If we are talking about hockey in general, there isn't much NHL could do to grow the game here (Finland): national team and Liiga are a big thing for those who like hockey, NHL won't really gain any new fans for the sport no matter what they do. It's more about giving a middle finger to loyal fans who go through a lot of **** just to watch their favorite team to play.
But at the same time it shows how NHL's marketing department has lost their grip of reality. Allowing high quality youtube clips for example, like you said, would only be good thing for the sport.
If you want future topics to write about:
Is it even possible for NHL to get more publicity in NA? I remember reading an article few years ago that argued a strong correlation between TV popularity and time of commercial breaks in four or five biggest pro sports in NA. Simply put, if the sport has a lot breaks (time for commercials), networks are more interested in those sports as they can make more money. And of course they promote those sports more. There used to be only two 18min breaks in hockey, but they've added 3 commercial breaks for each period. NFL is really popular, there's like 15min of gameplay and a lot of time for commericial. Soccer on the other hand...
There's of course always the "true" fans that follow the game (whatever it is) anyway, but TV time can do a lot to get the attention of those casual fans that NHL needs to grow the game.