Raiderstation

Congrats to hockey team USA!!!

That was all kinds of awesome. @Chucker is in mourning.

Great games. USA!

Willmark wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 6:47 am That was all kinds of awesome. @Chucker is in mourning.

Canada is definitely in mourning. It’s a huge deal here, and most of the US will have forgotten within a couple of days. In my town they changed the time that bars could legally serve alcohol from 9 am to 5 am that day. The Winter Olympics is still a much bigger deal for other sports that get no attention for the 4 years in between.

chucker wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 9:42 am Canada is definitely in mourning. It’s a huge deal here, and most of the US will have forgotten within a couple of days. In my town they changed the time that bars could legally serve alcohol from 9 am to 5 am that day. The Winter Olympics is still a much bigger deal for other sports that get no attention for the 4 years in between.

Hockey has been slowly, but steadily growing in the US for decades in terms of the American talent.

As far as attention? It depends. We're always going to be more concerned with Football, college football, NBA, college basket ball first but soccer is hovering around 5th. NHL not far behind.

For the forgotten aspect? Hard so stay. The Canadian team was stacked and this has been building since 2010 in Vancouver.

Willmark wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 3:21 pm Hockey has been slowly, but steadily growing in the US for decades in terms of the American talent.

As far as attention? It depends. We're always going to be more concerned with Football, college football, NBA, college basket ball first but soccer is hovering around 5th. NHL not far behind.

For the forgotten aspect? Hard so stay. The Canadian team was stacked and this has been building since 2010 in Vancouver.

So if you rank hockey at 6th in the US I'd say that most of the US forgetting it after a couple of days isn't really inaccurate - at 6th it's a fringe sport that most people don't notice. Its profile in Canada is at least as big as the profile of the NFL in the US. Even non-sports fans are invested. The NFL is "big" in Canada, yet most people couldn't tell you who won the last SB.

Hockey would be the off season NFL in the USA among NFL fans if the networks actually covered it. I would watch it if I could find it most of the time. It would help if the rules of the game were explained for most of us. I lke to watch it.... I just don't really understand what I'm watching. I would love to have an off season sport to watch and a team to root for.... as I hate basketball.

chucker wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 5:10 pm So if you rank hockey at 6th in the US I'd say that most of the US forgetting it after a couple of days isn't really inaccurate - at 6th it's a fringe sport that most people don't notice. Its profile in Canada is at least as big as the profile of the NFL in the US. Even non-sports fans are invested. The NFL is "big" in Canada, yet most people couldn't tell you who won the last SB.

Depends, hockey is a regional sport in the US. Start and the border and work south. It tends to be more popular in the northern states and less so when you go south. States like Minnesota or Maine obviously more popular.

Some states like Florida have teams sure but its a bit trickier there, no real college presence for football. Western NY where I live the lack of a major college football team means hockey is actually very big at the collegiate, AHL and NHL level.

But generally speaking?
US about 5% of the population watching the NFL at any one time.
Canada? Likewise with hockey.

That's not to say that the NHL Sun Belt expansion didn't happen and there are no players in the southern states. but what that did is it became an addition to the existing hockey areas.

Another further thought?
1960- The world had a lot more parity but the USSR was still a few years away from becoming the juggernaut they would.
1980- Miracle got in wrong "if we played them ten times the might win nine." Closer to 90-5 out of 100.
2026- No miracle at all. Its almost in coin flip territory.

46 years to rough parity and not even the US' most popular sport.

chucker wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 5:10 pm So if you rank hockey at 6th in the US I'd say that most of the US forgetting it after a couple of days isn't really inaccurate - at 6th it's a fringe sport that most people don't notice. Its profile in Canada is at least as big as the profile of the NFL in the US. Even non-sports fans are invested. The NFL is "big" in Canada, yet most people couldn't tell you who won the last SB.

Considering how rare it is for us to win gold in hockey, we probably don't forget this in a few days. Hell, it is so rare that the last time we won we made a few movies about it. I doubt this one rises to that level but it is still a big deal.

Growing up in California I was mostly only exposed to baseball, basketball and football. This is what most kids played out on the streets, backyards and local school fields. Back then, soccer was only played by Latinos on Sundays until maybe the later 1970’s when it began becoming the “4th sport” for kids.

If kids wanted to play hockey, the parents had to invest in gear and ice time at the nearest ice rink which not found in every city or town. Where I grew up there weren’t any frozen ponds or lakes to be found for 100’s of miles.

The fringe sports in Ca outside of the main 3 would be surfing and motocross in my time

Claude Osteen Motorcycle Park

chucker wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 9:42 am Canada is definitely in mourning. It’s a huge deal here, and most of the US will have forgotten within a couple of days. In my town they changed the time that bars could legally serve alcohol from 9 am to 5 am that day. The Winter Olympics is still a much bigger deal for other sports that get no attention for the 4 years in between.

It’s not to late for Canida to become the 51st state.
:olive branch:

chucker wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 5:10 pm So if you rank hockey at 6th in the US I'd say that most of the US forgetting it after a couple of days isn't really inaccurate - at 6th it's a fringe sport that most people don't notice. Its profile in Canada is at least as big as the profile of the NFL in the US. Even non-sports fans are invested. The NFL is "big" in Canada, yet most people couldn't tell you who won the last SB.

It’s really about numbers:
~ Canada 40 million
~ USA 340 million

In terms of population that matters.

USA Hockey Dudettes win gold too. When did we start a women's hockey team?