If you believed the doomsayers, it was a done deal. They're still in Montreal because when push came to shove no American city could come up with the ball park to house them. The taxpayers in the U.S. finally were smartening up. It says here the same thing could happen in hockey. It's one thing to threaten to move the franchise a la Bryden.
Hockey is still a minority sport in most U.S. cities.
It's relegated to the back pages in the newspapers in all but a handful of those cities. That big TV contract is still just a gleam in NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's eyes. The league does have a lucrative deal with Hockey Night in Canada, one that would be jeopardized should teams leave Canada. The choice for the NHL isn't quite the slam dunk it once was. If they are smart, and that's assuming a lot, the owners of U.S. teams might even realize they must find a way to keep the Canadian teams alive.