GDS, you can live in any fantasy land you want but there is no way a league like the NHL who struggles to capture viewers would not have preferred a NY/Chicago final. That was the point of my last post. As for leagues being fixed, proof is against you seeing how it has been proven in the past.
1) Sure they want Chicago / NY for TV revenue in the short term, BUT they also want Anaheim / TB for long term viewership expansion in non-traditional hockey markets. They haven't been shy about that since the Lightning came to be. I worked in hockey around that time and in every meeting I was ever in, the NHL, USA Hockey, the manufacturers all wanted the sunshine markets because they knew where their longterm TV dollars would come from.
2) Regardless of the outcome they wanted as an institution, they don't rig the games. At best you can rig the spread, but you can't rig outcomes of a 7 game series.
20 guys on the bench each playing approximately 20 out of 60 minutes. You can control your line but you can't control them all.
Goalie - You can let in some soft goals, but if you let in more than one, you are getting the hook.
Coach - You can mismatch your lines but you can't make your players under perform. You can't account for their heart.
Equipment Guy - You can stress fracture sticks and knick blades for less control, but you can't stop that guy from working through garbage equipment.
Ref - You can make some questionable calls, but you can't get away with enough questionable calls to give the games away.
In order to rig a series you have to have guys in each layer of that to be in on it. That is just too many parts to make it happen.
As I say, I don't doubt that there is point shaving in every sport, but I don't think outcomes are determined institutionally because the coverup always finds one snitch in the bunch
