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Biggest hockey city?

OregonDucks

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Which city has the most devoted fans to hockey?
 

OregonDucks

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is there any city within the US that even is close to the passion Montreal or Toronto have?
 

OregonDucks

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not even Boston, Pittsburgh or Buffalo?
 

awaz

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there is hope though, from a ratings perspective and my day to day life, i can feel hockey growing

the probably NBA lockout, and possible NFL lockout, in the same season, would only help

IMO hockey is the best and most exciting sport to watch.. given the chance today, i dont think fans would ever turn away from it
 

Winged_Wheel88

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City? Well no one lives in Detroit, but the whole state of Michigan is quite devoted to their Wings. We're called Hockeytown for a reason.
 

awaz

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not even Boston, Pittsburgh or Buffalo?

from what i've gathered, no.. not even that close..especially montreal (recently anyway, i'm a relative youngster in here).. but i would say montreal, toronto, vancouver, and calgary are all better than every US city in terms of hockey fan-dom.. IMO

surprisingly enough (to me anyway) buffalo might be the best pure (*US*) hockey city in the NHL, they are almost always 3rd in ratings for the playoffs behind the two teams playing in the games

pittsburgh has a good many loyal fans, but a large portion of their fanbase (for the steelers and pirates also) are bandwagoners.. and before pitt fans get pissed at that comment, take a step back.. there are a lot of passionate and knowledgeable fans, but please realize how many people pay very little attention to the teams until they are good.. the whole, literally all of it, city jumps on the bandwagon when a team is close to the championship (which is actually somewhat cool i suppose)

boston is solid.. this year the stanley cup beat out ratings for the lakers/celts final last year for at least one of the games, which is awesome

detroit and philly deserve mention also in terms of best US hockey cities.. minneapolis might be up there too if the wild could put together a better product.. minnesota doesn't mess around when it comes to hockey
 
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OregonDucks

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there is hope though, from a ratings perspective and my day to day life, i can feel hockey growing

the probably NBA lockout, and possible NFL lockout, in the same season, would only help

IMO hockey is the best and most exciting sport to watch.. given the chance today, i dont think fans would ever turn away from it

Agreed. the impending lockouts will really boost NHL and hockey as a whole. Especially with the Olympic games a few years ago, and the exciting playoffs that was just covered it sets up nicely for hockey to make a big splash this upcoming season. It is a very exciting sport to watch and I feel like it is the only pro sport that resembles the pageantry and passion of college sports. And all of the off the ice drama that is created is fun to follow and makes the games even more exciting because it is such a physical game.
 

mattola

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phoenix. it shocks me that they are even thinking of moving that team. so much support
 

forty_three

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City? Well no one lives in Detroit, but the whole state of Michigan is quite devoted to their Wings. We're called Hockeytown for a reason.

Yep. Marketing people. :D
 

BlueandWhiteForever

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Buffalo gets pretty damn close, but the passion level in a Canadian market is second to none.
 

awaz

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Agreed. the impending lockouts will really boost NHL and hockey as a whole. Especially with the Olympic games a few years ago, and the exciting playoffs that was just covered it sets up nicely for hockey to make a big splash this upcoming season. It is a very exciting sport to watch and I feel like it is the only pro sport that resembles the pageantry and passion of college sports. And all of the off the ice drama that is created is fun to follow and makes the games even more exciting because it is such a physical game.

exactly.. and i think the country is tired of the selfish athletes that populate the NBA and NFL.. all they care about is money and their own stats and popularity.. obviously there's a few exceptions, but for the most part they are thugs that want all the money and individual glory they can get

in hockey it's not uncommon for players to take hometown discounts to stay with a team or to try to win a championship.. i think there's probably at least 2 or 3 guys on every team (competitive ones at least) that have taken less money to be on the team they're on
 

mattola

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honestly how do you measure this? by jersey sales? by sellouts? by population?

if you want to go by passion alone Montreal would probably be #1 if it was 1970 through 1989. but of these days its really tough. take away montreal and toronto and do you see as many opposite fans in OTHER teams arenas in the last 2 years than the Canucks? doesnt mean we have the best fan base but we got a fucking big one.

if you go on passion of fan to fan that is impossible to measure. Im sure I think Im a bigger fan than beantown or jeff or auto and they reverse.

what I want to see in this NHL is just strong LONG term fan bases in EVERY market big or small. Buffalo survives on a small market LOVE of their team and it works.
 

OregonDucks

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I remember watching the 30 for 30 with Gretzky and how small Edmonton market was but that entire city rallied together for hockey. but I wikipedia Edmonton and its a freakin huge city. Has it just grown that much since Wayne's days? Or was it always that big of a city and I just misheard the # when given on 30 for 30.

Anyways, I love the passion hockey fans have for their team and the passion hockey players have for their team and the respect hockey players how to the sport. You don't see that respect for the game in the NBA or NFL.
 

ELYEAH82

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City? Well no one lives in Detroit, but the whole state of Michigan is quite devoted to their Wings. We're called Hockeytown for a reason.

And the Cowboys are America's team for a reason...A marketing ploy...
 

elocomotive

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exactly.. and i think the country is tired of the selfish athletes that populate the NBA and NFL.. all they care about is money and their own stats and popularity.. obviously there's a few exceptions, but for the most part they are thugs that want all the money and individual glory they can get

Hockey will never be as popular as either of those sports though. Or baseball for that matter. It's good it's doing better, but Americans largely enjoy those sports more and watch them more because they grow up playing them while few grow up playing hockey.

Saying they are "for the most part" thugs is a bit extreme, no?
 

elocomotive

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To answer the original question, if you're talking per capita love and support for hockey I think it's easily Buffalo at #1 and then Detroit at #2. And it's not a coincidence both are a couple minutes from Canada.
 
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