Easier said than done. NHL does make the majority of its money from ticket sales. But teams typically rake in the benefits of RSNs; Penguins probably make ~$25mil off RSNs.

It's easy to say you want a streaming service (I do too!), but that has a huge impact on cable companies. A streaming service would likely cost 5x the cable equivalent. RSNs are typically the most expensive network for a cable company behind ESPN. Typically, they cost somewhere around $4-8 per month. Would you pay $20-40 a month for just NHL?

NHL probably has about $750mil worth of National Broadcast contracts in the US and Canda (Rogers, ESPN+). These ultimately get priority over RSNs.