That was disgustingly off colour.
As for the rivalry, I actually mentioned this in the "How to fix hockey" thread, but the key is to re-introduce rivalries and market players.
Which can be done reasonably for at least one player on every team, and some kind of rivalry between at least one other team. It doesn't have to be geopgrahical, it can just be a good game. Look at Detroit-Colourado.
The Calgary-Atlanta makes sense on paper, but they play each other like once a year, tops.
It makes for an easy night at work for the sports writers, though.