from Arpon Basu at NHL.com,

Another survey conducted last November by Jedwab's Association for Canadian Studies asked respondents how important hockey was as a source of Canadian pride, and broke the responses down based on how often the respondents had attended an NHL game in the past five years. Not surprisingly, 88.5 percent of those who said they attended games regularly said it was very important or somewhat important. However, even among those who had never attended an NHL game, nearly 35 percent of respondents gave hockey some degree of importance as a source of national pride.

Yet, for some reason, having a Canadian team win the Stanley Cup does not appear to share the same status.

"There are strong unifying bonds about hockey, it is perceived to be Canada's sport more than any other sport," Jedwab said. "The only potential challenge to that status is soccer ... but I don't think soccer is a sport that unifies Canadians. It unifies people around the globe, whereas there is something that is quintessentially Canadian about hockey.

"But in terms of the NHL, we see hockey as a Canadian export. It may not be a fair way of looking at it, but I think that's the way it is widely perceived."

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