just who is watching?

Half way through the NHL season, and the race for Phil Kessel is on. From watching a few USA games at the world juniors, I haven't seen too much from the kid that solidifies number 1 draft pick status, but he is still filling out and should make a nice line partner with Rick Nash. It would be nice for him to go to Columbus.

So, lets see how the new NHL is doing. Today, we check on you, the fans. Some idiosyncrasies that have been found by checking the files. Attendence notes. I'll do them in the form of percentages because stadium capacities vary.

Home
Top 5
1. Calgary 112.4%
2. Ottawa 105.3%
3. Tampa Bay 104.6%
4. Toronto 103.1%
5. Minnesota 102.9%

Bottom 5
26. Carolina 77.5%
27. St. Louis 74.0%
28. New Jersey 72.5%
29. Chicago 71.6%
30. Washington 68.7%

Notes: Vancouver, Philadelphia, Detroit, Montreal and Colorado also have 100% capacity so far.

Road
Top 5
1. Vancouver 100.7%
2. Detroit 97.8%
3. Philadelphia 96.4%
3. Colorado 96.4%
5. Montreal 96.3%

Bottom 5
26. Nashville 86.7%
27. Columbus 86.5%
28. Washington 85.6%
29. Atlanta 85.1%
30. Tampa Bay 80.1%

Notes: Umm... yeah. So the defending Stanley Cup champions are the worst draw in hockey, by a fair margin? Maybe the NHL needs to keep running those 'My NHL' ads during hockey games, and only during games. In fact, I don't think I've seen a 'My NHL' ad that has not been either on a sports network or during the game. Perhaps I should to follow the NHL policy and officially promote my blog, on my blog. I'll use numbers to pad my stats like when people are reading my blog, 100% of them are reading my blog and 50% of them are my mom (Hello Amma, I'm still alive).

While I'm off on this, it's stupid like that whole thing about fans not leaving the stands during the shootouts. Well, duh. Getting them to not leave their seats should not be their problem, getting them into those seats should be. And when the defending champions are not enough to draw fans into the seats, well. Arg, my anger is akin to hunger anger. In fact, I probably do need to eat (Don't worry Amma, I'm eating well). Lets just move on

Overall
Top 5
1. Calgary 103.0%
2. Vancouver 100.9%
3. Detroit 99.0%
4. Philadelphia 98.7%
5. Ottawa 98.2%
5. Colorado 98.2%

Bottom 5
26. Atlanta 83.6%
27. New Jersey 82.5%
28. Chicago 81.4%
29. St. Louis 80.8%
30. Washington 76.9%

Notes: Washington might have the most exciting player this year on their team and very few people go to see him. I saw him do an interview on TSN last night between periods and he's not so eloquent with his english (perhaps slighty more so than myself) and yet looking at him I can't help but feel that he needs to be traded to a new city. In fact, they should trade the Manitoba Moose for the Washington Capitals.

Overall Notes: If I were to ask you which teams get a better draw on the road than at home you'd probably guess quite easily. Washington qualifies because no-one goes, but there are 12 (!) others who also draw better (percentage wise) on the road than they do at home. Almost half the league is a better draw on the road, which goes to show that those who watch, watch a lot. My NHL, best ad campaign ever.

Anyways, the answer(s) would be Boston, Phoenix, Buffalo, New Jersey, Carolina, Anaheim, NY Islanders, Chicago, St. Louis, Florida, Nashville, Washington, Atlanta all draw better on the road than they do at home.