The new NHL is terrible.

I'm about to say something that could get a good Canadian boy like me shot if read by the wrong people. NHL hockey is almost completely unwatchable. It's horrible. Don't get me the wrong, the rule changes have made the game more wide open, scoring is up, and the game is a bit more entertaining than it was pre-lockout (though the number of power plays each game is still out of control), but the teams are not great anymore. When the lockout inevitably started I was actually hoping that it would last two years so six teams would fold and they could move to a 24 team league.
Cities such as Miami, Atlanta, Greensboro, Nashville, Anaheim, and yes, even Pittsburgh now, have no business having NHL teams. Contracting is the only viable option to put a truly strong game on the ice now that a salary cap has been implemented. The problem with the cap is that teams become completely watered down and teams can't load up the way they used to. I have been to a few Ottawa Senators games this year and many consider them to be the best team in the league. While the Senators are very good, to call them great is laughable. When Tyler Arnason is heralded as a huge pickup and becomes a key player on your second line, you can not claim greatness. Compare the new NHL teams to recent ones on Colorado and Detroit teams that featured Forsberg, Sakic, and Fedorov, Yzerman. No contest, those were great teams. And even those teams would have got killed by the Penguins of the early 90's and Oilers and Flames of the 80's.
The salary cap creates parity you say? Well your parity is my mediocrity. Anybody who watched the NFL playoffs this year can tell you what a joke pro football has become. And to claim that the NFL is the strongest league in the world, which it undoubtedly is, because of a salary cap is dead wrong. The NFL is strong because of gambling. Office pools and point spreads are the main reason most people watch. And the fact that there is nothing else on Sunday afternoons.
So there I said it, the NHL sucks. I'm desperately hoping for contraction very soon.