Ice Hockey: Finland, Sweden, Russia, Germany, Czechia, Switzerland
Austria also has a few ice hockey clubs, had a few years where i was pretty often going to the matches. it's been a few years, but playoffs got around 4k visitors in vienna around 2010. Slovenia also has a few.
I was in Buenos Aires and saw a hockey shop and I was like, whaaaat? Then I realized it was selling field hockey equipment. Most places I travel, if you talk about hockey it means field hockey, and you have to say "ice hockey" if that's what you're talking about.
Assuming you mean ice and not field, it's not popular here in the UK with football (soccer) dominating but I've been to some local games, very fun to watch even though ofc the standard is pretty bad hah. One of the TV channels here used to show NA sports late at night so I got into NHL as a teen using my dad's VHS player to record parts of games. I was the weird kid at school who used to bring in NHL 2001 or ESPN NHL Hockey on Xbox
Unfortunately I'm a Canucks fan lol, though I did catch Rangers-Blackhawks in 2015 at MSG when I visited NYC which was awesome!
Canucks fan
I see you enjoy pain.
Oh man, and then some. Promising playoff run season before last only to pretty much get kicked to the curb last season
Hello fellow British Canucks fan. I find the endless series of catastrophes punctuated by brief periods of (false) hope really chimes with life in modern Britain.
there's a reason most nhl players are not from north america.
Pretty sure Canada and US players combined make up about ~70% of active NHL players, with Canada making up about 41% and the US roughly about 28%. Sweden looks to be in the number three spot with about 9%.
Hell, it's barely "popular" outside of the Midwest, eh? 🤷🏽♂️
It's popular in the Northeast and I'd assume the PNW as well.
So basically the states that you can actually play ice hockey in
That tracks. Moose-like, even. No moose? Hockey unlikely.
Have you ever heard of a little place called Canada?
Yup. Was where I landed to drink.
Switzerland:
- Ice Hockey on club level quite popular but not nearly as pupular as football. Specially on national team level: Our national team went on a tear this world cup and nobody cared until they reached the final. Meanwhile people cared more for the friendlies our national team in football played.
- Field Hockey: exists somewhere.
- Floorball / Unihockey: quite popular for playing it but no one watches it.
Hockey requires manufactured ice.
Most of the world can't make a suitable surface for most of the year.
Saskatchewan can make enough to field a whole league of players.
..... You know field hockey is a thing?
There are plenty of ice hockey rinks in Florida.
I'd say it's about equally as popular as football (soccer for 'muricans) in Czechia and Slovakia. Those two are basically two top sports here/there. And I believe it's clear number one sport in Sweden and Finland. And Russia.
Where I've been to, not as popular. Nowhere near. But they still exist and have a following and national teams etc
