Top Ten Stupid Things Hockey Fans Do
I live in a country that is packed to the rafters with hockey fans. This list compiles the stupidest, most ignorant, and most annoying things that they have been known to do (mostly in arenas during the game).If you're watching a Montreal Canadiens home game, expect lots of booing. They will boo if a clean check is given to one of their players and the opposing player doesn't get a penalty. Conversely, they will boo if one of their players gets a penalty when they darn well deserve it. They will even boo at their own players if they aren't playing well enough.
Don't let any Canadiens fan fool you. They are not the most loyal hockey fan base by a long shot. They can be downright miserable towards their own team.
If you watch hockey enough, chances are you've noticed the "BANG BANG BANG BANG" that happens about fifty times every game. That's the problem with rinkside seats. The fans are always banging the stupid glass whenever a player skates by.
What are they thinking will happen? Are they expecting Sidney Crosby to go, "Hey! Those guys are trying to get my attention. I am going to go and strike a pose in front of them"? Honestly, it's the most annoying and boneheaded thing during a game. The stupid sound echoes throughout the whole arena when you're actually there during a game, too.
After a hat trick (3 goals by the same player in a game), it's an expected response from the fans to throw their hats onto the ice. But just because you know a great place to go and buy fresh dead octopus doesn't mean you should sneak it into a game and chuck it on the ice to delay the game.
The same goes for chickens (in one case, there was a live one thrown), dead bats, rubber bats, rubber anything else, and food. It's a nuisance for the cleaning crew. It can throw a team off rhythm if they're showing strong offensive promise, and it can get you thrown out of the arena. Just don't do it.
Yes, we famously-polite Canadians can even start riots. When the Vancouver Canucks lost in the finals against the Boston Bruins back in 2011, all the angry fans watching the game from the streets took to burning cars and smashing building windows.
That was a really proud moment for our country, guys. Nice job. It was expensive, it was pointless, and it was pretty darn stupid.
Vancouver riots when they lose, Montreal when they win. Apart from costing your city a lot of money, tarnishing its reputation, and potentially getting yourself arrested, what does that accomplish? Certainly not the score of the game you're rioting over!
I know there will be a bunch of pro-fighting people shouting angry comments at me for this, but supporting fighting in hockey is just downright irresponsible. We are teaching our next generation to punch each other in the face, give concussions, and cause life-altering mental injuries. And for what?
"Because it's part of the game and it gives our team confidence," they say. What does that even mean? What should give a team confidence is knowing that they are the faster, stronger (mentally more than physically), and more skillful team and that they are superior players who know what sport they're playing. Hockey.
I don't see how acting like brainless savages contributes anything to a game that is supposed to represent good sportsmanship and top-quality skill. I will never condone fighting in hockey. And if I haven't convinced you, just talk to the families of the players who committed suicide after obtaining brain damage from all the trauma to the head they received from fighting. By the way, that is a scientific fact.
People like Don Cherry believe that a player can take a "good penalty" every now and then. By that, he means that sometimes it's good for the players to cheat in order to "send a message" to the other team so that they'll get scared and stop cleanly body checking.
What a load of crap that is, eh? If referees did the sensible thing and actually blew the whistle every time a player did something illegal and immoral like charge, board, or slash another player, the game's speed and average skill level would skyrocket and make the game better. Players whose careers exist only to act as "enforcers" and slow down opposing players by cheating would cease to exist.
If you're going to call yourself a hockey fan, don't flip-flop from team to team when the team you follow isn't doing so well. So many "fans" that I know will swear that one team is "their" team and then switch over to a totally different one when that first team loses three games in a row.
Pick a team (for good reasons, not just because you like their jersey color or whatever) and stick with them. Or risk never being asked to take part in your friend's hockey conversations. (Of course, it's ok to like other teams besides your #1 choice.)
So many Leafs fans hate the Habs (Canadiens) and vice versa. Why? Because they have a rivalry. But I, being a Leafs fan, will watch and root for the Habs if they're a strong, skillful, respectable team, no matter what the history between them and my team is.
I will love the Leafs unconditionally because they're my team and they will always be #1, but since their playoff chances are shy of slim, I have to accept that another team has to replace them once the playoffs start. Right now, that team is Detroit (another rival of Toronto). They are a solid team and deserve to be appreciated for that very reason.
This one had to be here since so many people put the hurt on Crosby because he doesn't fight or because blah blah blah. He's one of the best players in the world, so people need to quit picking on him for no reason. I'd like to see anyone who openly bashes him try to play a game of one-on-one and see what happens.
When you're the best at what you do, you're going to be hated no matter what. Many greats have been classy, had much integrity, donated time and money to charities, yet they were still hated by many. It's a side effect of being great. People inevitably get jealous.
Nick Kypreos, a player-turned-hockey analyst on Sportsnet, frequently misjudges players based on their lack of a Stanley Cup win. Now, I know he's not a fan, but many fans do the same thing. Kypreos has criticized Mats Sundin, the former captain of the Leafs who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, by saying, "Did he ever win a cup?" Well, no, he didn't.
But let me tell you what he did do. He remained active for 20 years (most players play for less than 6 years on average). He was the first Swedish player to reach 1,000 points and the only Swedish player to score 500 goals. He has the most points and goals of any Swedish player.
Sundin is one of three players to score over 20 goals each season for his first 17 seasons. He was the first European-born player to be drafted first overall in the NHL entry draft. He is tied with one other player as the 21st highest goal-scoring NHL player of all time, 34th in career assists, and 27th in career points. He is tied for the fastest-ever overtime goal (6 seconds). He was captain of the Leafs for 11 years and holds the record for the most goals, assists, points, and assists in a single period (3) in Toronto's team history.
All of this he did while having to play alongside some of the lousiest players in the league (I'm looking at you, Tie Domi). If he had good players to pass to and play with, he would have been unstoppable. The records listed above are unimaginable, coming from a player who was basically alone on the ice in terms of skill.