Oilers fans more excited but less confident than Calgary counterparts, poll shows
A new poll confirms what you may have already guessed: Edmonton hockey fans are pretty excited about the coming NHL season.
Twenty-seven per cent of Oilers fans say they are more excited for the coming season than they were last year — compared to only 16 per cent of Calgary Flames fans.
"I guess we can essentially blame Connor McDavid for that," said Mario Canseco with pollster Insights West.
"The Oilers fan base is really looking at this as the year where everything is going to click and we're going to make it to the NHL Stanley Cup," he said.
The poll asked three questions:
- Do you cheer for a certain hockey team?
- How do you feel about the coming hockey season?
- Do you expect your favourite team to make the playoffs?
Overall, 52 per cent of Oilers fans polled said they think the team will make it to the postseason.
However, Canseco said that optimism is somewhat tempered by a sense that fans have seen it all before, noting that Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins were both hailed as the 'Next Big Thing.'
In Calgary, it's the opposite story. While 76 per cent of Flames fans expect their team to make playoffs, enthusiasm for the coming season was considerably lower.
"So it's almost as if you expect to make it but you're not really looking at anything new or exciting that is going to make you go to the hockey arena."
The other numbers
A few more highlights from the Insights West poll:
- More than half (53 per cent) of Albertans think the Flames will make the playoffs, while less than one-quarter (24 per cent) think the Oilers have a chance.
- Forty-four per cent of Albertans polled consider themselves "moderate" or "big" fans of the Flames, compared to 37 per cent for the Oilers
- Across Alberta, 14 per cent of those polled said they are more excited for this season than they were for last year, while 16 per cent said they were less excited.
Results are based on an online poll conducted from Sept. 18 to Sept. 21, 2015, among 590 adults in Alberta. The pollster says the data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region. Results have a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percentage points.
