All Aboard The Canucks' Playoff Express!

Vancouver, BC - Vancouver Canucks fans are expecting big things from their team in this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs. A new BC Ipsos-Reid poll finds that nearly four-in-ten (37%) Canucks fans expect to see their team take a victory skate with the Stanley Cup in about two month's time. A further 11% expect the Canucks to lose in the Stanley Cup Finals. Most fans are looking past the Canucks' first round opponent, St. Louis Blues. Only 6% of Canucks fans think their team will lose in the first round. Two-in-ten (19%) fans expect the Canucks will be eliminated in the Conference Semi-Final (2nd round), while 26% think the Canucks will lose in the Conference Final (3rd round). Women are much more optimistic than men about the Canucks' chances. Five-in-ten (48%) women think the Canucks will win the Stanley Cup, compared to three-in-ten (28%) men.

"This is clearly boosterism" says Kyle Braid, Vice President of Ipsos-Reid in Vancouver. "But Canucks fans have been on the bandwagon all season, and with no team out there head and shoulders above the Canucks, why not pick the home team?"

Team Captain and regular season leading scorer, Markus Naslund, is the fans top choice as the team's most valuable player this season. Four-in-ten (42%) fans choose Naslund as MVP, with Todd Bertuzzi (27%) finishing in a solid second place. Veteran Trevor Linden (5%), goaltender Dan Cloutier (3%) and defenceman Ed Jovanovski (2%) are the only other players to get more than 1% mentions as regular season MVP.

He may not be seen as the team MVP, but Todd Bertuzzi gets the nod as the fans' favourite Canuck. One-in-four (23%) fans picks Bertuzzi as their favourite player, elbowing out runner-up Trevor Linden (22%) and third place Markus Naslund (17%). Other players getting more than 1% mentions include Dan Cloutier (4%), Ed Jovanovski (3%) and Matt Cooke (3%). Comments Kyle Braid, "Naslund's natural talent tends to makes his performance look almost effortless. Bertuzzi also produces on offence, but adds hitting and grit. Fans love a power forward."

The Canucks can expect some sizeable audiences for their playoff games. Fully one-half (49%) of all British Columbians plan to watch at least some of the Canucks' playoff games on television or in person. This includes the hard-core fans who plan to watch "all the games" (21%), as well as residents who plan to watch "most of the games" (14%) or "some of the games" (14%). Not all British Columbians, however, have caught the Canucks' playoff fever. Half (49%) plan to watch "very few of the games" (18%) or "none of the games" (31%).

These are the findings of a BC Ipsos-Reid poll conducted between April 3rd and 8th, 2003 among a representative cross-section of 659 British Columbian adults. These data are statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional, age and sex composition reflects that of the actual BC population according to 2001 Census data. With a provincial sample of 659, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results are within 1773.8 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult BC population been polled. The margin of error will be larger for population sub-groups. For example, several questions are based on a sub-sample of 337 "Canucks Fans". These "Canucks Fans" are defined as British Columbians who plan to watch "all", "most" or "some" of the Canucks' playoff games. The margin of error for the 337 Canucks fans is 1775.3 percent, 95 times out of 100.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Kyle Braid
Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid
(604) 257-3200