2011-12 NHL Season

[GFB]

Hating the Red Wings is like hating the smart, funny, pretty girl in high school who is always nice to everyone (even if she had one or two awkward years in middle school.. ). The only reasons to hate her are jealousy or if you still hold grudges from elementary school...

[HedleyLamarr]

If you perceive my response to this inquiry of yours as being more aggressive then you think is warranted, it's because I don't see this as simply a "question of curiosity." I see it as you thinking you have the right to tell some of the most hardcore and dedicated hockey fans in the world who they have a right to consider their team's rivals. Sorry, but that smacks me as pretty arrogant on your part. You don't see me telling you how Atlanta Falcons football fandom should work.

You weren't born here. You didn't grow up here. You're not a Leafs fan. You've never been to a Leafs/Wings game. I'll even go out on a limb and say you haven't watched very many of their match-ups on tv.

So pardon me if I take the "who do you think you are?" approach to your insistence that you know how to be a better Leafs fan then actually Leafs fans do.

Now the history, sure it all happened before my generation's time. So what? We're aware of it. We know it happened. And that knowledge is what makes a game with the Red Wings different from a game with the Sharks or Kings. You can say it doesn't matter all you want. For us, it effects how we view Leafs/Wings games.

As for the geographical thing? An anecdote. My friend and I, we're both Leafs fans. Just last week he and I got into a heated rivalry-fuelled debate with a Red Wings fan....from Markham. He's literally from a suburb of Toronto. Yet he's a Wings fan. He's part of that anti-Leafs contingent in southern Ontario and he's adopted the Red Wings as his team. Take it from someone who grew up and lives in this region, the geographical factor with the Wings plays a huge part in this. This Wings fan by the way? He's 20.

You had a Red Wings fan from Markham and two Leafs fans, all under 25, discussing the Leafs and Wings as if they were, in fact, rivals. No older fans were present. Just three guys born in the late 80s/early 90s. That proves to me that a rivalry between the teams still exists.

Arrogance is:

A - Saying that your team's fanbase is "the most hardcore and dedicated hockey fans in the world" when no one is calling it into dispute.

B - Starting your initial response with "I don't want to be perceived as a northern hockey snob".

C - For some inane reason, bringing up the Carey Price chants at the first Jets game that happened three months ago. Don't know why that was brought up, really. Certainly wasn't germane to the question.

Based on these three points, it's safe to say that these were mentioned because you're under the belief and assumption that you're, for all intents and purposes, a "better" hockey fan than I am. I simply asked how a team can be considered a heated rival when they play so infrequently compared to how often they used to play.

Saying "we know our history" was a cop-out answer, hence why I pressed on further. That's not arrogance. That's intellectual curiosity.

I'll even go out on a limb and say you haven't watched very many of their match-ups on tv.

That's because they aren't aired on national television annually here! And if national TV doesn't pick that up (and national TV loves the Red Wings)....it can't be that huge of a rivalry.

The only game that stands out between these two is the Detroit-Toronto opening night game a few years ago. But that was billed as "a matchup of two Original Six teams" and "a new NHL season has begun" instead of "a matchup of heated rivals".

I can say with certainty that Leafs fans, even the ones my age, still bring up the 1942 Stanley Cup Finals when it comes to "talking smack" with Red Wings fans.

I've never gotten the concept of bragging about accomplishments that happened before your time. Maybe that's what arrogant sports fans like to do, I guess.

And you never did answer my question about the biggest moment between Detroit and Toronto was since the early 90's. Maybe there isn't one, due to their rare matchups. Certainly isn't any defining moments that any hockey fan can vividly remember.

My issue with this whole exercise is, again, the arrogance of a hockey fan from Georgia telling Maple Leafs fans how their fandom should work and who they should and shouldn't consider a "rival." You don't have to get it, or even like it to be perfectly honest. If you're just simply curious about it then you have your answer and that should be enough. Don't presume that you know how we should act and think as hockey fans better then we do ourselves.

It's not arrogance to point out that "knowing your history" is a feigned response to why a team should be considered a heated rival.

I'm just pointing out that any rivalry between the two was a lot more heated in 1956 and 1993 than it is in 2012. Detroit may still be disliked, but dislike doesn't automatically translate into "heated rivalry".

[ninersdd]

Something tells me were on a collison course with the Canucks being the 3 seed and the Hawks being the 6 seed.

[wildwing64]

Something tells me were on a collison course with the Canucks being the 3 seed and the Hawks being the 6 seed.

With every other thread derailing into a Canucks VS Blackhawks flamewar, you'd think that would be the case

[Kramerica Industries]

I hadn't yet come here regularly in the past three years so the enveloping carnage of Blackhawks/Canucks yet.

Ergo, I'm hoping there is another playoff matchup between those two in 2012.

[CS85]

I hadn't yet come here regularly in the past three years so the enveloping carnage of Blackhawks/Canucks yet.

Ergo, I'm hoping there is another playoff matchup between those two in 2012.

For the sake of the boards, I hope not. Last year was ridiculous. I hate getting all ragey on people here that happen to be Canuck fans who are otherwise guys whose posts I enjoy. I hate that my incendiary temper gets all personally worked up over a goddamn hockey rivalry. I like the community here, I don't want to have to deal with bullheaded pissing contests again.

[The_Admiral]

the smart, funny, pretty girl in high school who is always nice to everyone

is fictitious

[Magnus]

I love this part from a Yahoo article on the Wings-Leafs proposed Winter Classic:

"The NHL is going to be OK with ratings in the U.S. dipping to a 2.0 if it makes enough coin to fund the Coyotes for the next decade. Theoretically, of course."

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

I hadn't yet come here regularly in the past three years so the enveloping carnage of Blackhawks/Canucks yet.

Ergo, I'm hoping there is another playoff matchup between those two in 2012.

For the sake of the boards, I hope not. Last year was ridiculous. I hate getting all ragey on people here that happen to be Canuck fans who are otherwise guys whose posts I enjoy. I hate that my incendiary temper gets all personally worked up over a goddamn hockey rivalry. I like the community here, I don't want to have to deal with bullheaded pissing contests again.

i hear fans of eagles, skins and giants talking smack about the cowboys. do i care? no. they can say my team sucks and all that, my reaction. who cares. its the internet, i don't care about anyones opinion.

[IceCap]

Arrogance is:

A - Saying that your team's fanbase is "the most hardcore and dedicated hockey fans in the world" when no one is calling it into dispute.

I said that to illustrate the sheer audacity that is you, someone who's never spent significant time in this part of the world telling us how we should root for our teams.

B - Starting your initial response with "I don't want to be perceived as a northern hockey snob".

C - For some inane reason, bringing up the Carey Price chants at the first Jets game that happened three months ago. Don't know why that was brought up, really. Certainly wasn't germane to the question.

You read that as arrogance? That was an honest attempt not to piss you off. I remember the :censored:fit southern fans, ex-Thrashers fans specifically, through after CBC's Price comments. If I come out saying "believe me we know our history" then you, based on what I've observed from southern hockey fans here, might have taken that as a backhanded slight when all I was doing was providing an answer to your question. So I brought up the Price incident to say "I know this didn't go over well, so trust me I'm not trying to be that."

I was actually trying not to agitate you.

Based on these three points, it's safe to say that these were mentioned because you're under the belief and assumption that you're, for all intents and purposes, a "better" hockey fan than I am.

Am I a better hockey fan then you? Na, I don't believe that. I also don't believe you're a better hockey fan then I am either though, so there's that.

What I do believe, however, is that I am a better Leafs/southern Ontario hockey fan then you are, simply because I was born and raised here. It's not arrogance to suggest I know the sports fandom landscape here better then you would.

I simply asked how a team can be considered a heated rival when they play so infrequently compared to how often they used to play.

You asked, I answered. I've been to games between the teams. I've talked to fans of both teams. I've been raised in this team's hockey culture. I can say, without sounding arrogant, that I know the hockey fandom of this area of the world better then you do. Just as it wouldn't be arrogance on your part to assume you know the hockey fandom in the southeast United States better then I would.

What is arrogant, though, is you deciding that the answers provided aren't "right," and that you're going to tell us the right way to act as Leafs fans. Someone who's simply intellectually curious finds the answers he's looking for and leaves it at that. Someone who's arrogant decides the answers aren't to his liking and tries to change things because he thinks he knows better.

[CS85]

I hadn't yet come here regularly in the past three years so the enveloping carnage of Blackhawks/Canucks yet.

Ergo, I'm hoping there is another playoff matchup between those two in 2012.

For the sake of the boards, I hope not. Last year was ridiculous. I hate getting all ragey on people here that happen to be Canuck fans who are otherwise guys whose posts I enjoy. I hate that my incendiary temper gets all personally worked up over a goddamn hockey rivalry. I like the community here, I don't want to have to deal with bullheaded pissing contests again.

i hear fans of eagles, skins and giants talking smack about the cowboys. do i care? no. they can say my team sucks and all that, my reaction. who cares. its the internet, i don't care about anyones opinion.

Yet you're on a message board. There's supposed to be kind of a give and take there. I thought.

[RedSox44]

Hating the Red Wings is like hating the smart, funny, pretty girl in high school who is always nice to everyone (even if she had one or two awkward years in middle school.. ). The only reasons to hate her are jealousy or if you still hold grudges from elementary school...

Yes. I don't hate the Wings by any means (then again, I support a team in the eastern conference so...)

~~~~

the smart, funny, pretty girl in high school who is always nice to everyone

is fictitious

admiral strikes again. Well done.

[RedSox44]

dp

[RedSox44]

3p, somehow.

[-kj]

No straight up wins and losses unless we get rid of the shootout because it's bullcrap

You rather have ties returned to the NHL?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Barring that, the 3-2-1-0 makes the most sense. If you were playing endless OT, then make it W-L. But don't decide wins and losses flat out on a gimmicky skills comp.

[Kramerica Industries]

New Jersey up 6-0 in Philly.

Should be another year where Philly's goaltending is the reason they go nowhere in the playoffs. That being with Bryzgalov being paid out of his ass to have solved that problem.

[DelayedPenalty]

No straight up wins and losses unless we get rid of the shootout because it's bullcrap

You rather have ties returned to the NHL?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Barring that, the 3-2-1-0 makes the most sense. If you were playing endless OT, then make it W-L. But don't decide wins and losses flat out on a gimmicky skills comp.

Have 1 player from each team do their best move then have the fans text to vote for the winner.

[BigEd76]

New Jersey up 6-0 in Philly

The Flyers scored 4 goals in a 10-minute span to make it 6-4

[Kramerica Industries]

Well isn't that something.

Reminds me of a game a few years back when the Lightning were playing well, then had a game against Boston where they fell behind 5-0, rallied to make it 5-4 and only fell short because they ran out of time.

Then again, that Lightning team sucked, and they were never the same after that game.

[Kevin W.]

No straight up wins and losses unless we get rid of the shootout because it's bullcrap

You rather have ties returned to the NHL?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Barring that, the 3-2-1-0 makes the most sense. If you were playing endless OT, then make it W-L. But don't decide wins and losses flat out on a gimmicky skills comp.

I don't see why the 3-1-0 system like in soccer wouldn't work for hockey.