Poll: Hockey?

[Torrasque]

I've been a Bruins fan for about 4 years now, and to prevent a flame war between me and the OP, that is all I'll say.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I live in Canada. It is law that I must be a hockey fan.

I also live in Calgary, and therefore must cheer for the Flames.

And since you like Vancouver, you are now my mortal enemy (just like if you cheer for the Oilers).

Wow, the very first post took my exact words.

 

[SwishiestB0g]

Been skating since I was 2, watching hockey even before that.
Hockey is life for me. Been hard to watch the whole concussion thing erupt, as I'm now on my second one and haven't been able to do much.

I'm a Leafs fan though, it's getting worse for me.

 

[Kyrian007]

I don't live in a traditionally "hockey" area, but I've loved it since my first play of EA's NHL (I think it was 93.) I'm a mid-westerner, so Go Blackhawks. My home city picked up a minor league team around the same time. Been a season ticket holder for years.

 

[guitarsniper]

Hockey: It's like Football (american) without the pauses between people hitting each other. also, i live near san jose, so i get to be happy most of the season and then sad when the playoffs roll around.

 

[Smooth Operator]

To an extent, every year I go on youtube and check out the best hockey fights.

 

[Audemas]

I'm a huge hockey fan and I have been since I was six years old. Being from Philadelphia I am a Flyers fan and I cheer for every Philly team except for the Eagles. I've gone to twelve games over the past four seasons and each game I've gone to was a win.

 

[Vegosiux]

Why yes. Yes, I am. Tho I shall throw in a little stinky sock here and say that I'm not a fan of NHL as much, I prefer the Scandinavian and Russian hockey style - more skating, technique and finesse, less contact play.

 

[photog212]

Hey guys, I was just wondering how many of the escapists were hockey fans, and what your teams are. I'm a Vancouver fan myself.

Yes, I'm a big hockey fan. One of my favorite things is watching my Hawks make Luongo cry like the little ***** that he is.

LET'S GO HAWKS!!!!!

(cheers mate, hope to see your guys in playoffs)

 

[photog212]

I was a huge Atlanta Thrashers fan while the team was here in Georgia. I'm just generally a hockey fan these days, even if I do absolutely loathe Pittsburgh and Winnipeg.

Well. The fanbase in Winnipeg, anyway.

That's interesting, you see, I really started getting in to hockey more when an NHL team moved here this year. I say more because I played when I was younger. Also we fill up the seats.

Then you completely missed out on what the "fanbase" in Winnipeg put us through. Two solid years of "WE'RE GONNA GET YOUR TEAM HA HA HA LOSERS HA HA" and waves of shitheads from Winnipeg coming to gloat on our team's official forums after the deal went through tends to sour a man on his fellows, you know?

If I told you how many times I had to hear that I don't deserve a hockey team and should go back to watching NASCAR because I'm an "inbred, backwoods, woman-beating redneck," I doubt you'd believe me.

PS
It's not hard to fill up a 15,000 capacity building. We did that here in ATL for several years, and that was AFTER the Atlanta Spirit LLC bought the team and did every damn thing they could to destroy it.

17,000+ fans avg at games when Turner owned the team. Add that to the fact that we sold out our only two playoff games, and I'd say you HAD a recipe for success. I could rant about that all day, though.

I believe the "we're gonna get your team was more directed at Pheonix. I really only heard about Atlanta in the last month or so before the deal was made. I'm sorry that you hate Winnipeg (have you ever been here?) because of this and I was only playfully jabbing you over the seats thing. I don't believe in stereotypes about the south like you mentioned and haven't heard stuff like that in my area, people are much to busy being racist towards the local aboriginals.

You didn't spend a lot of time around the Thrashers forums, then. We were constantly bombarded with crap like that. Every time there was even the hint of a rumor, our community got flooded by Winnipeggers. It was ridiculous.

I don't hate Winnipeg, for the record. I just hate the hockey fans there. Is it fair? No, maybe not. I tried being nice to a lot of them I met and got the same BS thrown in my face. I'm done being nice.

Atlanta's loss of the Thrashers was a true tragedy indeed. Every time I see the Philips arena (or that whole area of the city really) I just get depressed. It's like, dead over there now. The Thrashers would've been fine if Kovalchuck wasn't such a greedy Russian pig and stayed their number one star. He would've kept the team alive. Instead we got some strange ambiguously black guy that nobody liked.

The team was doomed long before Kovalchuk left. We had Marc Savard. Dany Heatley. Dan Snyder (who was killed in a crash when he was riding with Heatley). Marian Hossa. Pascal Dupuis. Rich Peverley.

All of those guys I mentioned? All of them have been to the playoffs. The obvious (Snyder) aside, all of them have Stanley Cups to their names. The ATlanta Spirit LLC did every damn thing they could to kill the Thrashers. The only TV adverts I saw were on commercial breaks during the hockey game I was watching, on the network that was broadcasting it.

It's also hard to make money when you tell your season ticket holders to "deal with it" when they bring up that you pretty clearly don't give a crap about their team. Ownership killed hockey in Atlanta- for the second time.

Being from Chicago, I can sympathize with having your team owned by a total asshole. An original six team in the shitter, no home games on TV, Outrageous prices for seats, so on and so forth. The day old man Wirtz died and his son Rocky took over was a good day for us.

 

[AMX58]

go penguins

 

[Rin Little]

Definitely a hockey fan, and it's the Pittsburgh Penguins all the way for me.

 

[Lionsfan]

Been a die-hard Red Wing fan since I was born, and I play every now and again, nothing really serious though. And I always get a laugh when some organizations try to say how great they are when some of our players have more Rings than their entire franchise

 

[PunkyMcGee]

no hockey is lame. It should be obvious this is a joke based on my avatar.

I've been a B's fan my whole life. and paying these dues has finally payed off.

 

[Heaven's Guardian]

Admittedly, this is a pretty biased sample because not very many people with no interest in hockey are going to come vote on this poll. That said: Montrealer, ergo Habs fan. I even have a backyard ice rink (sadness at being away from it for college). Let's go les Boys!

 

[Nooh]

Although I live in Sweden, I try to keep check of SM-Liiga and the NHL as much as I can, naturally I watch the Swedish Elite League as well. When it comes to the NHL, I am on Minnesota's side. Born to be Wild!

...mostly just because of Mikko Koivu, Niklas Bäckström and the awesome logo, but still.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Yes, but I'm also Canadian so it nearly comes with the territory. Heh

Despite growing up in Winnipeg, my favourite team has always been the Montreal Canadiens. Too bad it's been rather hard to be a Habs fan this season. :/

Oh well, I just keep hoping that a Canadian team walks away with the cup this year. Heck, I'd even be cheering for the Leafs if they made it that far and I'd never cheer for them otherwise. Actually, what am I saying.. the Leafs playing for the cup? lol

 

[GrandmaFunk]

it's the only sport I enjoy watching but my interest in committing time to watching/following it varies from year to year. only watched half of 2 games this year.

mostly a Sens fan but really I'll cheer for anyone playing against the Habs...their horrible run this year has filled me with happiness.