I know this is about us, but I think the big question has been, and will be going foward, how does this affect the growth of the NHL fanbase/support/money in the United States?
I fear that the Casual American Sports Fan (read: doesn't follow the NHL, maybe casually watches if it is on, takes his family of 4 to a few games a year as an outing if they live in an NHL market) isn't coming back to even that "level" of support...at least not for a while. And that's a problem when the league should be growing and getting more fans.
Take for example, our buddies to the south, the LA Kings. No doubt their run helped gain more fans in SoCal...who promptly stopped being fans when the lockout dragged on. Those people are likely not going to care opening night, and for the league (owners and players), that's not only a problem, that is THE problem (not just for the Kings I mean, I mean the nationwide in the US).
The NHL has a lot of work to do to win back Causal American Sports Fans back to even their previous level of support (Which was not great), let alone growth. Hopefully the lockout is only a setback in that area for this half-season and does not have damaging effects for years to come.