There are so many problems in the league now. Violence, lockouts, lack of parity on a league wide basis.
To start on violence, there is no reason that hockey should be any different than basketball or football with regard to fighting. In those leagues, if you fight you are gone. No reason hockey should be different.
The lockout, If they do go on strike, or lock the players out, then I for one am cancelling my tickets. It is imperative that the players realize that this is not on even keel with the other 3 team sports where they can make tons of money playing. The revenues are just not there.
Lastly, I lost my interest in the playoffs already. Sure it is cool that there are 7 teams so tight in the East, but, what happened earlier this month is absurd. You can not have parity in the league when you have 3-4 teams holding a fire sale every year. In the East, solid players were added to all 8 teams, (save the Lightening). I believe that the trade deadline should be in December or January. Make the GM's build teams, that take years, not 15 minutes of dealing on a Tuesday afternoon because 3 teams look like they are about to go broke, and have to fire everyone anyways.
Professional sports is llosing my interest, and in general I think that it does have a huge impact on society. Kids don't get into it now as they did 20-30+ years ago. There is way more to say about it, but my brains are tired.