Among the things I appreciate about the NHL is it's dedication to representing the many nations from which it's fans come. The NHL has drawn from the US and Canada, obviously, but also there is a long history of players coming from Scandinavia and eastern Europe. There is also a long history of the NHL playing games in Stockholm or Prague. The NBA can expand it's audience with games in Mexico City. The NHL is going to Finland.
For a sport that has been criticized for focusing, to a fault at times, on expanding into a part of the country that is, at best, hockey illiterate, they haven't really gone crazy with their overseas games. Lately, buy in from places like Vegas and Utah has been very good, but it certainly hasn't always been the case, that those sun belt states were excited about hockey. The NHL hasn't pursued markets that, internationally, are not typical hockey markets.
And Finland, where the Stars and Panthers played this morning, is fully in the tank for the NHL. Aside from the terrific names that Finland has to offer hockey fans, which make their home grown players immediately recognizable, they also put together a terrific bunch of players. They are, after all, the reigning Olympic champion.
Playing NHL games in Finland isn't really expanding the global footprint of the sport, as much as it is throwing red meat to the the biggest fans. If anything, in these spots, they are competing with domestic leagues (or the KHL) rather than introducing a new sport to a fan base, as the NBA or NFL playing in Mexico City or London is.
And beyond that, it's not as though Finland would be a large market to try to expand. The population of Finland is about 5 and a half million, or slightly larger than that of South Carolina. Finland's population is into hockey, and have a strong domestic league, and the population doesn't represent a huge market to try to expand into anyways.
None of this is a criticism of the NHL playing in Finland, specifically, or in Europe in general. It's just neat that they do stuff because it's cool, and not necessarily because of some sort of ulterior motive.
