Now, don't get me wrong. I believe in traditions. Traditions provide cultural continuity and remind us of our roots. But there is one tradition that needs to go, using the term "original six" by anyone commenting on the NHL. Of the four major sports in North America, only the NHL enshrines their original franchises. Except..... Toronto, Montreal, Detroit, Chicago, NYR and Boston are not the NHL's original teams, they are merely the six teams which were here after several years of expansion, contraction, moves, mergers, etc and were the entirety of the league for decades. So what? I'd be willing to bet that I'm the oldest contributor to this site/blog and when did I become a hockey fan? After the first expansion of the modern era when the league doubled in size. The majority of modern hockey fans have never known an NHL with less than 20 teams. Add in that the so-called expansion era now constitutes more than half of the league's existence and that means that the vast majority of hockey fans were not even born when the league was only six teams. Yet, the league and professional commentators treat the teams of the "original six", and the phrase itself, as if there is something magical about them. There isn't. It's past time to ban the use of that phrase.