(EDITED 19/03/2020) FOR CLARIFICATION: - This video was not intended to be a shitpost about British Ice Hockey. As an ice hockey fan who sees games regularly (Toronto Maple Leafs, Manchester Storm, Kolner Haie), it pains me that these are the reasons that keep ice hockey a minority sport over here. Unfortunately, I doubt things are going to change anytime soon. - A few commenters have deemed my points to be cruel and a little harsh. Whilst I'll admit that I could have eased off (especially pertaining to the national team because they've actually done well against the odds), nothing said in my video was untrue. This really is the current state of British Ice Hockey. - Here in the UK (as well as most other countries) - the world 'hockey' refers to field hockey, not ice hockey. And given that this is a video about UK Ice Hockey and that I am from the UK - I am well within my rights to use the terminology as designated by my country and most of the world. Please don't be an ignorant jackass, and understand that different countries call things by different words. Trying to 'correct me' on this matter will not be tolerated. - All but two of the 1936 Gold Medal team were born and raised in the UK. Two of them were born and raised in Canada. That does not make the entire team 'Canadian' regardless of where they learned their hockey skills. By right, they are eligible to represent Great Britain, and represent them they did. Currently, most of the U18 American National Soccer team are being trained at Manchester City's academy. That doesn't make them English, does it?! - For 'thintellectuals' that try and quote Wikipedia on me, especially pertaining to who created ice hockey, (which was unequivocally the Scottish) - you do realise that it contradicts itself in several pages right? I wouldn't expect any less from an online encyclopedia that a 5 year old can edit. Try reading actual books such as 'A History & Philosophy of Sports' by Mechikoff & Estes. Real research in a real book. - To invent something is to be the 'originator of'. Who originated the idea of play the game of hockey (where you hit an object into a goal) on the surface of ice? The Scottish, not the Canadians. - Let's be realistic about Liam Kirk - whilst he's a decent player, he's also a 7th round draft pick (189th overall). The odds of him making an NHL roster are slim and he's not even the best prospect at the Pete's. Not saying it's impossible, but the odds are definitely stacked against him. - For those people who dislike the video because they either can't face the truth, or acknowledge hockey's true roots is rather quite sad. I pity you if you have to create several accounts just to leave dislikes.

I mean, I'd make sense for ice hockey to be from scotland, since the Queen has Maurice Richard's 500th goal hockey puck. No joke!

Theoren Fleury ended his career playing for the Belfast Giants as a 37 year old. He had 74 points in 34 games.

"why would you pay 20 gbp to watch 2nd rate hockey and 3rd rate players" Because hockey is actually fun to watch

I got into ice hockey a few years ago and watch the Chelmsford Chieftains. I don't care if it is not the NHL - the games are fantastic fun and there is a huge amount of skill on display.

*I just found out today that the U.K actually has Ice hockey.*

“London is one with KHL” *me the russian who can’t afford to go there because my parents don’t want me to be professional hockey player in UK and try to force me to leave hockey before I even start to train for it*

I've been a hockey player my entire life, Always A or AA level. I would beat an old lady with a broken hockey stick to even be a 4th Liner in the EIHL or NIHL. Shitty pro hockey is better than 0 pro hockey, which is unfortunately what I play right now

Good luck to you Brits! It would be nice to see new faces in the championships, that may even surprise you. Greetings from the Czech Republic.

Might just be me, but I’d watch shitty hockey over any type of soccer!

Tired: getting promoted to the top tier and getting crushed by everyone in the world championship Wired: get the entire tournament cancelled due to COVID-19 so you technically have the same success as Canada

You know your league sucks when Paul Bissonnette was one of your top players.

It’s easy to understand because we in Finland tend to have the same problem with football. We have a not-so-great league and little of funding. Luckily, because of the national team finally qualifying to an international tournament (yes, this was the first time ever) there seems to be a little light at the end the tunnel. So never lose your hope.

Why England has never won the world cup after 1966?

I'd love to know how you're getting tickets for the Utd-City game for 20 quid.

My media studies teacher mentions how his 9 year old nephew plays ice hockey in Manchester

College football start at Rutgers Look at them now

Someday a voice will tell a hardcore hockey fan in England to build the Rink of Dreams

It would have been more interesting to investigate how Britain actually declined from a top 5 nation in the early years of the sport to a backwater even in the European regional scene. My guess would be no investment in community rinks, doesn't matter how good you are now if your kids aren't playing.

You also have to understand that in Canada and the northern USA kids can walk down to the local pond in the winter and play pickup hockey. Rinks arent even necessarily needed. This is something you cannot do in most of england.

Over a year later and I pretty sure the majority of ice rinks are struggling to keep its doors open in the UK. Very sad. Closest ice rink is a hour away and I live in a city with around 150k people. Should be one here!

I think introducing people to ice hockey and increasing participation largely starts on the outdoor rinks. I don't know what the winters are like in GB, but if your winters can sustain having more outdoor rinks built, I think that is a good place to get started. But until your domestic league becomes appealing enough to attract bigger crowds the rate of growth for the sport will be sparse. And to make it appealing, you need star power, and for star power, you need money so that they would actually sign with you, and for money, you need ticket revenue... And so on and so forth. But I think recent success with the GB national team you could see an influx of awareness to the sport -- along with the recent plans for a Canada vs GB national team friendly (which has been postponed ofc)

Here in belfast the giants are one of the big teams we have football and rugby teams dotted around the place but as far as i know the giants have one of the largest seating capacities of any arena/stadium in the country apart from Windsor park (national stadium) and the largest stadium in the league. I go to games from time to time and the stadium is regularly packed, there is no lack of interest in Belfast. Correction second biggest in the league

At 1:58 number 4 in the red jersey is me!!! That’s my team I grew up playing for called the glacebay miners and we were playing the north side Vikings in Sydney mines Nova Scotia!!!!!!!

"Ice hockey was invented by Scotland." Although it is easy enough to make this claim all you want, fact if the matter is shinty is indeed different than Canadian ice hockey as we know it today. I will accept that the roots of hockey, or it's concept comes from both shinty anc almost more so, field hockey... the ice hockey we all love is still Canadian. We do thank all of Scotland for helping us bring this game to what it is today. Peace, and thanks for the interesting video. I was always curious about why GBR have almost always been quite weak in international play as they have plenty of winter, and easily enough people living living there. This explains a lot.

This is a really accurate representation of why the sport is so difficult to get into and maintain in the uk?!! I played for 22 years before injury took me out of the game but oh my god I was blessed blesssssed to grow up in a town that had a rink Milton Keynes and yeah I used to travel from Milton Keynes to Cardiff to train for southwest England as a junior on a Friday night hahaha we have no structure here but fuck me what a sport

Fun fact: When the Gaelic Athletic Association was founded in Ireland, they banned anyone who participated in or even watched a "foreign" sport. This included association football, rugby, cricket and ice hockey.

Back in '96 I used to watch Manchester Storm play at the arena, it was fantastic, huge crowds, lots of buzz about the sport. I still watch Storm now at a local ice rink and feel for the players, the game is obviously just as good as it was but they deserve better. I hope it takes off again!

I just moved to London from Canada and the ice hockey here is very different just like you said

One thing I wanna point out about the league structure in Canada. Highschool/College don't really...matter. When you get to the OHL ( Junior A ) it's usually through AAA/A prior. That's not to say that people *don't* come out of those leagues, but Junior A is where you want to be if your serious about getting to the NHL. Also - to answer the question about why you'd watch The Game rather than soccer? I'm a Canadian. If there's hockey, and I'm in the UK, I'm going to watch it.

fun fact my granddad played in the Olympics for team GB in the 40s playing ice hockey

Been following the Devils for a few years now, although attended my first match (against Nottingham) a couple years back. I am noticing a small increase in local coverage over the past couple years, our Rock & 80's/90's Music station sponsors them and Wales Today (our BBC Local News program) usually gives them a 5 second mention in the end of their sports segment (Hey it's still more than the West Wales Raiders RL ever get. Although that might be for good reasons! 🤣)

The KHL wants a team in London? And we thought a Chinese KHL team was a crazy idea...

To play Ice Hockey, you need to be able to ice skate. In my 20 years of life so far, I've been ice skating once when I was about 7 or 8 and I don't even live that far away from a rink (less than half an hour away by car) Football is a cheap game that's easy to play in a rudimentary form with essentially just a cheap ball, Ice Hockey is the opposite of that. The sport is too difficult to get into and this country doesn't have any of the infrastructure to compensate. People want to watch sports that they were able to play as a kid and where the pros are people like them, ordinary British kids from a normal background. Instead when they watch Ice Hockey they see foreigners and when they do see a Brit, they probably either grew up abroad or they were well off enough to afford all the ice time and equipment necessary to train at a high level. That's why football's popularity continues to grow and most other team sports can't get a foothold. Basketball has potential for growth but probably needs a lot of grassroots funding which it is never going to get

I'm a hockey fan from Canada. I've followed the goings-on of the various incarnations of the British league as well as the other European Leagues for years. It's neat to see where former NHLer's have gone. It may be lower calliber than here, but we'll pay $10,$20,$30 to watch junior hockey, and they're not pro's yet. It's just an amazing game!

The sun never rises for the British ice hockey team.

I’m a British ice hockey fan, although I must be honest, I watch German and Austrian ice hockey 👀😂

In my 23 years watching and 5 years playing I have to strongly disagree. It's not the UKs most popular sport. That's the issue. Doesn't mean it sucks.

You forgot to mention when Belfast played against the Boston Bruins in 2010

The NHL needs to show these guys some exhibition games. That way the ice hockey community around the UK would be more interested and eventually as people have more passion towards the sport there will be better players and better teams.

I saw the thumbnail and don’t process the Union Jack and I was like hold tf on there buster

As someone who grew up watching EHL games, I think UK hockey is awesome. Having a bog-standard arena gives it such a special underground feeling that you could never get with NHLs hockey, which cares more about promoting lexus cars.

Honestly, I think the only reason it's not successful is because the NHL's just not popular in England, there's very very sparse coverage of the regular season available from television packages as far as I can tell. You need young kids to grow up watching and idolizing current NHL players, then grow up, work hard to be good enough to play in juniors/college/minors, break in, and become a player in the NHL (they don't have to be Connor McDavid, but NHL caliber) that other youngsters in England can look up to and say "Hey, why aren't we producing more of this guy?". The GBR national team was a great story and a great start tbh. It's a generational thing, any of that first generation/second generation of European NHL players will tell you that, and now we're seeing the fruits of their labors with how popular hockey has gotten there.

As an American I have always been aware of the Belfast Giants because they played the bruins once. That’s the only UK hockey thing I know. An existence of a single team.

id really like to see you do a video on all the positives behind hockey in the uk, it might just help spread awareness of the sport and boost the profile a bit

Have you done a video on rules/history of croquet?

Saw the Nottingham Panthers (vs. Belfast) earlier this year as my first hockey game ever. I despise football (soccer), love watching American football, but have never seen an American football game in person. Frankly I found the game fantastic to watch, tho I have no doubt it would've been even more fantastic to watch an NHL game in person had I had the chance. I honestly didn't know we had a pro-league until seeing the game was suggested by a flatmate, but seeing it makes me wish we had a more developed system for the sport here. Honestly the biggest problem in my mind is that both the lack of a clear pathway from an early age and the lack of ice rinks around the country are a result of the sport being overshadowed/pushed out of the limelight by more popular sports like football, rugby, and the unbelievably inferior sport that is field hockey..... 😕

As a Swedish former State Championship winning Goaltender. Recruited at 12 and then recruited and sponsored at 14 to play in 2 teams at the same time. Later on Winning the State Championship. 1 League I was warned to stay away from were UK because they did not have a full support system at all during or after playing as a pro. Their senior Elite pro were also considered to be on a similar level as Swedish Division 2 or lower. which is 3 divisions lower than Swedish Senior Elite pro.

I’ll pay £20 to watch Liam Kirk anyday 😂

That Nike ad pretty much sums it all up “No one plays Ice hockey in London, I have to be my own team, my own opposition and my own coach”

One other interesting way teams attract better players is by partnering with universities to offer masters courses while the players play

My biggest hate about the EIHL is the fact British talent comes second place to import players... In every single sport, you have to have a minimum of X homegrown players. But EIHL are literally permitting 18 out of a squad of 20 to be imports? So 2 British players per team... Theres no incentive for kids to even try breaking into pro teams here, so I think it's on a huge downward trajectory. Liam Kirk is literally breaking the mould and proving WE COULD produce the talent to play at an elite level, but ofcourse our governing bodies don't want the trouble do they? I used to be a season ticket holder from 2008-11 at the Steelers and very quickly fell out of love with it. Extortionate prices to watch a team batter the likes of Edinburgh 19-0. Think your video is absolutely spot on

Great video, cool to learn about this stuff! The only thing is hockey was invented in Nova Scotia, CA. I’m aware that translates to New Scotland but the sport was invented in the province

I love hockey. Hope the sport keeps growing

Hi Ninh. I'm going back a few years hut I do recall a player named Tony Hand who I believe was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in 1987 or 88. I recall he ran away with the scoring title in the UK league playing with a team called the Merrifield Racers in Scotland. All the best from John in Calgary.

"KHL wants a team in London" Well... I don't think that's happening any time soon...

I love the line that even the guys running the league don't know what's happening most of the time but I will say that even in football (soccer), the most watched sport in the UK the guys at the top don't know what's happening either so that's not just an ice hockey problem

Recommendation to change the title to “Why British Ice Hockey Should Be More Popular” or “Why UK Ice Hockey Isn’t Popular” because it does sadly come off as a bit of a shitpost, The national team has made unbelievable strides in the last few years after being actually terrible before and the league is moving away from the stereotype of ‘this is where nhlers come to end their careers’ as you can see that we’ve now got a permanent spot in the CHL and in regards to Liam Kirk, no one expected him to make the NHL 2 years after he was drafted so you can’t unnecessarily rip on Kirk when there are segments on North American NHL shows about him and the EIHL. The lack of recognition by the general public and the BBC does hurt the sports potential in this country though, that is true and the playoffs do need to be harder to win because the league is still the main trophy when in every other league in the world, the playoffs is the big one. Also throw aggregate into a fucking volcano because it sucks.

Accessibility is the main issue I reckon. In terms of facilities, I live just outside of Glasgow and off the top of my head, there are 4 rinks (I might be wrong) within the surrounding area - Braehead, Coatbridge, Hamilton and East Kilbride. The first 3 have hockey playing out of those rinks, however Hamilton is more of a curling rink and not ideal for hockey but they give it a go at least. East Kilbride rink is in the middle of a shopping centre and mainly a leisure rink but used as a curling rink as well - simply not safe nor big enough for hockey. Braehead is the only rink that can accommodate spectators in decent numbers. Of course, slightly further afield there are rinks in Kilmarnock and Ayr. However, the latter has been under threat from closure in recent times, but looks to have been saved for the time being. Funding from local councils for ice rinks is way down the list in terms of priorities. Ice time in general is at a premium and there are so many hours in the week to accommodate for as many as possible. I played inline/ roller hockey as an alternative because it is more accessible (being played in sports halls) - provided you can find a place to play. Very few places were willing to support because of (unfounded) concerns about damage to their facilities. Any potential interest (from a casual follower) in the game is simply wiped out. Given how popular football and rugby are in the UK - I see no reason as to why the powers that be in these sports are taking money from the public funding bodies. The EPL is the richest in the world, I'm fairly sure that there is plenty of money to go around into local community projects. On the whole, the UK is criminally guilty of funding the sports that barely need any more exposure. To put it simply, we are pigeon-holing (if that is even a word - probably not) our youngsters into the big sports rather than getting them to diversify into the lesser sports. For all we know there could be another potential Tony Hand or whoever out there but we might never know because they are being pushed towards football/ rugby without access to a rink (unless they have the money to be able to play of course).

I wish you did a bit more research into the journey of the British hockey team in the last 5 years. It might not feel like it but we are living in a Golden era for British hockey. It’s a minority sport in the UK. For us to be competing in successive top tier World Championships is incredible. Not long ago we were completely in the third tier. Successive promotions and a incredible fight to stay in the top tier last season brought me some memories I will truly treasure. Ice hockey in the UK can be compared to cricket on Canada. They play the sport, they have franchise T20 but I don’t see them coming close to playing in any world championships. As someone who supports a team in the third tier of British Ice hockey this negativity does nothing to help support or grow the sport in this country. Positives I would’ve included: 1. The Elite league is the only British league to have representation for all 4 countries. 2. The tickets are very cheap. You can see most games for under £20 and many teams offer great discounts. 3. Despite the lack of funding the Elite league is ranked 8th in Europe above nations that take the sport more seriously like Norway, Poland, Slovakia and France. 4. The British Team journey all the way to the top tier of world hockey. Ice hockey in the UK desperately needs to encourage fans to buy tickets. Videos like this could kill the curiosity of that UK NHL fan and actively stop him purchasing a ticket to see their local club.

When we (USA) played you guys in the 2019 worlds, we didn’t win by much, and I was really impressed with your goalie who was marvelous.

So they have the same attendance as Florida and Ottawa ?

Very interesting video! Cheers

As a football fan, I’ve hockey tickets are cheaper than football. Why not go for some fun?!

Hey Ninh, Clan fan here. Pretty accurate description of the sport in the UK but you can’t really compare it to the NHL. No country in the world has a league that compares with the NHL as it takes all the best players from wherever they have learnt their hockey. Despite its obvious problems I’d still rather pay eighteen quid to watch an EIHL game than twice that to watch Premier League football. It might not be top quality hockey but games are still pretty exciting. I see you have a soft spot for the Storm. I was in Alty a couple of weeks ago for the Clan game and it really is a dive. Good atmosphere in the place though.

Really I saw that the oldest stick was in Nova Scotia and yes I am aware that Nova Scotia means new Scotland and When i researched it read Ice hockey is believed to have evolved from simple stick and ball games played in the 18th and 19th centuries in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. ... The contemporary sport of ice hockey was developed in Canada, most notably in Montreal, where the first indoor hockey game was played on March 3, 1875.

Ice hockey rinks usually only hold 10k my guy so 9500 isn’t that bad

What a pleasant surprise! I recognized you from stumbling across your NFL/London vlog last year, which I loved. When you popped up today with this I checked past vlogs and found out you like NASCAR too (are you sure you're British?) During the NHL strike I saw some BBC Sports interviews with players in the UK talking about adjusting to the differences in the game and culture (being flummoxed by Marmite was esp. funny.) Since then, I've wondered what the fans and players thought about it all.

The eihl is growing and getting more well known. Its now shown live regularly on free sports with a weekly highlight show. I generally go from watching Rotherham united straight through to Sheffield arena to watch steelers as do a lot. Kirky is quality and doing the same as majority of players his age in playing in the ohl.

Well, Ninh - the nation of Kenya is trying to organize a men's ice hockey team to compete in the Winter Olympics, so I suppose that anything's possible in a totally infinite universe of sport. This video is rather good - it even gives me ideas for a fictional league I could play out using a board game of the sport. I thank you for this video - and I wish you only the best.

How long have you been following hockey? And how did you start following hockey? There are very few guys in the UK that follow NHL.

Absolutely right. As someone who has been on the fringes of UK hockey for decades - even working for the company that now own the giants - it's completely starving. Hockey talent is low, coaching low and general involvement low. The solution I think is to expand the adult recreational play base. It's a way more accessible sport than people assume - or it should be. Countering elitism amongst the regular team players, no adult learn to play courses and making play time at 7pm instead of 10.30 would really help. This would support match attendance, too much focus on kids hockey when loads get to 12 then quit as their friends aren't into it. Badly marketed and badly run in the UK as you say. People should be annoyed - not at you for pointing it out but at the sport for not being open and welcoming new interest.

I always wondered why Britain wasn’t more into hockey. I thought it was probably because football is a bigger sport worldwide, and you guys invented that too. Plus it’s so cheap to play by comparison - however, not for us. While it is expensive for ice fees, equipment, league fees, travel, etc., don’t forget Canada has ice in winter in even the warmest of our localities. All we need are skates & a twig for that…and a pond, lake, river, or a hose & a yard, lol. But I can give you one tip that would make it a better spectator sport almost immediately…stop playing on that giant ass IIHF rink, and start playing on an NHL regulation sized rink. It’s smaller, so the end to end action is faster. Sometimes it’s like watching a human pinball game. More exciting in my opinion.

Had the UK had the facilities, I would’ve been playing a looong time ago.. Football/Soccer just sucks...

I remember asking you to do a KHL in the UK video. Glad you covered it. However under the current global situation it doesn't seem to be so close.

The rinks are a problem i remember travelling to an ice hockey game at 6 in the morning ,which was located in whitley bay (near scotland) just to lose which was a pain in the ass

Do a video like this on the bbl (basketball in Britain). Is interesting since basketball is popular in the uk with high participation and nba viewing but no one watches the domestic game

1:23 In Colombia we only have 5 rinks in the country .-.

less an issue than the salary cap in the Elite league is the import player rule, allowing more imports will raise the quality of play, thus increasing awareness, thus increasing home grown talent

I’m Canadian and I live and play in the UK. What strikes me is that you don’t have any skill coaches. In North America, it would be very rare for any top youth team not to have an individual power skating or skills coach that works with players independent of the team’s coaching staff. I have never seen this in Britain. As a result, many things like stride and technique always appear weaker in British-trained players.

as a Hungarian i laughed on that sarcastic line about us :D i think we are improving because our strongest teams are not staying in Hungary to win easily but they are getting into stronger leagues in neighbouring countries as the Austrian and Slovak league. the experience our players are getting there are crucial to make the national team stronger and i think it is actually working. i don't follow UK ice hockey but the really strong teams should think about discussing with the nearest nation with a stronger league. on the other hand, when UK beat us in our capital with an extremely intense last few minutes "final push" so you got into the top, i can't remember there was any big media coverage but i live in London and none of my British friends ever heard about it... when we did it years ago for the first time since ages, the whole nation went into ice hockey craze, newspaper's front page, TV news, everything. UK hockey is good, absolutely could be better but it needs more promotion, investment, facilities, looking outside for stronger leagues, and the game will be more enjoyable so fans and new players will come.

3:27 Junior hockey should be between high school and college hockey

Also a video on why hockey isn't popular among minorities (minorities in US, Canada)

3:09 In San Diego, not every one knows the AHL Gulls exist (since 2015) and it just feels sad when someone says "We have a hockey team?" Usually everyone knows the Padres, Aztecs and the Chargers. And Gulls rarely get games aired on TV.

3:28 how is high school hockey above junior hockey??

This could be the start of something new. Have you considered making videos explaining why sports struggle to gain international popularity, such as Aussie Rules, Gaelic Football, Sumo Wrestling, etc.

I played as a junior and even iced in an EPL game as a goalie when I was just 14. I've watched hockey in Britain since I was in a push chair. And I've seen tons of great talent come to the sport and be put on 3rd line of even just straight up benched, all to make room for 'golden boys'. Every club has its 'golden boys'. In otherwords, over rated players who are coaches pet, quite often because there dad played the sport or something. Whatever the reason in each case, the golden boys take priority over some of the more talented players even in the lower adult leagues. But when it happens in the juniors, kids who are really good often get put off of playing because as you say, expensive ice time, distance to travel and expensive kit is a lot of effort just to get benched for the coaches son who isn't even as good as you. In hockey this makes a huge impact because of how small and niche the sport is in the uk compared to something like football where there's countless other nearby clubs you can go to if your not being given a fair shot where you are.

To be fair, Liam Kirk making the OHL is an accomplishment in of itself. The Ontario Hockey League, along with the Western Hockey League (WHL), and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL/LHJMQ) are what’s called major junior hockey. This is the top developmental system in hockey. Most NHL players are selected from these leagues

4:55 what's that Calgary Flames knock off there?

3:48 as a hockey fan from Edinburgh that one hurts...

Murrayfield Racers > Edinburgh Caps. Also, it genuinely irritates me that Ice Hockey is such a small sport over here and that somehow, Football, the sport where you can actually not touch another person but still dive to the floor and writhe about in pain, is somehow bigger and more entertaining than a fast paced, physical sport like hockey. Completely baffles me! Football is pathetic. I was very fortunate to catch two games whilst in Calgary and my god. It was an incredible atmosphere and an incredible experience in general. Our country does sports wrong. Period. Go Flames go, mon the Clan!

I wouldn't say Canada has a good league structure. I played over there for three years and it occurred to me that the sport was quite unorganized. E.g. here in Germany and generally in Europe, you need a license to play and there are all kinds of bureaucracies involved. All youth leagues are covered in an online database and some are even live streamed online. In Canada, you just pay $400 (MUCH more in AAA etc) or so and just play... The leagues in Canada also seem kind of messed up, because their are high school leagues and independent leagues. Besides the OHL, there are other leagues in the same age group like the BCHL even though the WHL already exists. I think all of this is because of a lack of communication on a national level...

I'm from the uk and I know hockey 👍

That Manchester team's logo is cool.

Fully agree , as a Storm ⛈ fan it's sad to see that the crowds have dwindled down and we lost the M.E.N arena as our home ice .. at one time we sold out at like 17000 against the steelers an now on average we get 900

Do you not think it would be better highlight the positives about hockey in the UK rather than shoot it down? I’ve been following hockey in the UK for 18 years and I’ve loved every second of it. Not once have I felt I was wasting my money on “second-rate” hockey. I don’t expect it to be on par with the KHL, SHL, etc. But how many fans can say they regularly watch games from other leagues in Europe? Most people would only compare what they see here against the NHL. So most people’s expectations would be grounded and accept the standard we have here. Could it be better? Sure, but it is what it is and I think most UK fans are happy enough with it. Hockey will never be big in this country, but supporting the leagues/systems we have is something I will continue to do. I’ve introduced many people to hockey and they’ve loved it and continue to follow it. If word-of-mouth is the only way the sport and it’s fan base will grow then help out. Use your platform to do so. As for the comments about Liam Kirk, a tad unfair I think. I don’t think many, if any, expect him to ever make the NHL, but the sheer fact that he was drafted is a huge accomplishment and shows that the country can produce players of a certain caliber. It can also work as inspiration for younger players or fans to get more involved.

Same reasons why Canada sucks at soccer (1) shitty national team (2) fledgling premier leagues (3) lack of media coverage, etc

Owen Nolan! It’s been rumored that Nolan was no fan of the queen

I think the reason that brits suck at hockey might be they don’t spend all days at rinks outside during winters as kids, like kids in norther European countries and Canada do most times... And the reason for that might be that in North-European countries, such as Finland, Sweden, and countries like Canada actually have snowy and cold winters, instead of that time of the year when it rains water 24/7 a little bit more than during summer

Thanks for the video. Really interesting. I thought most of the Elite league players are imports mainly from Canada and America that’s certainly the case for my club. We only have a handful of British players.