The NHL breeds die-hard, wild fans that could talk your ear off with hockey trivia — but there’s always room for more passion.
The excitement and hype surrounding Winter Olympic hockey — highlighted by moments like T.J. Oshie’s legendary shootout for Team USA or Marie-Philip Poulin’s overtime goal to win gold for Team Canada — likely earned the sport many new fans. But if you don’t yet know where to place your allegiances within the hallowed rinks of the NHL, look no further.
Online ticket broker TicketCity used a variety of metrics to determine the NHL’s most engaged fan bases.
See also: College Football's 25 Most Engaged Fan Bases
The rankings look at a teams' average home attendance, average ticket price, Facebook presence (including likes and how often the team is talked about), Twitter following and, lastly, average monthly Google searches for team-based keywords. Each metric is given a different weight depending on whether or not its a better reflection of home team behavior, so home attendance and home ticket price are worth more in terms of rankings.
Canada’s sweethearts, the Toronto Maple Leafs, are no surprise at number one overall, according to TicketCity. That's despite ranking below the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks when looking at Facebook fans only. Meanwhile, despite some out-there attempts to get people to buy tickets, the Florida Panthers are last on the overall list.
You can check out TicketCity’s full rankings here but if you just want the overall countdown, here you go:
1. Toronto Maple Leafs
2. Boston Bruins
3. Chicago Blackhawks
4. Pittsburgh Penguins
5. Detroit Red Wings
6. Montreal Canadiens
7. Vancouver Canucks
8. New York Rangers
9. Philadelphia Flyers
10. Los Angeles Kings
11. Winnipeg Jets
12. San Jose Sharks
13. Edmonton Oilers
14. Washington Capitals
15. Colorado Avalanche
16. Buffalo Sabres
17. St. Louis Blues
18. Minnesota Wild
19. New Jersey Devils
20. Calgary Flames
21. Anaheim Ducks
22. Dallas Stars
23. Tampa Bay Lightning
24. Ottawa Senators
25. Nashville Predators
26. Phoenix Coyotes
27. Carolina Hurricanes
28. Columbus Blue Jackets
29. Florida Panthers
30. New York Islanders
Where does your team end up? Are you in the middle of the pack despite holding the record for selling out games from 1995 to 2006 like the Colorado Avalanche? Or do you follow the cheeky Twitter account of the Los Angeles Kings?
Let us know in the comments.