i don't post in this thread normally because my hockey knowledge is roughly 50% of a canadian newborn. also the nhl playoffs have been fun as hell this year
The best thing for fans is that several 'underdogs' won in the first round which has a solid payoff. You don't know what you will get in the round(s) to follow.
i would normally meekly defend baseball but analytics has turned into a completely unwatchable home run or strikeout mess (i had a powerplay-esque idea where you lose fielders then next half-inning per strikeout but that's for another time... keep the nerds away from hockey).
I think non-football sports could do with shrinking seasons to around 50-60 games - i guess i won't speak for hockey, but the best NBA regular season was the year the owners locked out the players until christmas and it was a fifty-some game sprint for the playoffs. even if baseball had an 82 game season like the NHL and NBA, they'd be hitting the halfway point about now and there would be a lot more urgency. It's impossible to get hyped about game 45 of 162 when it's going to take 3.5 hour sand there are regularly twelve minute intervals where the ball doesn't get put in play.
Kudos to hockey for having possibly the best pacing of major sports.
The growth or decline of sports in the U.S. have a few common factors:
1) cost- which can be defined in both monetary amounts and time played, practicing, or traveling to and from games.
2) accessibility
3) exposure
Baseball equipment costs are quite high, start up or otherwise. While there are several areas where I live that have a diamond and are used frequently, the same can't be said elsewhere especially larger cities, where major league teams play. Equipment costs can add up for other sports, but football of any variety can be played on the same field and basketball is easily available in many places. Pick up games are also easier to wrangle. Antiquated blackout rules are just beginning to finally flounder with MLB, but they are still behind on issue that tie into who can use highlights and that too works against them.
The most exciting team I've seen in the last 30 years (limited to TV no less) was the Kansas City Royals 2014 and 2015. They didn't have all that much power and they were fast on the bases and tracking to the ball. Their style of play was the best for TV, but that's still not exciting to folks.
Finally, to put a bow on all of that, most field managers or GMs aren't all that different and aren't terribly progressive. That all leads to a bland game 80% of the time that you watch on TV. Watching the game in person though is a completely different experience. The same can be said, IMO, for soccer from what I have been told.
As for the other leagues the schedules aren't going to change because of revenues, especially the NHL. The NHL, unlike other sports, is a gate driven league. The tickets sold and concessions are where the majority of team's money comes from. Football, baseball, and basketball revunue's most significant revenue comes from TV. Football and baseball both have an issue to one degree or another with falling gates totals. While part of that ties into many teams simply being noncompetitive by the end of the first couple months, interest is also waning for various reasons. Baseball isn't going to rollback the number of games played, it's cash they'd lose out on. Hockey won't roll back the number of games played simply because it can't afford to.
