Whenever the subject of realignment and relocation comes up, the teams of the Southeast Division (along with Nashville and Phoenix) are always the first to be mentioned. Attendance figures are lukewarm at best, with Atlanta, Florida, and Washington in the bottom 10 of the league, and there is a general sense that hockey in the South just doesn’t make sense, that the population doesn’t “get” the game.
Michael Fahey of CNNSI hs a different spin on things, though. He paints a picture of the Southeast as a high-scoring, physical, high-energy brand of hockey that just might be the NHL’s best-kept secret, pointing out that (as of the time of the article) 6 of the NHL’s top 8 scorers were from Southeast teams. Fahey also takes on the attendance issue, noting that attendance is generally up in the Southeast as compared to last year, and discusses the particular challenges that non-traditional hockey markets face in selling a game to a fanbase that is more used to football and NASCAR.
This is something I’ve been meaning to write about for a while now, but haven’t had the chance. It’s an interesting read for anyone (like me) who has quickly dismissed the Southeast as a throwaway division.