Hockey in Minnesota

[GreatStateofHockey]

I know that High School and College Hockey is big here, but how about the Wild?

I've been in Minneapolis for the past few days, and I haven't really heard much about hockey. Does it get bigger during the winter, or is it always second fiddle to the U?

[tomgilbertfan]

Well right now the Sports news is going to be dominated by Vikings stadium talk.

[Minnesota]

Playoffs would probably help the Wild's popularity quite a bit.

[Victorious Secret]

Originally Posted by TheZibanejad

I know that High School and College Hockey is big here, but how about the Wild?

I've been in Minneapolis for the past few days, and I haven't really heard much about hockey. Does it get bigger during the winter, or is it always second fiddle to the U?

The Wild aren't second fiddle. At times they seem like 1B, but considering how many college hockey teams are in Minnesota, the Wild can't be second fiddle.

[NHL1674]

Well, the Wild only played hockey from October through mid-December, so..........that might have had something to do with it.

[GopherState]

FAQ #4 - there's a thread on this too which used to be stickied before being rolled into the FAQ section.

For the most part, Minnesotans are Minnesota hockey fans and sadly a lot of NHL coverage goes that way (i.e. FSN never discusses the rest of the NHL unless needed to pump up a "rivalry" and there are a lot of fans who are fine with that). It sort of makes the Twin Cities an odd hockey market that way because a lot of it is self-contained.

[OpRedDawn]

Well regarding covering other hockey markets, i think most of the NHL is guilty of that. They're so worried about delivering "awesome" stories to the home market and saying how good they are, that they don't/can't/won't cover anything else. That, and the lack of a real talk shows about hockey for americans, is why the NHL has the most "bubble" fans in the league. That is to say, the fans live in a bubble (their team) and know little about the rest of the league.

[this providence]

The reason why you're not seeing much hockey talk is because as a whole, this state isn't really interested in the NHL beyond what they have in state. The majority of hockey fans you will run into will have a hard time discussing other teams in the NHL but could easily discuss other teams in the WCHA and even the high school level. And like has been mentioned, hard to find a lot of interest around town given how the Wild's season played out. It's an interesting dynamic and if you're not used to it I could see how some could be taken back. Especially if they heard about this being a great hockey state.