Best: Montreal. meh, not a bad choice I suppose

Worst: New Jersey Devils......LAWL!!! Hilariously accurate

Flyers ranked 6th. WOOHOOO!

Pens ranked....14th. HA SUCK IT YA BUNCH OF BANDWAGONEERS!

Read for yourself.

30-21:
http://mvn.com/nhl-wild/2008/08/22/the-bes...nhl-30-thru-21/

20-11
http://mvn.com/nhl-wild/2008/08/24/the-bes...nhl-20-thru-11/

Top 10:
http://mvn.com/nhl-wild/2008/08/27/the-bes...nhl-the-top-10/

keep in mind this was just done by some blogger in Minnesota, but it seems pretty well researched, plus it made the front page of Yahoo Sports.

Interesting read. It is impossible to rank the best fans in the NHL though, and there are a few problems I have with the article, like the Wild being number four. The Wild should at least be number two, IMO.

I can't agree with him about the ease of getting to Devils games using the rail system. I'm from North Jersey and went to one of last year's Flyers/Devils games during the week and it took me just as long to get home on the train than it did if I would have driven from Philly.

I know the Meadowlands is pretty lousy, but I prefer it to their current setup. In a perfect world they would have the new arena there. I like the Prudential Center but at the Meadowlands you don't have to worry about the neighborhood.

My brother is a Devils fan and I would go to games with him for whoever was playing, we could buy the $20 seats in the corners and walk around the top to center ice and nobody bothered us. Oh well.

Interesting. I loved this line:


That sums them up perfectly.

6th ranking, i'll take it. We should be number 1 though.

Yea well i guess losing a franchsie once, makes them great fans. Pfffffff.

i disagree with number 2.

detriot doesnt have the same fan base it did a couple of years ago.

i remember watching some finals games and there were empty seats every where, though they won the cup this year it will be interesting to see how there fans react this year

I don't believe that Detroit has the second best attendance in the NHL.

How the **** are the Wild 4th?

I would have thought the Wild and Flyers would be a little higher. i think we were handicapped by the Eagles.

"Online, the Philadelphia Flyers have a following equally as boisterous as the fans at the game; always looking to agitate and immensely proud of their team."

And did anyone else notice the name Luke DeCock?

Lol....whose Philly and Philly#2

Detroit #2? What a joke. They deserve to be at the bottom of the league. They were far and away the best team in the league last year and they couldn't even sell out Western Conference Finals games. THAT is sad.

I agree it really isn't that easy to get there by train. I am surprised you worry about the neighborhood being from North Jersey. Being from North Jersey myself I know Newark pretty well and know that it really isn't that bad of an area around the Prudential Center. Still, they have no excuse not to have pretty good attendance.

I agree the Wild should be higher than the Wings.

Rangers 7th, should be higher than Detroit... the Garden was full during 7 season playoffs drought..the Red Wings have been the superpower for 15 years and they can't even sellout playoff games.

+1.

6th? 6th? Rubbish.

flyers and wild should be higher, detroit isn't nearly what it was a few years ago.

i love that the retarted penguins are 14th.

question....there is no way that the wings were #2 in attendance last year, because i remember that they were filling like half the building until like mid season last year...so hows that possible?

Also surprised to see the Canucks that high up, as well.

I agree with a lot of you saying the Wild should be higher. The fans are great up there.

Everybody always whines and cries when people make things like this up. Read the comments there and a few here.

The Nucks have a 5 year waiting list for season tickets and their team stinks.

detroit should be lower
should be monreal toronto the top 2

Ironic.

Surprised to see Atlanta fans were not last.

They were probably celebrating when they saw that. #26...YES!

Pens fourteenth makes up for the fact that we are 6th. I wanna hear the Pens fans talk their way out of this and try and say that their fan base isn't a bunch of bandwagoners.

Hard to take much out of this IMO. For example... attendance. Some arenas hold 20,000 some only 16,000 - the author doesn't mention if he prorated the size of the arena, etc. He doesn't mention where he specifically looked for his online statistics, etc. and he doesn't mention if they actually were in attendance at games or made their determination via TV coverage and also how many games they observed to make their determination on.

Let's face it - fans aren't going to as "up" watching their team play Atlanta as they would be for say Detroit or Anaheim. Anyone ever notice the empty seats in the arena when watching a Sabre or Red Wings game. His reference to Calgary's "red mile" was a one year wonder and that was 4 years ago yet he gives it alot of weight in the analysis. The only way Canuck fans would rank that high is you are giving out points for rude and obnoxious.

Sorry but these rankings are generally a load of crap IMO.

That's because the economy in that area is in shambles. They still have some great fans and I have to admit they did a good thing for the city.

LOL some of these comments are so jks, sooo much arguing

lol granted this is just some guys blog, but i still think us and the wild should be way higher. the comments on the page are hilarious though.... my personal favorite- "philly fans are sports fans...detroit fans are hockey fans.." lol wtf. yea cuz i love the flyers so much just because i'm a sports fan give me a break. if that were true i'd watch the sixers lol


PS: PENGUINS ARE #14 makes me happy lol

Does anyone really watch the Sixers, I did when I was younger and they just got AI but now Basketball is just boring to watch on TV to me.

I find the comments hilarious of the bandwagon Pens fans that say they should be higher because they sold out this season, where were they in the years past? lol

Pens "fans" before 2005: "The 'Penguins'? Are you asking if you want to go the zoo?"

Pens fans well most are a buncha clueless bandwagoners!

Canadiens fans ranked #1? lol, what I find stupid is why they singing a soccer song to a hockey game WTF!

It's because they've won all those cups in the past, plus if you've watched a regular season game there its incredibly loud. They sell out every game so that may have a little to do with it aswell.

Iguodala made me watch the Sixers games because of this dunks alone. Very exciting player to watch.

Now with Brand, they honestly can fight it out with Boston in the Eastern Conference Championship.

there french canadians

there still good, loyal fans

Hmmm... Philly has certainly gotten better, but you have to consider both Cleveland and Orlando. Lebron is a force unto himself, I hope he never gets the little bit of help he needs to break through. Orlando scares me, Howard is a beast and the rest of the team is pretty good too.

Now, back to hockey.

It's common knowledge edmonton fans rep their team harder than anyone and god forbid you through etown with an out of town jersey on.,

ah, the ever elusive triple post. Only a true noob would accomplish such a feat

Out of 30, 14 isn't bad. It is funny how seriously some people are taking one man's opinion. I don't have the will to have a debate over one article based upon something that is extremely difficult to gauge.

SUCK THAT YOU 'YOTES!!!!!!

Sorry about the caps but one of my best buds has a liking for the Coyotes and I've grown to hate 'em over the years! He's also one of those Gretzky lovers and oh my, I can't even tell you how much I hate "The Great One' now! So me and him were having this friendly debate about who should be ranked higher, Phillie or Phoenix. He said the Coyotes should be ranked 21 and I sid that the Flyers should be ranked 7th. We were debating for a good hour and my friend didn't convince me one bit! I cannot wait to shove this one in his face!



Duh, the team has already been forgotten! Everyone on this planet except the two Coyote fans know that!

And this despite selling out for 11 straight seasons (1996-2007). There's a reason why the wings can't sell-out since and that is economy.

Despite being a wings fan (I also like the flyers), I still thing that the LEAFS fans should be ahead of them but yeah, the devils fans deserve to be the worst fans in hockey; 10 years playoffs appearances, 3 Stanley Cups and still draw an average of 12 000 seats per game.

for some reason, mvn.com is blocked at my work... anyone mind copying and pasting the list? or at least the top 10?

That link doesn't seem to work anymore.

do you remember where sj was ranked? just curious...

Montreal fans #1? We're talking about the people that boo'ed the National Anthem in the playoffs last year. They may be loud but Canadien fans are classless and arrogant. You can't check one of their players to the ice without a large BOO thinking there should be a penalty on everything. I have Center Ice and watch games from every arena and nobody acts as bad as they do.

I don't. I'm sorry. I'm sure SJ fans were high up there, though. They've got an awesome fan base.

That doesn't make them bad fans..



And we throw smoke bombs on the ice and boo Vice Presidential Nominees. Classy. Every fan base has their shortcomings now and then.



This doesn't make them bad fans either. Every team's fan base does that to some degree. There must be 10 people within ear shot in my section that whine and cry for calls on the other team over situations that are definatly not deserving of penalties.

Habs fans are just louder than most (if not all) about it, which is another reason they were ranked #1, obviously..

While Philly may have the most "intimidating", the Habs definatly top everyone in terms of "best overall." They're nuts about their team. Not to say Flyers fans aren't, but they're really nuts about their team. Hate them as much as you want, but it's true. One thing on my bucketlist - attend a Habs game in Montreal.

I have to agree with erdrick, I was very surprised to hear the amount of boos for wanting calls on hits on their player etc, but you cannot take away the fact that, yes, they are very passionate about their team.

And to attend a Montreal home game is definitely on my list as well. The hostel I am going to in Montreal has tickets to every regular season home game and Playoffs, so I'm taking advantage of that as I would love to experience a Playoff game. Naturally, the Flyers obviously come first though, but tickets are so hard to come by when Playoffs roll round.