5 Biggest and Most Devoted Hockey Fan Bases in North America

This guest post comes from www.honesthockey.com

You probably already know that hockey fanatics are pretty die-hard. When the game’s really going, so are the fans, and there’s nothing that’s going to step in between them (except for an opposing team).

But what are the most devoted hockey fan bases in North America? Sure, most of them will get rowdy when their team loses (or wins) but which hockey teams have the most religiously devoted fan bases? That’s what we’re going to outline in this article.

The Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago senatorswon the big victory three times- in 2009-1, 2012-13, and the 2014-15 seasons. That’s three times that they claimed the Stanley Cup in just 5 years, which is absolutely unbelievable.

One of the results of claiming the Stanley Cup so often is a huge fan base. The Blackhawks have been able to fill out arenas anywhere they play, they’ve been selling insane amounts of jerseys, and the internet has been abuzz with fans talking about the team.

Just last year, 4 of their players made the NHL All-Star Game. This is only going to make them more popular!

Chicago Blackhawks has its own fan store for the most dedicated fans, where they sell hats, signed wheeled hockey bags, autographed hockey helmets and other apparel.

The Pittsburgh Penguins

This team has been around since 1967, when it constituted a part of the NHL’s original expansion. The NHL was originally only 6 teams, but it expanded to 12 in this year, with the Penguins emerging as a result of this evolution.

They recently won the Stanley Cup in the 2015-16 season, which sent them soaring to the top of the rankings for fan dedication. The Penguins are able to fill arenas with nearly as much ease as the Blackhawks.

The Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruinsare the oldest U.S. Hockey team, which is impressive on its own, and they’re also the 3rd oldest in the entire NHL. They’re the third most popular team with their fans being almost as loyal as those who prefer the Penguins on the Blackhawks.

Over the years, they’ve won the Cup 6 times. Their most recent win was in the 2010-11 season. After that, they were able to take part in the conference championship for the 2012-13 season, but they weren’t lucky enough to win the Cup that time.

Detroit Red Wings

Detroit’s Red Wings, which are my favourite team (only because my first introduction to hockey was from a school teacher who preferred the Red Wings) are also the 4th most popular hockey team in North America.

There are more people following the Red Wings on Twitter and Facebook than there are the Penguins, but they don’t have the same Facebook following as any of the previously mentioned teams. They have an average win percentage of 0.61 and their average arena occupancy is 1.014, which is more than the Bruins.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Being as they’re from the biggest and most populous city in Canada, it makes sense that the Maple Leafs(despite the difficult use of the word Leafs) are the most popular team in Canada and, thus, one of the most popular in North America.

With an average win percentage of 0.49 and an average arena occupancy of 1.027, the Leafs blow away the amount of people who show up at their games in Canada. However, they’re not as frequently victorious as the Senators or the Flames.

In conclusion

The NHL has a lot of teams playing with it now, and all of these teams have their own fan bases. On one end, you have new emerging teams that don’t have a lot of fans yet. On the other hand, you have teams like the Blackhawks and the Bruins who have people bending over backwards to get a spot at one of their games.The sports industry will continue to grow in terms of fan bases.

Robert Morris Head Coach Derek Schooley Shares Two Practice Drills with IceHockeyDrills.Info

Now that the new season is about to start I wanted to share two drills that Robert Morris Head Coach Derek Schooley shared with me. As with all drills, these should be run at a high tempo to ensure players are practicing at game speed. Both are full ice drills that run from both sides simultaneously.

Support 3 on 0 with Point Shot

St Paul 3-Shot

RMU Head Coach @DerekSchooley Shares His Game Day Bench Card

Now that the new season is rapidly approaching, I thought it was a good time to share the game day bench card that Robert Morris head coach Derek Schooley shared with me. Each of us has their own way to track things on the bench during a game. Coach Schooley’s card has a nicely organized way to quickly see who you want to put on the ice in different situations. I would suggest printing this on some type of heavy stock so you can write on it easily. I hope this helps organize your bench experience.

RMU-Game_Card (Word Doc)

RMU-Game_Card (PDF)

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What I Now Know For Sure

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via What I Now Know For Sure.

Team Canada 2v0 / 2v1

I really like this drill a lot. It incorporates a number of aspects of play in just one drill. The drill starts with a reverse pass between the D and then a quick outlet pass. That part then moves down the ice, while a 2v1 begins in the opposite direction. The play down the other end has a shot on goal, a quick transition to a low to high pass, with the forward getting into a good screening position, for a point shot.

Be sure everyone is working at a high tempo and that all passes are hard tape-to-tape.

Team Canada 2v0-2v1

Wednesday Drill of the Week: 2v1 to 4v2

ScoreBig.com Preview

I’ve stumbled upon a new site that will probably benefit a lot of you hockey fans. The season is all but over, but this lead should help everyone out as we look forward to the new season in the distance.

I have a 7 year-old son and a 3 year-old girl. I love to take them to as many events as I can. It gets us out of the house and creates memories that last for a while. If your child is into hockey, taking them to any sort of professional game, be it NHL, ECHL, AHL, NCAA, etc, is a great way to help them find something to work on.

Going to these games can be expensive at face value. I usually find some tickets from season ticket holders that I personally know and or StubHub.com. However, I got an e-mail from ScoreBig.com this week asking me to try out their service. So far it looks very promising. I can’t wait to check it out. I’ll keep you posted. If you have any questions about the service, check out the website and post a comment!

Coach Bennett and Union Win NCAA National Championship

Just want to congratulate Coach Bennett and his Union Dutchmen on their national championship success. Coach Bennett has helped me and my team with defensive zone coverage and skills and we won a championship. Obviously his techniques are pretty solid, helping him guide his team to their first national title. Our site has had input from a few of the coaches who took their teams to the Frozen Four tournament and we want to thank all of them for their willingness to help other coaches, while at the same time guiding their teams to great success. Once again, congratulations to Coach Bennett from my Jr Flyers team and all the coaches who use this site, we appreciate how special your accomplishment was today.

Contributing D1 Coaches Win Conference Championships

I just wanted to offer a quick note of congratulations to two head coaches who contribute content to our site for winning their conference championships over the weekend.
First up is Derek Schooley (@DerekSchooley) for Robert Morris University. RMU scored five goals in the third period to take down Canisius 7-4 in the Atlantic Hockey final. Next is Mike Eaves and his Wisconsin Badgers (@BadgerMHockey). Trailing 4-2 to OSU with under seven minutes to play the Badgers scored two goals in 28 seconds to tie the score at four. In OT, the Badgers scored the winning goal at the 7:48 mark to take the Big Ten championship. Great job by both coaches getting their teams to the final game and winning the championship. To both men, thanks for your continued support of our site and congratulations on your teams conference championship.

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Need a Little Help Recruiting From My Coaching Friends

It’s that time of year when I have to start recruiting players for next years team. It’s a time consuming job watching other teams play so I can scout the players on their teams. I thought that I would send out this simple request and see if any of you know players in my area that I should be looking at. I coach in the Philadelphia, PA area for the Jr. Flyers organization. My team is the U16 National, so I am looking for players with birth years of 1998 or 1999 for the upcoming season. If you have a player on your team, or know of a player on another team  that is interested in playing high level AAA hockey for a successful club please let me know. Our team plays in two leagues. The Atlantic Youth League and the Tier I Elite League in the Northeast and Mid-West regions. We get a good amount of exposure to college recruiters as well as NAHL scouts looking to build their pipeline. Each year between five and seven players from our youth and Junior programs get tender offers in the NAHL or go off to play in College hockey programs. The director of our hockey program is a local USHL scout as well. Give it some thought and if you know anyone please send me an email with whatever information you may have or just give them my email address and have them contact me directly.  If you follow me on Twitter please retweet this to your followers so I can get more eyes on it. If I can pull in just one player that I may not be aware of right now that would be excellent. Thanks everyone for considering my request.

If you would like information about our program click this link or the logo below.

Bob Nielsen

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