Enlighten me NHL fans

There’s something I need you NHL fans out there to enlighten me on:

After last night’s home game against the Habs, today on the Canucks radio station poll they were asking whether our fans were 1) Annoyed by the amount of folks who were wearing the Habs jersey and cheering for them at GM Place, or 2) Happy with it because it adds to the atmosphere.

Now, I am going to try to put away my bias against the NHL as much as I could……but how could any fan of any sport even start to imagine being annoyed by the fact that the away team has a following, and may I argue a following that is actually more devoted than our home crowd at our home ground? I mean, to say that we were annoyed sounds to me like a little baby whinging about because someone else is doing a better job!

As for adding to the atmosphere, lol, what bloody atmosphere?! “BOOOOOOO”, or “GO CANUCKS GO”, or “YEAHHHHH”. The awesome spirit of the Great White North, eh?

Back on topic.

Or, are they really just getting at the fact that all these Habs fans really are just Vancouverites who are gloryhunting plastic fans who chose to wear the shirt of a more successful team than their own local team? Now, I can see why a Canuck might get annoyed by this.

But then again, even in that case, does it make much of a difference? I mean, the only difference at the end of the day between a “real” Canuck and a plastic Habs is that you are wearing a different shirt and “shouting” “BOOOO” and “GO HABS GO” instead of “BOOOO” and “GO CANUCKS GO”.

Canucks fans are so stupid and fickle.

Rant over.

Becoming a fan

Just this past week, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into considering whether the Canucks are picking me to become a fan (because I am a Calvinist: the club picks you and not the other way around).  I think there is no better time to become one than right now.

They are doing so, so very poorly right now.  What was it, 7 straight losses at home?  Which means great news because a good bunch of the plastics should be driven out by now.  No more of stupid girls raising up banners saying “Naslund, I wanna have your baby” because now they are probably too busy watching Gossip Girl now.

And there’s still enough of the season left for me to learn about the game, so I can be ready by the start of next season.

I have been listening to Team 1040 (the Canucks radio station) everytime I get in the car these days, and I was very pleasantly surprised when one of the pundits on there raised the point I have always tried to raise without success: there are way too many teams and games in the NHL for neither of them to matter.

I mean, if you look at, say, the Canucks, you see very little in them that is representative of the fact that they are a club from Vancouver.  There are no real rivalries against other teams (I reckon some might say we are rivals with the Oilers or Flames, but I have seen little evidence other than a few silly ‘BOOs’), no real chants or anthems that we are associated with.  The only thing I can see is that the fans are mostly half-arsed middle class fat asses (like myself, if I must say), which I guess IS representative of the population here.

I suppose that’s why all you hear people talk about are the stats and the players.  You very seldom hear anyone talking about the clubs themselves.

I mean, this is a bit like a Christian talking about the little things they do at church without ever referring to God.  They’ve totally missed the point.

Whereas, say, if you were to attend say Man Utd vs. Liverpool, you can probably easily trace a lot of their chants (yeah, they actually chant and sing) back to historical
events, and the cultures of the cities the teams are from.

Although, what is actually sickening is when they decide to play those lousy rock tunes on the PA everytime the play stops over here in North America. We are talking about fricking hockey (or baseball or soccer or football)  games, not a night out at the movies or circus for crying out loud.  Let the crowd make the atmosphere!

One of the goals I’ve set in the beginning of the new year is that I will go to at least 1 away match with the Whitecaps, be it against the Portland Timbers, Montreal Impact, or against Toronto FC (if I can get a ticket there, which seems unlikely).

Shame we won’t be playing against the Sounders anymore.  But I think it’d be fun to head down there when they play against Becks’ team.

A tribute to Trevor Linden (not really, more like another girl post)

So after having seen all those images of Vancouverites in their #16 jerseys, and hearing all about how great the tribute to Linden before the Oilers game went , I decided to spend a few moments pondering on the memories I have of this supposedly great inspiring man.

The only memory I have of Trevor isn’t of him on the ice – as you know how I’m like when it comes to hockey – but it was of the fine early morning in the summer of 2003 up at Grouse mountain, where a couple of my friends and I bumped into Trevor Linden and Dan Cloutier (totally coincidental, mind you).

That was by far the best summer of my life (not because of this encounter with Linden though, mind you).  It was the summer right after high school graduation, and right before entering into university. It was by far my whitest summer, where I did a lot of white things (like playing soccer barefoot, going hiking, etc.).

You see, we decided to go up for a hike on the Grouse Grind at 7AM that morning, because one of our friends (who’s actually in med school right now, brilliant gal) had to volunteer at some kiddies centre at 11AM in Richmond on the same day.

And as we finished our hike and headed for the tram to get down the mountain, we saw Trevor Linden and Dan Cloutier in there as well.  Apparently it only took them 30 minutes or so to finish the whole hike.

My friends got their autographs, I observed that Trevor drove a Ford Explorer (how down to earth), and that was that.

But you see, as you could probably have guessed, there’s no way I am going to dedicate a whole blog on some athlete who plays a sport I have no fancy for.

Many times I have explained explicitly that I only like girls who aren’t girly.  And I thought that this was the perfect example of what I mean.  This is important because several of my friends have started questioning my sexual orientation (because of statements like ‘I don’t like girly girls’, ‘I love Beckham’, ‘Banning gay marriage is just dumb’, etc.)

So, look back at that girl I just mentioned.

The girl who had to volunteer at 11AM but was invited by the rest of us to the hike so decided to compromise by getting all of us to hike early in the morning.  That girl.

Now, if you substitute in any regular girl instead, what you would end up getting is “ewww, I hate hiking”, or, “sorry I am busy that day, I have to volunteer at 11AM, have fun though”, or, “awww I am going to be so tired if I went, plus I still have to work after”, or, “we can go another time”.

But no, this girl didn’t act like any regular girly girl.

She analyzed the situation, found her heart’s desire, and made a radical adjustment to her (and our) original plan of action to accomodate for this whole thing.

That’s the sign of a leader.

That’s the sign of a not-so-girly girl.

And that’s the new sexy, baby.