To give the Americans an idea of how much Hockey effects Canada
 

Not sure if you have seen this ad, but for 2 months on most EVERY Canadian TV channel you can't go 5 mins without seeing this commercial.

I'm not a hockey guy. I'll probably watch 5 full hockey games in my life. Tonight was one of them. This event is engraved into our culture. This was home town advantage.

Tonight's game seriously sent my entire town, actually country into depression. Everyone I know hockey fan or not is distraught. You can actually feel the mood here. It's sad.



rub it in.... it's not just a game here.....

Just have some poutine and a molson, it will make you feel better.

the percentage of the population of Canada that watched that game tonight was higher - substantially higher - then the percentage of the US population that watches the Superbowl.

literally 1 in 2 of Canadians watched that game tonight.


it got way more people than the stanley cup - it's topped at about 9 mill from what I know - and not all canadian...

this may have been the most watched sporting event - if not ANY EVENT - in Canadian television history

FAIL!

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

you a night person eh?

You cant change what has been done.

But however, you can have some poutine and a molson.

not much of a poutine guy.... more of a fish lover.

i really only like beer on a hot day after working outside or when fishing... i drink but it doesn't happen often and i've never really drank for a depressing reason that i can remember.

but the thought is good.

if Canada makes it back to the final... the tv ratings will be the highest of any event ever before in this country. I would not doubt it if it went to 3/4 people in the nation watching it.

literally every Canadian will be GLUED to their TV - hockey Fan or not.

I don't think - and correct me if i'm wrong - that the USA has ever had a sporting event with that much national reach EVERYWHERE in the nation.

When I was explaining it to a friend tonight I told him that it would be like if they made Football (American football, not soccer) an Olympic sport and we put together an all star team made up of world class pros from the NFL and the Olympics were being held in the US. We would expect to win because we would be playing our game with our best players on our home turf. If they suddenly lost it would send a lot of people into a state of disbelief.

That said, it isn't like the US team is made up of a bunch of nobodies. Ryan Miller has the second best GAA in the NHL right now. Orpik won the cup with the Pens last year. Patrick Kane is considered one of the best young stars in the game. Rafalski, Langenbrunner and Drury are top notch NHL players. Both teams are made up completely of NHL players. If you are playing in the NHL it means you are one of the best players in the world. The people that put together the US team picked fast, smart, talented players that can use the big ice to their advantage and so far they are doing just that.

Of course this doesn't mean they are going to win the gold. There is no reason to think Canada can't beat Germany to get into the medal round then run the table. But as the announcers were saying the NHL compacted the schedule to accommodate the Olympics and the guys have already played 66 games so they are a little worn out. Maybe some of those big name vets playing for Canada are running a little low on gas.

that's a good comparison but personally i think football doesn't even come close to how much hockey effects everyone in Canada.

According to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ion_broadcasts the highest we have had is for Super Bowl 16 which was watched by 49.1% of households and 73% of the population.

On a funny side note that page also says the highest rated TV show in Germany is Colombo. . . who would have thought.

good thing i got drunk early fell asleep and missed it.

I agree. Here in the US we really have two huge sports, football and baseball. Basketball is also very big, but doesn't get the ratings it once did and hockey is a niche sport in the US. It seems like the only sport in Canada is hockey. I liken it to the city I live in. We have one pro sports team, an NBA basketball team. They are hugely popular, but I think a lot of the popularity of it is due to the fact that they are the only big game in town. When the team is doing well this city is in a frenzy over them and there was a period when they were good for about 10 years that you couldn't get ticket to see them play.

I think 73% is market share not percentage of the population :2 cents:

hahahahaha, fucking funnie shit dude

when i think about it - that's 49% of households - and not everyone in a household watches...

the stats I heard on TV tonight was 1 in 2 Canadians is watching, not just households.... but i can't find a reference for that now.

Sure, but for the Super Bowl it is a different kind of thing.

Most people (in fact almost everyone I know) watches the Super Bowl with friends. I throw a party every year and have 12-15 people over. So I count as 1 household, but there are 12-15 viewers. Obviously, I am not the norm, but I would bet most of those TV's have at least 2-5 viewers during the Super Bowl.

Still it probably isn't as big as the hockey stuff in Canada and like you say if it ends up where Canada is in the gold medal game it will be bigger. If their opponent in the gold medal game is the US it will be even bigger still.

Just did some reading. It looks like the share ( so in this case 73%) is the number of people who are watching TV at that moment. So with this Super Bowl 49.1% of all TV equipped households were watching that game and 73% of all TVs that were on during that game were tuned to that game.

I reading some other articles it says that the super bowl from a couple of years ago with the Steelers and Cardinals playing was the most watched Super Bowl ever. They report that that game had an average 98.7 million viewers and at its peak it had 151 million viewers. So on the average that would be around 1 in 3 people in the US watching the game, but when it peaked it was around 1 in 2.

That ad gave me goosebumps.

never played it

Our boys were a little hung over. We'll bounce back. BTW, I'm not depressed at all. Things like this don't affect me like they do some people. Yes I want Canada to win Gold, but if they don't does that mean my life will be changed. No it it wont.

They are playing on NHL sized rinks. Not Olympic sized rinks

We kicked your butt eh.


.

Commercial reminds me of the old joke,

Jesus saves ..... Gretzky rebounds, he shoots he scores!


.

yep. The biggest problem for Canada as I see It is that because they lost to the US they now have to face Russia in the Quarter Final! That was not expected and not how the groups were put together when they fixed It so that the best would face the best as late as possible in the game, but since the loss to US and tie to Switzerland that's what happened.

We(sweden) get Slovakia in the Quarters and then (if we win, remember the Slovaks beat Russia) the winner of Russia - Canada in semi(URGH). Gonna be exiting times though :)

Poor Canadians..... :(

NASCAR is second after football :winkwink:

Isn't Coca Cola a US company, eh? Just had to watch for the subliminal signals.

maybe you guys should pick a different sport? :1orglaugh

jk :winkwink:

bizarre hosers

USA is crushing the Olympics. We just flat out dominate other countrys. Feels good to have the USA on top of something. We have had a bad run in economy, having to police the world, and dealing with radical Islam for the last decade. Its nice to win :) God Bless the USA

links removed.

You voted for Obama eh? :upsidedow

Its Canadas game BUT

We neat them in the World Juniors
We Beat them in the OLympics

We win the CUPS

The times they are a changing.

But you guys have us beat in curling. Thats a chcik magnet sport for sure.

ya the USA has 4 main sports.. Football, Baseball, Basketball and Nascar.. I agree the super bowl is prolly our most watched sporting event but not cause of the sport but it's the biggest party event of the year even for non football fans..

Sucks for the Canadians for sure but I'm from USA and I loved that hockey game last night.. Made me wanna go see the Coyotes play after the break.

NASCAR is not a sport.

If you go out to your driveway and shoot hoops (even alone), you are playing a sport.

When you drive your car to the store, fix a flat and stop at the gas station are you playing a sport?

bull.. racing in any form is a sport. It's a team sport wear the pit crew play key roles in but in the end it's how well a driver can drive his car faster and or better than the next driver. I'm not really a Nascar fan but I grew up going to the Indy 500 being from Indiana.

also if you drive your car in Phoenix rush hour then it is a challenge and is a sport to make it home in one piece and sane :1orglaugh

There are two or three hundred million people that would disagree with you.

In the 2004 Olympics the USA men's team with NBA stars failed to win gold.

you would be surprised how much work is behind that sport
i didnt know myself until i watched 24/7 on HBO

First game I've watched in years!

That commercial only gives you the tip of the iceberg.

I remember the 1972 Canada/Russia Summit Series and how people stopped whatever they were doing and watched every one of those 8 games.

Agreed, nascar is a competition....not an athletic event. I put it in the same category as golf.

How many fatalities happen on a golf course?

Hockey to Canadians is like what football means to your average Texan. It's not just a sport, it's a way of life.

When I was a kid, anytime I wasn't in school or doing homework I was either out practicing on the local rink or out on the street playing road hockey OR down the basement taking shots on net. And about 9 out of 10 kids I grew up with were doing the same.

I see the argument you guys are making and agree with it to some degree even, but you have to know there is a fair bit of athleticism to driving a NASCAR race. Stamina, reflexes, incredible coordination as well as a keen sense of strategy all come into play throughout any race.

A lot of people would be blown away if they were to try driving one of those cars around a track at that speed for a sustained period of time. Add in 50 other cars and the real possibility of death and you may just change your tune about it not being a sport.

No one I know goes 210 MPH to get to the supermarket. EDIT: except maybe Minte. :D

What part of my comment bothered you. Praising the USA?

I know who I didn't vote for in any previous election...BUSH JR or SENIOR.
Its ok to praise the USA even if some leaders are douch bags.

yeah I know. I though it would be 'Shit and Piss on My Face Happy Time Fun Hour'

<---- HUGE hockey fan (Colorado Avalanche)

Man, that was such an intense game. One of the craziest I've seen in a long long time. You have to admit both teams played just utterly incredible. I cannot say either team gave up the win, both were just ontop of their game and both played an amazing fast paced good game.

Definitely gotta say though Miller made the gap it ended with. If he wasn't on like he was it would have been a much closer game. Also gotta say, I've never seen Brodeur so off his game. It just didn't seem like he was in it. Very surprised they didn't pull him earlier.

But man, that was such a fucking intense game.... I wish all hockey games could be as good as that one was.