You know, there are only 32 National Hockey League teams on Earth, and millions across the world have pledged their allegiance to one (or perhaps more for the fickle fan) of those clubs.
And just as it is with any professional sports franchise, there will be varying levels of confidence that fan base has in the way their preferred team is ran. Naturally, there will always be teams that have enjoyed greater success than others, leaving fans of other not-so-great teams with an understandable case of envy.
The Athletic recently polled hockey fans from far and wide regarding how they're feeling in their team's management as we approach the 2021-22 NHL season. And it certainly can't be a surprise to anyone that the reigning 2-time Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning clock in at first on the list. I mean, when you win two consecutive titles, you're doing something right.
Meanwhile, for the rest of us who are pining for a chance for our team to taste the sweet fruits of victory sometime within a decade (or perhaps in the century), there still remains more than a few bugs to be worked out with how our teams are operating. And some of the results may be a bit eye opening, as more than one team that round out the top 5 results would have found themselves in the basement of this polling as recently as a decade prior.
Take a look at where each team finished in fan confidence of management after over 17,000 votes were tallied:
1. Tampa Bay Lightning
2. Colorado Avalanche
3. Detroit Red Wings
4. Florida Panthers
5. New York Islanders
6. Winnipeg Jets
7. Los Angeles Kings
8. Boston Bruins
9. Carolina Hurricanes
10. New Jersey Devils
11. Minnesota Wild
12. Vegas Golden Knights
13. St. Louis Blues
14. Washington Capitals
15. Dallas Stars
16. Columbus Blue Jackets
17. Montreal Canadiens
18. Toronto Maple Leafs
19. Seattle Kraken
20. Pittsburgh Penguins
21. Ottawa Senators
22. Philadelphia Flyers
23. New York Rangers
24. Calgary Flames
25. Chicago Blackhawks
26. Anaheim Ducks
27. Nashville Predators
28. Edmonton Oilers
29. Vancouver Canucks
30. Arizona Coyotes
31. San Jose Sharks
32. Buffalo Sabres
