If you're a Red Wings fan, this is going to make you smile and say "of course." A third annual poll in The Athletic has the Detroit Red Wings' TV broadcast team ranked number 1 this season in what equates to a popularity contest. That's not to disparage Ken Daniels or Mickey Redmond, but that is what it really is.

In Michigan, for those that can watch the games on Bally Sports Detroit (which is less and less as the regional sports network disappears from more venues), Ken and Mick are great. The best description of Redmond comes from the story's authors, Sean Shapiro and Harman Dayal:

"As one Red Wings fan put it, Redmond’s delivery is like, “watching the game with your hockey smart grandfather that you actually like.”

Redmond, who turns 75 in December, is in the broadcast wing of the Hockey Hall of Fame. His playing career spanned from 1967 to 1976, first with Montreal and then Detroit. He has been calling Red Wings games for some four decades, having worked with the late Dave Strader, Mike Goldberg, and for the past 25 seasons with Ken Daniels, who himself had a distinguished career in Canada before moving to Motown in the late 1990s.

(Bally Sports Detroit via YouTube)

While Daniels and Redmond are deserving, two seasons ago they finished 23rd, then 8th last season. Those kinds of results do call the methodology into some question.

If Steve Yzerman's Red Wings are about to be a lot better, those games will be even more entertaining.

(On a side note, Battle Creek native John Ahlers and his broadcast partner Brian Hayward finished 31st out of 32, calling the Anaheim Ducks (with the reasoning being some think Hayward's commentary is biased for the home team.)

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