@Abdula: yes, both on and off the ice. Game outcomes are still mostly determined by the officials, who are still calling penalties willy-nilly so the players don't know what's legal and what's not on any given night. Tough guy players are singled out and penalized for breathing hard or looking in the other team's direction. The front office reviews all "questionable" plays and hands out suspensions and fines, regardless if the on-ice officials called a penalty on the play. Two guys just got fined for trash-talking during pre-game warmups. It's not like their comments were shown on air and the FCC had to get involved, it was just the NHL front office doing their gestapo impersonation.

The on-ice game sucks too. Players are afraid of penalties and suspensions which results in long stretches of back and forth skating with no physical contact. There's less passion, almost zero aggression, and little excitement in games. Arena seats are empty and Versus shows the same 2 teams almost every week (the Penguins and Rangers).

@masa: lots of people complain they can't see the puck on TV (hence the stupid Fox glow puck a few years back), but one writer had a great argument: how can people follow the ball in baseball? They don't, they follow the action. Same thing in hockey. Look for the guy being chased by almost everyone on the other team and that's where the puck is.

Btw, the Sabres suck, they don't let Andrew Peters play.