I've got to say, having one championship trophy that gets passed around was a stroke of genius by the NHL. I love that tradition.
Even the blind dog gets the bone once in a while
Eh... the NHL didn't *always* suck. It only when down hill when the owners became wildly greedy, expanding the sport to warm weather areas and increasing ticket prices so the "core" hockey fans couldn't go any more. Then, hockey moved exclusively to cable in most markets. From there, there was the strike, cancelling over a season's worth of hockey. Lastly, post-strike the NHL was banished to life on the OLN channel, where a lot of people didn't even have access to Stanley Cup games.
It was a genius plan to kill the sport, and the owners and Player's Association executed it to perfection.