There are some awesome insights in this poll. It’s one thing for media commentators to make remarks about players, coaches, officials, and arenas in the NHL, but it’s an entirely different thing to hear what the players think.

Of note:

• The best official in the game, with 47% of the vote, is Wes McCauley.
• Sidney Crosby is still considered the best player in the game by opposing players. 44% of players would choose Sid as the player to add to your team if you had to win one game.
• Sid is the sole current player to crack the top 5 players of all-time. In fact, he ranks 3rd. Not bad.
• It’s pretty clear ice quality is correlated directly to geography — the further south you go, the worse the ice gets.
• How in the world does that super loud “True North!” in Winnipeg only garner 4.3% of the player vote for the game’s best fans? It must be the blistering cold that continues to give Winnipeg a bad name.