more American, and the addition of an expansion team in the U.S. will erode our influence even more, carrying on a process that began with the move of the league’s head office from Montreal to New York in 1989.

Now, with a weakened Canadian dollar and zero playoff revenue for the 2015-2016 season, Canadian teams have to figure out how to get back in the hunt for the Stanley Cup — a task that may be all but impossible. In the short term, Montreal may be the Canadian team most likely to return to the playoffs, simply because of Carey Price.

In the longer term, these Canadiens do not look at all like a Stanley Cup team, a unit that can face the likes of the Penguins, Sharks, Lightning, Blues, Stars, Ducks, Kings or Blackhawks in a seven-game series and win. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Edmonton Oilers have the brightest long-term futures, perhaps — but it’s a long step from having young stars to playing the Stanley Cup.

And now every Canadian franchise must compete for star players with locations that can offer the glamour and glitz of New York or lower taxes and a convenient beach or nearby golf course available in February, when shivering Canadians are hustling along snow-swept streets in parkas. All we can offer is the passion of our fans, which can be a negative or a positive, depending on a player’s perspective.

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