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I’m laughing at the Norman Rockwell northern New England image. Vermont is VermontLand tourist spots like Woodstock or Stowe. A house on an idyllic New Hampshire lake. MaineLand coastal tourist towns like Camden. The rural poverty with Dollar General and heroin zombies outside the tourist areas is invisible. I spent a night in Bristol VA a few years ago driving from Nashville to New England. It compares to Northeast Kingdom Vermont or Logging Truck Maine.
They are also places where you can find people who can play hockey but don't follow the NHL or college hockey. That is pretty rare in the rest of the US.
I voted Virginia. Minnesota is too sparsely populated while New England has lots and lots of small towns fairly close together. Virginia not as much, but much more than Minnesota. Visually Virginia and New England look much more alike to me. They both have older homes and towns and both have mountains and an ocean.
The people are different in each, but in the end people are people wherever you go.
They are also places where you can find people who can play hockey but don't follow the NHL or college hockey. That is pretty rare in the rest of the US.
Most of New England follows the Bruins (Bar, the lower third of CT which follows a mix of Rangers/Devils/Islanders/Bruins).
I played hockey in mass and I don't think ive met someone who didn't follow the Bruins there unless they were from a different part of the country where they followed their team. But nonetheless, all followed an NHL team.
Some good perspectives here. As I mentioned earlier in the thread I voted VA is more similar, and had a few additional thoughts to support from my initial post:
- The urban areas around MSP actually remind me of a smaller (and colder) version of DFW. When I was living in DFW I was travelling up there quite a bit and recall making that comment several times. The "urban footprint" was a downtown office cluster surrounded by large-format suburbs plopped down onto a prairie, providing long vistas to all of the suburban office parks there. Even the concept of "twin cities" was applicable, although M and SP are closer than D and FW. This is very different feeling than anywhere in New England
- The rural areas in Minnesota were also quite different from New England. I drove from South Dakota to MSP airport one, and until you are within ~20 miles of the twin cities it is basically very similar to South Dakota, mainly farming towns, very little forest.
- The rural areas in VA seem much more similar to New England to me, particularly the western mountainous areas
- Another area of commonality between VA and New England is the large US Navy presence. The two largest bases on the east coast are in Norfolk/Newport News and Groton/New London CT. Big military as well as shipbuilding areas that drive the local economies
I honestly get that there are potentially some personality consistencies between Minnesota & New England (the surliness that comes with living in cold weather for 6 months out of the year, for example) and preference for winter sports - I believe the MN and MA contribute more NHL players than any others states, which is impressive for their relative sizes. But overall, I just find the vast differences outweigh those.
Most of New England follows the Bruins (Bar, the lower third of CT which follows a mix of Rangers/Devils/Islanders/Bruins).
I played hockey in mass and I don't think ive met someone who didn't follow the Bruins there unless they were from a different part of the country where they followed their team. But nonetheless, all followed an NHL team.
I'm far from the hockey demo but the hockey thing in New England doesn't seem to infiltrate into the non-hockey community like a lot of other cultural things I'm not privy to.
Hockey in New England seems to be very good and popular compared to most places but I don't see or hear about it much at all. Seems like there's just a bunch of dudes really dedicated to "puck" and they attend games, build rinks, and stuff with their buddies. I don't think it permeates the region like the Pats or Sox.
I wasn't even aware of the Beanpot till more recently. I've never seen college hockey on TV other than that.
I'm far from the hockey demo but the hockey thing in New England doesn't seem to infiltrate into the non-hockey community like a lot of other cultural things I'm not privy to.
Hockey in New England seems to be very good and popular compared to most places but I don't see or hear about it much at all. Seems like there's just a bunch of dudes really dedicated to "puck" and they attend games, build rinks, and stuff with their buddies. I don't think it permeates the region like the Pats or Sox.
I wasn't even aware of the Beanpot till more recently. I've never seen college hockey on TV other than that.
In Boston, I wholeheartedly agree. Hockey is popular within targeted demographics. Outside of that most of us are only made aware via the radio and news (and it's usually not that much time focused on it either).
However in Montreal and Toronto, street hockey is huge amongst almost all demographics. Ice Hockey is expensive so a lot of kids turn to Basketball early but this is usually my comparison as to how hockey can truly permeate a cities culture/regions culture. I wonder if folks out in Minneapolis really dig into hockey culture like Canadians do but that's another thread.
I'm far from the hockey demo but the hockey thing in New England doesn't seem to infiltrate into the non-hockey community like a lot of other cultural things I'm not privy to.
Hockey in New England seems to be very good and popular compared to most places but I don't see or hear about it much at all. Seems like there's just a bunch of dudes really dedicated to "puck" and they attend games, build rinks, and stuff with their buddies. I don't think it permeates the region like the Pats or Sox.
I wasn't even aware of the Beanpot till more recently. I've never seen college hockey on TV other than that.
depends on what town your from and your exposure to the sport. The vast majority of New Englanders know what the beanpot is.
Canton MA had 6 youth hockey teams per age bracket (Squirt, PeeWee, Bantam, Midget, etc) and over half of the boys in school played hockey. Easily. However, in neighboring towns like Randolph and Holbrook .. not so much.
I played for the Mohawks which was the agglomeration of Randolph-Avon-Holbrook (Now defunct, as Brockton was added into the mix) while surrounding towns had a gazillion teams. Its very town dependent in New England.
Back in 2006 I remember my division was:
Randolph/Holbrook/Avon
Canton 1
Canton 2
Canton 4
Braintree 1
Braintree 2
Norwood 3
Dedham 1
Dedham 2
Hyde Park
Boston 4
Boston 5
Weymouth 1
Weymouth 4
Milton 1
Milton 2
North Quincy
Westwood
Westwood 2
the other division was:
Brockton
Easton 1
Stoughton 1
Stoughton 2
Braintree 3
Brantree 4
Canton 3
Canton 5
Canton 6
Norwood 1
Norwood 2
Weymouth 2
Weymouth 3
Boston 1
Boston 2
West Roxbury
Milton 3
Quincy
*Boston teams were Dorchester, Hyde Park, West Roxbury, Mattapan, JP, Roxbury and I think South Boston*
Then there was a division from Walpole to Hopkinton area, another from Hingham to Plymouth and Pembroke. THen there was everything down south like Seekonk and Bristol County.
Good memories. But, it was pretty popular 15 years ago for Youth Hockey.
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