So I’m curious: Why no major reaction on the NHL’s cost-controlling labor deal from fans in Winnipeg, Hamilton and other locales that are pining for a team of their own?

Since many of the usual suspect cities are former homes of NHL clubs that left due to the league’s former economics, I’d think this new salary structure would be perceived to remove a major barrier to the viability of big-league pucks in smaller markets. Fans there should be convincing themselves that “troubled” franchises like Nashville and Carolina are ready to beat a path to their welcoming venues.

And yet, I haven’t seen much to suggest this is the buzz. True, Kansas City is continuing its mild push to convince the league to move in, and Canadian traditionalists are improbably praising the commissioner for securing the future. But beyond that, nothing.

This could be because the logic train suggests that if the salary cap makes NHL action manageable in Saskatoon, then by rights, it should make it fantastically lucrative in Columbus and everywhere else where it already resides. If the costs are controlled in the current dots on the map, why would any team bother to move? Arena wrangling is always a factor that could prompt suggestions of relocation, but most teams took care of that in recent years, so there’s no fuel for that fire.

A residual sour taste in hardcore fans’ mouths might be blunting speculation, too. Or perhaps a look at actual games being played, after a year of absence, is necessary to bring such thoughts to formation. In any case, the lack of what I thought would be a predictable (if ill-founded) assumption is curious.