Oh, great, the Michigan vs. Minnesota debate again.
I am an old-timer who now mostly lurks. But, since I first engaged in this debate, my perspective has grown--I started as an Ann Arbor-based Michigan fan, but I now live in Duluth and have for almost six years. So I have perspective on both environments.
A poster made some good illustrations about the school vs. club team contrast in hockey cultures, and I think it is a reasonable layout. But let's not undersell how the school-and-community based hockey culture in Minnesota differs from Michigan, here. In Michigan people who like hockey get involved in hockey programs and congregate together. They find each other, and there is a rich and healthy niche community that one can be a part of if one makes the effort.
But it is a niche. A large one, but a niche. This is not quite the same thing as identifying who is a fan of the local pro team (the Wings, or the Wild--my experience is that they currently inspire similar levels of fan devotion, though I have no television ratings knowledge to draw from). These are people who know and love hockey.
It's not a niche in Minnesota. Minnesota is saturated with hockey. Duluth has something like 20 outdoor ice rinks in local parks that operate every winter, probably more ice surface than basketball surface in the summer. The state tournament gets a nice attendance and that's cute and all, but what is really astonishing is how many people who don't go think it matters. Sure, schools in the tournament send students, but schools who don't sniff the tournament grind to a halt, too. Duluth East's magical run to the final was not only followed by East students and parents, but also by archrival (and lower-division hockey minnow) Denfeld. Proctor, which hosts one of the worst hockey programs in the state, had to send a memo to students and families explaining that they would not be showing the tournament on school televisions this year, that students who wanted to watch would have to call in. And people did this.
Run into an average group of middle school guys and they are as likely to talk hockey as any other sport. Converse in a group of a dozen adults and at least a couple will discuss the travails of getting their kid to hockey practice. Listen to the radio and there will be discussion of multiple levels of hockey fielded. None of this happens consistently in Michigan.
Michigan is a great place to live if you are a hockey fan. The game is readily available on many levels, and people in the state understand it and appreciate it. But it is no strike against Michigan's devotion to its hockey teams that Minnesota's hockey culture is more saturated and more robust; it is simply a fact.
Note: this issue has nothing to do with the disaster that is the B1G conference tournament. C'mon, a few weeks ago Michigan and Michigan State played a Friday game at the Joe. It sold out. This game had higher stakes. It... did not sell out. The problem is not the fans, it is the tournament, and I say that as someone who was and remains greatly in favor of the move to a B1G hockey conference.
Realignment was a necessity for college hockey as a sport (the threads about it prior to the B1G development were a regular feature of this board) and the B1G alignment made and still makes tons of sense. Teams like Minnesota State and Michigan Tech appear to benefit greatly from this, much to everyone's surprise. Teams are adding hockey again, and the race to see which team will surprisingly beat North Dakota this year and/or win the national title is as wide open as it has ever been. But the western conference tournaments have been permanently, severely damaged, and that is an awful shame.
