Winnipeg does not fare well in ESPN Poll of 50 NHL players

While it seems early in the season for a poll saying negative things about the City of Winnipeg (my feeling is they should wait until January when the temps are truly frightening) today Emily Kaplan of ESPN released her poll of 50 anonymous NHL players.

One of the questions asked was “Which road city do you dread the most?”.  Winnipeg received 42% of the votes.  Some comments included:

“Winnipeg. It’s always cold. Tough rink to play in. It’s just dirty — you walk around the city and feel like you need to wash your face after you go outside. So nothing about it is very exciting.”

“Winnipeg is just depressing. You don’t even want to leave the hotel to get a cup of coffee.”

“I’m sure a lot of people said Winnipeg, but I always like Winnipeg. There’s stuff to do there. We’re close to the casino, if you want to go for a half hour or whatever. Wherever you go, they always have TSN on. I can’t get that here [on my U.S.-based team].”

You can read her full article here.

If you want to take a glass half full approach the flip side of this poll is that 58% of the NHLers polled didn’t see Winnipeg as the road city they dreaded the most.

Maybe that could be the new billboard outside the city “Not voted road city dreaded the most by 58% of 50 anonymous NHLers”.  Does have some cache and could easily replace “We were born here, what’s your excuse?”