As a refresher, of course, Quebec left in 95, Winnipeg left in 96, the Oilers and Senators came perilously close to death, and if the Oilers had gone, there was some belief that the Flames wouldn't outlive them for long. A few unlucky turns of history and we might've been staring at an NHL landscape with only Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver having survived the 90s.
A refresher, for a refresher for Calgary:
In 1999 the Flames Ownership group essentially came to the city/media and said that season ticket sales were so bad, that if they don't improve we're going the way of Quebec and Winnipeg. They ended up getting something like 8,500 season tickets that year. In 2000, they then came back and said they need 14,000 season tickets this year, and corporate boxes will increase for the team to stay. They got both those requests. They actually then came back and said 'that's all fine and dandy, but we're actually still uncertain if we're going to stay, we need to negotiate a new lease for the building and we need more provincial benefits.'
The Flames were losing money until their cup run in 2003.
It's crazy how if a city didn't get behind their team, that there may not have been hockey between Toronto and Vancouver for the better part of a decade and a half.