What happened to hockey?

I'm an admitted sports junkie.  Last night I fell asleep watching the Boston Celtics playing the Phoenix Suns in a meaningless game.  I'm excited about the Superbowl coming up next weekend.  I plan to watch a few rounds of Tiger Woods today.  College basketball never gets boring to me.  And despite no playoff system, college football makes every Saturday a good one.
But what about hockey? 
Now, you could rationalize that I'm simply not a hockey guy.  Kind of like no one in America is a soccer guy.  But that's not true.
I grew up in the hockey crazed state of Minnesota.  Herb Brooks was the coach of the University of Minnesota, and as kids, we would often skate in that same arena.  The High School hockey championships were the most watched event on television.  I collected hockey cards, knew every player on every team, and went to quite a few games.  I never played hockey, but spent countless hours with the combination of hockey sticks and rolled up socks, tennis balls, or crushed coke cans. 
The greatest sporting event ever is still the 1980 USA victory of the Soviets in the Olympic games.  I watched every minute of that game as a child.  And still have the autographs of the young University of Minnesota kids who returned to campus afterwards.  Slapshot is still a classic movie.  And Youngblood is way under appreciated.
Maybe I lost interest when I moved to Los Angeles?  Makes sense when you replace frozen ponds with palm trees, but even if my interest was fading, the signing of Wayne Gretzky to the Kings kept my interest.  Maybe it was my move to Colorado years later?  Are you kidding me?  The Avalanche won two Stanley cups, had guys like Blake, Bourque, Roy, Sakic, and Foote, and I watched every game.  Maybe it was the childhood trauma of showing up at ice skating lessons in my sister's hand-me-down white figure skates?  Could be.  But Dad spray painted them black the next day, and skating with my own children is still one of my favorite things to do.
How could hockey of faded away so fast?
Maybe it's the new scoring system.  It used to be that 90 points won you a division.  Now 90 points means you're tied with 11 other teams for 7th place.  Maybe it's expansion.  Carolina has a hockey team?  Hockey in Florida?  Maybe it's free agency.  Sakic was always an Avalanche, Yzerman a Red Wing, Lemieux a Penguin, now I can't find Chris Pronger....where'd he go?  Could be star power.  I know Crosby and the Russian guy from Washington.  That's about it.
Colorado recently talked about bringing back Peter Forsberg to help with a rapidly dropping attendance number.  Really, is that the move that will bring hockey back to life?  Are they going to bring back Rick Springfield to sing during periods?  Is Flock of Seagulls going to perform the National Anthem?
Hockey needs to do three things.  Change the scoring system, get rid of some teams, and beg ESPN to take over the viewing rights.  Until then, wake me up when my team clinches the seventh spot.