Yea Hagelin. Fuck the Rangers.
I kid, I kid.
(o)(o)
Bummer for Pacioretty, though.
but the habs are my #2 team behind the wings. i traded my jr. wings jersey for a canadiens jersey umpteen years ago at a silver stick tournament in toronto i loved them that much. oh well, go hagelin, go blue.
Same here. I'm happy for Hagelin, but really wanted to see the Habs win it all this year.
Not from NY but good thing for like 30% of UM alums. Overall I'm excited to have two huge markets in the Stanley Cup. It's great for the NHL in general.
More hockey fans in Montreal than New York City, I guarantee you that
If 1 in 5 people in New York are hockey fans (which I think they will be with the Rangers in the finals) that can't possibly be true.
Except that hockey is 6th in popularity at 5%, per a Dec 2013 Harris Poll. Suddenly it's going to jump to 20% in NY just because the Rangers are in the Finals?
In the New York area I wouldn't be shocked if the amount of new Rangers fans increases by 15% during the finals.
Its the very nature of bandwagon fans. Have you not had a local team that was not good for a long time turn it around and gain in popularity?
I'm from the metro Detroit area and for a long time only the Red Wings were good. In a marketing ploy the named the town Hockeytown. The popularity of the Red Wings dwarfed every other major sport in town.
Then the Pistons won the NBA championship and people were saying we should change the name to Basketballtown.
Then the Tigers made the world series and we should change the name to Baseballtown.
I wouldn't be shocked either, as an increase of 15% would be 0.75%, resulting in 5.75%.
Color me skeptical about an increase of 300%.
Semantics! Hooray!
And do you really believe that only 5% of current New Yorkers are Rangers fans?
Your own link ask's "If you had to pick one, what is your favorite sport"? Which gives the output of 5% of surveyed North Americaners. One would only assume that this % would be larger in markets with teams (such as New York) and larger still in markets with teams that have had some recent success (such as the Rangers who have been in the playoffs and competitive the last few years. This doesn't even consider that sometimes people like more than one sport.
If someone asked me what league was my favorite I would say the NFL but I am also a fan of hockey.
You could logically conclude that if people were allowed to pick 2 sports the amount that followed hockey would go to 10%.
You are also assuming that everyone in Montreal is a hockey fan. Based on your own pole (which surveryed North Americans not just Americans) we have to conclude that they aren't right? Just 5%?
More like math. And the survey was of people living in the US.
OK, if you go by this Siena (College) Research Institute poll, then 13% of NYers follow hockey (that doesn't distinguish by team).
I'm not assuming anything about Montreal, just going by your % of NYers that are hockey fans that would exceed the total population of Montreal assumption (or at least that's what I assume your "If 1 in 5 people in New York are hockey fans" comment meant).
So will NYC viewing of the finals increase by 54%?
No it was semantics. Because instead of just saying "yeah he said that wrong but I know what he meant, here is my counterpoint" you said "omg he said that wrong I'm all over it!".
My comment was in response to "there are more hockey fans in Montreal than in New York". Based strictly on population that is extremely unlikely and indicated that even if 100% of Montreal residents were fans of hockey (which they aren't, according to the following hockey opinion poll only about 15% of Montreal residents consider themselves huge hockey fans and only 64% of Canadians overall have an interest with 10% disliking hockey: http://www.environicsinstitute.org/uploads/institute-projects/environic…) that it would only take 20% of New Yorkers to have a higher number of fans.
I don't believe that it is unreasonable that during the Stanley Cup finals 1 in 5 New Yorkers will claim to be a Rangers fan. Its called bandwagoners. An increase in 50% of the people who will "follow" the team or turn on the games between the regular season and the Stanley Cup final is again not unreasonable.
This isn't meant to be a critique of the passion or die-hard level of the fans of Montreal. If anything its a critique of the bandwagon fans in the major markets. I'm simply stating that the shear magnitude in the population differences make it unlikely that there are more fans in Montreal than New York.
The Montreal metro has almost 4MM people, probably 90%+ of which would list the Canadiens as their favorite sports team. I doubt 4 million people in NYC would do the same for the Rangers. Perhaps they could be as popular, but Montreal has a huuuuge following.
Population
Montreal: 1,649,519
New York: 8,405,837
Montreal Metro: 3,824,211
New York Metro: 19,900,000
Lets use the metro numbers and assume 90% of Montreal will follow the team (and lets keep in mind we are talking about who will follow them in the finals not throughout the regular season).
Montreal would have about 3.5 million people. Which means if 17.3% of New Yorks population follows them during the finals that is more people than Montreal.
I'm not saying New York has more passionate fans or is even a bigger hockey city cause it isn't. And if anything if we are talking about what is better for the NHL it is better for a non-hockey city with a significantly larger population to be in the finals that a hockey city to be in the finals. If everyone in Montreal is a fan and follows the Habs the NHL doesn't gain by the Habs being in the finals.
By the very nature of bandwagon fans New York making the finals will cause a surge in popularity for the NHL. This surge, even if they only retain 25% of it going into the NHL season will be better for the NHL than trying to capture the 10% of Montreal fans who aren't currently following the Habs.
the thing A LOT of you are forgetting/don't know is that there is a HUGE contingent of Habs fans in Ontario. I know you are looking strictly at the two cities but I can damn well guarantee you there are more Montreal fans living in Ontario than there are Rangers fans living in Pennsylvania, or Massachusetts.
The West looks much stronger. I'm hoping the Kings make it since I don't like Chicago teams.
Rangers can fly and if the goalie plays like he has all year then they have a chance against anybody
They will have a chance and could win due to the extra rest but the team from the west will be favored no matter who it is.
NY hasn't really played a complete team yet in the playoffs and they have still played 20 games in 3 rounds.
Flyers - Went in slight favorites and won in game 7 depite Philadelphia playing 3 games with their back-up goalie.
Pens - Talented and a good regular season team but there is a blueprint against them. Stop Malkin or Crosby and they don't have enough firepower or a strong enough defense to make up for the glaring hole they have between the pipes.
Montreal - Went to 6 even though Price was out for the majority of the series. Don't get me wrong Tokarski played well and has a bright future but anyone who tells you they would rather have him in net in those situations is lying or crazy.
Compare that to the Kings would will have play SJ, Anaheim and Chicago and its not even close.
Chicago does pretty well with STL and LAK even if the 2nd round Minnesota match-up was basically a gimmie
F*** the Kings and their piece of shit gm... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2010/01/dean-lombardi-jack-johnson-kings-michigan-hockey-.html
I was very impressed with Tokarski, from the AHL to the Eastern Conference Finals and he really stepped up, made it a series.
I loved watching every game just because of the number of times Patch and Hagelin's names were called. They were both key players for their respective clubs and Patch appeared to be the Canadiens best offensive player at many times.
Also loved seeing that Hagelin is just as deadly on the PK as he was at Yost. Everytime he got the puck shorthanded he nearly got himself a breakway because he's just so flippin fast. Go Rangers/Hagelin
That was a great series with the Habs. Not a big fan of either squad coming out of the west, so I'll be rooting for NY. I don't see a blowout either, Rangers can hang with either team.
The Kings should be wary of Rangers' headshots and goalie crashes. Quick better keep his head up
bullshit.
Actually Rangers need Chicago to win tonight and take it to 7 games for the rest. Also think that Rangers would match up better to Hawks then Kings. I am a Blackhaks fan watching closely year round and the Kings are just a 4 line beast-very physichal. Quick is also the 2nd best goalie behind Lundquist.
GAME 7-Stunned Blackhawks pulled that out. Freaking Patrick Kane!