Most Of America Rooting Against Bruins In Stanley Cup Final Vs. Blues
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- America: Land of the free, home of the … St. Louis Blues fans?
That is what appears to be the case, at least based on the rooting interest around the country during the Stanley Cup Final.
The folks at sportsbettingexperts.com analyzed geotagged Twitter data and found that 39 out of 50 U.S. states are pulling for the Blues in their series against the Boston Bruins.
Those results may have to do with a sudden surge in Blues fandom from coast to coast … or it has more to do with the fact that another Boston team is playing for another championship. Considering the Red Sox and Patriots are currently reigning champs, and considering Boston sports teams have won quite a bit this millennium, it stands to reason that perhaps the people living in neutral states are just looking for some variety in their lives.
The computer program analyzing the data looked for hashtags like #stlblues, #WeAllBleedBlue and #LetsGoBlues for St. Louis, and #nhlbruins, #GoBruins and #LetsGoBruins for Boston.
It was no surprise to see that all six New England states are pulling for the Bruins, though the other five states were bit peculiar: South Carolina, Louisiana, North Dakota, California and Hawaii are all pulling for the Bruins. That is … hard to figure.
The results for this analysis were right in line with the way the Twitter winds were blowing prior to the Patriots-Chiefs AFC Championship Game, when almost the entire country was frothing at the mouth to see Tom Brady and Bill Belichick go down in Kansas City. As we saw then, the Patriots were unaffected by all of those people desperate to bear witness to their demise. The Bruins now hope to manage their own situation similarly.