As I recall the classic  teams were in a league that operated like a country club They nearly got caught napping but they headed off the secondmajorleague threat by expanding which of course brought in a bunch of money to the old guard from the entrance fees Also they aligned the new teams in a separate division which essentially made the Stanley Cup finals an exhibition series for the winners of the classic  playoff rounds Further evolution of the league evened out a lot of that stuff of course but theres some intrigue connected with their initial expansion I noticed there were many references to Norris House League in Google so its not like this is unknown Maybe the comment could be written better andor with more detail but its an important part of the nature of the NHL as it existed during that time period