Oh really?? No appeal in the U.S.A.??
Just try getting 2 tickets together for a hockey game.......(currently playing before 92% average capacity attendance)
Let's not blow up this "accident" into an indictment of the greatest sport on earth!!
Better ban baseball too!! Dead players and dead fans!! (not to mention the players on steroids!!)
Get real!!
Playing before near capacity because its the only way to see the game.... When they get and maintain a national contract that isn't on some po dunk cable, let the world know.
I can walk up to Mellon Arena any night and buy tickets to any game.... And that's with Mario and Crosby both on the ice.
Don't think because you can fill an arena (because its the only place to actually see the game) that its the most popular sport going... its not.
Lock out for a year, and frankly... no one cared.
A "sport" that relies on fights to keep the audiences interest is something that has more akin to Roller Derby and wrasslin than other "sports".
Now, this could be a freak accident, or it could be as others have suggested here, an act by yet another want to be college or pro hockey player who thinks lifting the puck is cool and part of the way you are supposed to play the game.