Top 5 Countries that Love hockey

[allsilverdreams]

1 .Canada -obvious
2. USA
3. Sweden
4.Finland
5. USSR or whatever there called now.
I would have ranked them higher than 5 but for some reason I don't think it's as much of a game for them during international play.

Click to read more...

 

[Kyndig]

Russia kind of enters 5th by default. I would say Sweden and Finland love hockey more than the US as well.

 

[Chainshot]

When did the US become the #2 hockey-loving nation?

 

[CatsforReinhart]

How can you quantify the love for hockey? Germans get 12,000 fans to a DEL game and some NHL teams don't get that much. I have seen 5000 fans in a small game in Switzerland when AHL teams struggle. SC Bern gets 16000 fans a game and it isn't even NHL hockey.

It is not something you can measure.

 

[CatsforReinhart]

Russia kind of enters 5th by default. I would say Sweden and Finland love hockey more than the US as well.

Along with Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Belarus, Norway...

If anyone has watched or been to games in European countries their faces are painted they are signing in the stand and it is complete unity. I would think that is much more than USA.

 

[haseoke39]

USA isn't top 5, realistically, if you polled people. It's large, wealthy, close to Canada, and spends a lot of money on professional sports. This is the country that paid David Beckham $50M a year when no one knew the MLS existed. Just because you can spend money doesnt mean you have that broad cultural love of a game.

 

[Kyndig]

Along with Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Belarus, Norway...

If anyone has watched or been to games in European countries their faces are painted they are signing in the stand and it is complete unity. I would think that is much more than USA.

Germany? Germany only has like 15,000 registered players with a population of 90 million. USA has 555,000 and unless the US has a population of 3.3 billion I'm going to have to say no. They love hockey so much they don't even play it?

Slovakia, Belarus, Norway is also a no. I'll agree with Switzerland and definitely the Czechs.

Face paint is now the sign of loving a sport? No playing it is. Also its easier to paint a damn plus sign (nordic cross whatever) or 3 stripes on your face instead of the US flag. By your accounts only Jessie Diggins loves what she does as an American.

 

[joshjull]

Its Canada and then everyone else to varying degrees.

 

[debaser66]

The Czechs should be in the top5.
And I would kindly propose to the
Topic starter to abstain from nationalistic views in here.

 

[Duddy]

Mostly the ones that are really good at it.

 

[CatsforReinhart]

Germany? Germany only has like 15,000 registered players with a population of 90 million. USA has 555,000 and unless the US has a population of 3.3 billion I'm going to have to say no. They love hockey so much they don't even play it?

Slovakia, Belarus, Norway is also a no. I'll agree with Switzerland and definitely the Czechs.

Face paint is now the sign of loving a sport? No playing it is. Also its easier to paint a damn plus sign (nordic cross whatever) or 3 stripes on your face instead of the US flag. By your accounts only Jessie Diggins loves what she does as an American.

The question was love for the game. The amount of people is not relevant to how much love one has for hockey. The opening poster did not say anything of ratio of hockey player to population = love

 

[Kyndig]

The question was love for the game. The amount of people is not relevant to how much love one has for hockey. The opening poster did not say anything of ratio of hockey player to population = love

Well Canada might not be #1 with ROR's comments.

 

[allsilverdreams]

The Czechs should be in the top5.
And I would kindly propose to the
Topic starter to abstain from nationalistic views in here.

This was not about being prejudice to any nation.
This was a show of love for the sport based on what part of the world you live in.
Sorry if anyone misunderstood my intentions. Sincere apologies

 

[Dingo44]

Are we going by percentage of the total population, number of fans, or level of devotion?
Canada wins all three, but then it all depends. I know that the people in the United States who call themselves hockey fans are BIG hockey fans - and have big chips on their shoulders about how little respect hockey gets considering how great a sport it is.

 

[Chainshot]

Hey, I am listening to Canada vs Switzerland while sitting in the outfield of a suburban Florida baseball diamond.

 

[valet]

USA is definitely in the top 5. I dunno what y'all been smoking but it is a popular sport here... we wouldn't have all of this elite take the coming from a country that didn't care about hockey

 

[sabrebuild]

Canada


Scandinavia

Russia/USA

Canada is a large, first world nation that immerses hockey in every day life, in every geographical location.

The Scandinavian countries are smaller and have one sport in every country that is more important nationally than ice hockey. Finland is probably number one because Bandy is one of their faves and that’s a hockey sub group. Sweden cares more about soccer as a nation, imo, Norway cross country skiing and handball, if w extend to the Dutch it’s soccer again and they are an ehlers away from hockey irrelevance.

Russia/USA are world powers with enormous populations that spread out the options and geographical region preferences. Both countries have multiple sports that are overall more popular than ice hockey. And it is a very regionalized sport in those two countries. Football, basketball and baseball in America, soccer, basketball and arguably tennis are bigger in Russia for the average person. Russian totals for number of players actively involved is surprisingly low for the quality of talent that comes to the nhl.

I understand that the overall euro culture of face painting and acting crazy makes the “passion” visible for their games. But that is pretty much reserved for the local pro teams. There is no concept of the local amateur teams having big attendance or spirited fans over there. So the idea that you can go to a Minnesota high school game and have 4,000 in attendance is unbelievable to them. The junior levels, the ncaa games with lunatic fans that North America provides is just non-existent there.

If I had to bet with no research done, I suspect there are more d-1, d-3 and Canadian college teams than professional teams in Europe, excluding Russia, and they have all the passionate fans that the Swiss or any other Euro country provides.

The nhl is just too expensive to get enough of the nuts in sections with season tickets.

 

[dotcommunism]

The Scandinavian countries are smaller and have one sport in every country that is more important nationally than ice hockey. Finland is probably number one because Bandy is one of their faves and that’s a hockey sub group. Sweden cares more about soccer as a nation, imo, Norway cross country skiing and handball, if w extend to the Dutch it’s soccer again and they are an ehlers away from hockey irrelevance.

Danes. Maybe you could argue to put the Dutch in with Scandinavia if Viking rule of Friesland in the 9th century had held

 

[sabrebuild]

Danes. Maybe you could argue to put the Dutch in with Scandinavia if Viking rule of Friesland in the 9th century had held

Ha your right my d’s got switched around. What is Denmark’s number 1? Handball?

 

[Moskau]

What an absolutely strange way to take a passive aggressive shot at Russia.

 

[Healthy DiPietro]

Ha your right my d’s got switched around. What is Denmark’s number 1? Handball?

Soccer without a doubt.

 

[AustonsNostrils]

I'd say the best measure is how hockey ranks versus other sports in a country. Canada is the only one where hockey is #1 by far. Finland I think would come next, from what I'm told soccer/football is ahead of hockey in Sweden. Hockey is at best 2nd to football/soccer in Russia.

The US is hard to rank because it's unfeasible in half the country to play the game, as far as watching/attending games, the NHL is 4th which is pretty damn good.

 

[RobRayzor]

I'd say the best measure is how hockey ranks versus other sports in a country. Canada is the only one where hockey is #1 by far. Finland I think would come next, from what I'm told soccer/football is ahead of hockey in Sweden. Hockey is at best 2nd to football/soccer in Russia.

Canada is not the only one where it's number one by far. (see my #2 and see below why)

I believe this is the most accurate top5 when it comes to "lovingness"
1. Canada
2. Latvia
3. Russia
4. Sweden
5. Finland

Why Latvia #2? It might be a small nation,but oh boy do they love hockey. Even more than Swedes or Finns.
It's been #1 sport for decades. (tho some might say that basketball is #1 here,it's not. It most likely is #2,but it's way way far from hockey).
Even tho the national team or local town team might be down a lot,they will still cheer (including playing drums) nonstop and will support it til the last whistle. National team has been in Elite group since 1997 and have managed to stay there every year and each year some few thousands of people go to world championships and even if they're not as many there as from Sweden or Finland they most likely will be louder than everyone.
I mean the fans outcheered hosts Danes for most of the game this year. Tho i don't have any data here with me,but same thing goes on TV ratings, no sport has come even close to hockey in last 15+ years. As a matter of fact not even non-sport events have been watched in such large % and quantities as hockey. There are even large TV screens in a lot of towns where people go and watch the world championships.

 

[Buffaloed]

I know Canadians that fake their love of hockey. When you get enough drinks in them, they come clean. They pretend to love the game so they're not shunned and stoned to death in the village square. It's Canada's Dirty Little Secret, soon to be a reality tv show with the same name.

 

[Kyndig]

Russia #3. HA