Canada does deserve more teams because they actually care about the sport. Maybe another in Quebec again or Hamilton maybe. The only Southern teams that seem to be doing ok are Nashville, Tampa, and Carolina. I think Florida, Phoenix, Columbus, are probably screwed.
I love hockey as an American but I live in the north and root for an Original Six franchise. The only cities in the US that seem to care about hockey are the true northern cities like Boston, NY, Chicago, Detroit, Philly, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, etc. Interestingly the teams out west seem to be doing well like San Jose, Denver, Anaheim, LA.
Bottom line is hockey is probably only like the 8th most popular sport in the US if you count NASCAR, MMA, and NCAA Football and Basketball. Sad but true. It is #1 in Canada. The potential is there here in the States, and I think a lot more people would like hockey if they truly watched it and understood the game. It has all the things that Americans love, fast action, hitting, violence, scoring.
But Bettman is a clown who doesn't know how to market the league. He went for the fast money in the US back in the 90s but didn't realize that you need long term fan support in a city to sustain a franchise. There are so many talented players right now and the quality of play has never been better IMO, but Bettman still runs it like a backwater Canadian past time instead of a 21st century multi-billion dollar business like the NFL, MLB, and NBA. He is content to stick with shitty 3rd rate Versus network in the US to carry the games which half of the country doesn't get even if they have cable or satellite.
Interestingly I think the old Atlanta franchise has the most black players of any team in the NHL. They had like 5 or 6 last year. So they just went from one of the most black to least black cities in North America.