You should never let paranoia get in the way of logic.
But I saw the same nonsense with Blue Jays fans when Jays playoff games often got the afternoon slot as opposed to the evening slot. Simple logic was that Jays games were one market games and could be expected to deliver smaller audiences. But that didn't stop some Jays from spouting off about how MLB hated the Jays.
Hmm. I wonder if the fact that Carolina is on a FOX regional plays into Carolina's lack of regular season home games on NBC/NBCSN. Has anyone looked at whether teams on NBC regionals get more NBC/NBCSN games than those on FOX regionals?
It's more likely that NBC prefers teams that "casual fans" will likely take notice of (i.e. "Original 6" and teams with marquee players like Washington) when they do their regular season scheduling with CSN teams (Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, San Jose) being easier for NBC to promote as they can syndicate their broadcasting crew. They like to avoid Canadian teams that aren't Toronto at all costs, with the excuse they can make that nobody wants to watch Vancouver or Edmonton since they keep sucking, and avoid Sun Belt teams that aren't Nashville because they assume the casual fan is unaware that there is a team in Florida, let alone two. This, unfortunately, leads to a hideously imbalanced TV schedule that sees them air 20 Blackhawks games nationally, 12 Capitals games, 8 Flyers games, and 4 Sharks games, with at least 10 teams having one appearance or none (and those teams that do appear will be the road team).