Apologies if I repeat what others have said...
Yes the atmosphere was a little flat yesterday, especially in the 3rd period, for what I see as two reasons, the fact the game was won by then, so not a lot of excitement to get the crowd going and the fact a number of season ticket holders didn't go resulting in a lot of occasional fans in the arena.
I don't think for one minute this was a protest against having an early face off. More likely that especially if you have multiple tickets to pay for, it's an expense you can do without, so a cheaper option is to stream it.
I will, by the way, take any "boring" 6-0 victory at this stage of the season. Bownsy was awesome.
As for 4pm face offs, not bothered. I turned up at 3pm and had no trouble parking even with the Gala. I bet that while the Steelers fans didn't like the result, they appreciated being home 2 hours earlier than normal.
For me, if the Devils run a game at 6am I will still be there.