An Exclusive Look at Some #NHLTwitter Conversation Data & Hashtags Ahead of Puck Drop
The Rangers’ Twitter game stepped up last season.
Today is opening night for the NHL in North America, and Twitter is unveiling some data on #NHLTwitter from the 2021-22 season as official team hashtag emojis are rolling out for the upcoming season. #HockeyTwitter is certainly an “interesting” place, and it is reportedly becoming more global in nature. Per the data, 39% of NHL conversations came from fans outside the United States.
The Rangers are a United States team based in a major metropolitan market so a major focus of this will be on them and where they fit in. Blueshirt Banter was given an early look at some data ahead of the release, and the results seemingly reinforce a shift that’s been made by the New York Rangers on the platform.
The Rangers haven’t always been very engaging and interactive on social media, but things have certainly changed in recent years. According to data shared with Blueshirt Banter, the Rangers were the most mentioned team account in the entire NHL last season.
The top 10 is as follows:
- New York Rangers (@NYRangers)
- Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche)
- Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs)
- Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning)
- Pittsburgh Penguins (@Penguins)
- Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes)
- Edmonton Oilers (@edmontonoilers)
- Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins)
- Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights)
- Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL)
Last season the Rangers had reoccurring segments on Twitter, with one of the more popular ones being Off the Boards. The team recently teased Season 2, and here’s to hoping the content this season makes up for the Mean Tweets video that was teased but ultimately never released.
This season they are off to a hot start, with a recent video including a Junior Rangers report asking players various questions, resulting in some good fun.
Because one episode wasn't enough for Deklan to teach Fil about all the different kinds of pasta that exist. 🥲 pic.twitter.com/YK0q1h666Z
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 9, 2022
Last year the team started leaning into popular things from #RangersTwitter like the ever budding bromance of Kreidbanejad.
The moment pic.twitter.com/5MBbedtaRS
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) April 6, 2022
Many fans waited for postgame tweets involving the two, and it was one of the few things that they used to garner engagement from followers.
In addition to tons of people being in the mentions of @NYRangers, the Blueshirts also saw their team hashtag, #NYR, get the second-most mentions during the 2021-22 season. They finished behind the Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche, and here’s the rest of the top 10.
- Colorado Avalanche - #GoAvsGo
- New York Rangers - #NYR
- Toronto Maple Leafs - #LeafsForever
- Vancouver Canucks - #Canucks
- Edmonton Oilers - #LetsGoOilers
- Montreal Canadiens - #GoHabsGo
- New York Islanders - #Isles
- Tampa Bay Lightning - #GoBolts
- St Louis Blues - #StlBlues
- Minnesota Wild - #mnwild
This season the Rangers will be using two one official hashtags, and all tweets using it them will be accompanied by the team logo. The hashtags are is #NYR. and #NoQuitInNY
As for the rest of the teams... here you go! The emojis are in the process of rolling out, so keep an eye for them to appear with tweets.
*Editor’s Note* Twitter has since said that each team will only have one hashtag. The updated list is as follows
- @AnaheimDucks – #FlyTogether
- @ArizonaCoyotes – #Yotes
- @NHLBruins – #NHLBruins
- @BuffaloSabres – #LetsGoBuffalo
- @NHLFlames – #Flames
- @Canes – #LetsGoCanes
- @NHLBlackhawks – #Blackhawks
- @Avalanche – #GoAvsGo
- @BlueJacketsNHL – #CBJ
- @DallasStars – #TexasHockey
- @detroitredwings – #LGRW
- @EdmontonOilers – #LetsGoOilers
- @FlaPanthers – #TimeToHunt
- @LAKings – #GoKingsGo
- @mnwild – #mnwild
- @CanadiensMTL – #GoHabsGo
- @PredsNHL – #Smashville
- @NJDevils – #NJDevils
- @NYIslanders – #Isles
- @NYRangers – #NYR
- @Senators – #GoSensGo
- @NHLFlyers – #FueledByPhilly
- @penguins – #LetsGoPens
- @sanjosesharks – #SJSharks
- @SeattleKraken – #SeaKraken
- @StLouisBlues – #stlblues
- @TBLightning – #GoBolts
- @MapleLeafs – #LeafsForever
- @Canucks – #Canucks
- @GoldenKnights – #VegasBorn
- @Capitals – #ALLCAPS
- @NHLJets – #GoJetsGo/
Lastly, there is also some individual player data, but no Ranger player finished within the top 10. This isn’t that surprising considering many players aren’t all that active, but here’s the top 10 for good measure with some details of note.
- Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs (@AM34)
- Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals (@ovi8)
- Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers (@cmcdavid97)
- Claude Giroux, Ottawa Senators (@28Cgiroux)
- Trevor Zegras, Anaheim Ducks (@TZegras11) - his follower count is up 158% since the start of last season
- Nazem Kadri, Calgary Flames (@43_Kadri)
- Evander Kane, Edmonton Oilers (@EvanderKane_9)
- Robin Lehner, Vegas Golden Knights (@RobinLehner)
- Mitch Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs (@Marner93)
- Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche (@CMakar8) - his follower count is up 87% since the start of last season
Zegras is someone who likes having fun, and certainly turned heads when he pulled off this move during a game vs. the Buffalo Sabres.
— Trevor Zegras (@tzegras11) December 8, 2021
I will be interested to see how things shape up when the data is pulled at this time next year. With the Rangers taking strides as a team, I wonder if we will see some individual players take steps forward online as well. If a Ranger were to end up in the top 10 for individual players, who do you think it will be? I think it could be someone like Ryan Reaves given his existing following, but I am interested to see what you think.
