Try attracting some new fans by showing the Devils more on NBC. LOL :lol
Seriously though, there are a lot of good ideas I have read so far on this thread. Good job.
ESPN tried to educate fans about the game doesn't work.
I agree. When I first started watching the Rangers as a kid on local NY television....for FREE (God, I miss those days LOL), I didn't know much about the rules. My parents are both Italian immigrants, so they knew as much about hockey as I did at the time. My father hooked up with the game because he's a huge soccer fan. I've noticed that with a lot of Italian immigrants that I've known; they seem to lean a bit more towards hockey and football when it comes to adapting to North American sports.
Anyway, the game back then was so much more exciting and would only get better as the Gretzky era would unfold with the select WHA teams joining the NHL. As I watched hockey more and more, I wanted to know even more about the rules and tactics. I started skating both roller and ice. I did not have a rink close by, so I would sneak out at 10 years old and take the bus downtown and skate at the rink. My local park had an outdoor rink for winter, so you know where I spent my free time during those months. I would go to the library and get check out whatever books they had on hockey and read them all cover to cover. When my parents finally caught on about my passion for the game, my mother came with me down to the rink to see if there was a league I could play in. They had a house league at another rink where you could also buy used equipment. That was how I started playing the game.
Anyway, my intention is not to tell my whole life story. I just wanted to make the point that if the excitement and the end to end action is in the game, the feedback from fans and potential fans will be enormous compared to how the popularity of the game in the US is right now. Start with giving the fans a top-quality product. With the use of the Internet, people won't have to go to a library anymore to find info on the ins and outs of the game like I had to.