Lot of smart hockey people here...  makes me curious, is this mostly a hockey playing (played) crowd, or just a collection of smart fans that has no correlation to organized hockey?

This is clearly not the case for other sports, say Football, where many of us love the game but have never played... does that translate to hockey or do the many factors that limit its exposure and popularity in the U.S. mean it's mostly those who have played that are the passionate fans?