Give me some explanations, why Canadian hockey fans are reacting so strange

[The Gr8 Dane]

Everyone I spoke with before the game yesterday here in Toronto was going for the Oilers. Even several ladies in their late 60s/early 70s. I suspect many people wanted McDavid to get his cup and for a Canadian team to win.
Its now 31 years in a row in which no Canadian team has won a cup. If one were to run a statistical analysis in which the null hypothesis is that Canadian teams and US teams have the same likelihood of winning the cup, it would be rejected.
If you placed 7 white balls and 23 red balls in a bag and picked one at random with replacement and repeated this 31 times, the probability all 31 are red is about 1 in 3777.
In other words, something is going on that suggests Canadian teams are disadvantaged.. the math doesnt lie.

Yeah garbage management is the reason , but blame the weather and taxes when the entire country's teams were ran by absolute neanderthals

 

[Craig Button]

The Stanley Cup isn’t about Canada vs US.

If it was Canada would be winning it every year

 

[njdevils1982]

"bring the cup home to canada" is an asinine thought

 

[StreetHawk]

Yeah garbage management is the reason , but blame the weather and taxes when the entire country's teams were ran by absolute neanderthals

Too many clubs have the philosophy of we can't rebuild in this market. Yeah, cause you are charging top end prices for a rebuilding team and won't take the financial hit to do it properly. You want the short term money.

That was Van during the Benning era, Flames the past couple, flipping Tkachuck for now players,

In college sports, fans don't care that other clubs in their conference win titles. Unless it's OSU winning the Natty, they couldn't care less and don't want Michigan, PSU, or any other team in the Big10 to win it either. Same with SEC. Bama wasn't cheering on Georgia and vice versa.

 

[EpochLink]

It's like in the NFL, why cheer for a division rival team?
Its like saying a Niners fan will cheer for the Cowboys, or the Raiders cheer for the Chiefs.
Heck no, same thing applies to Canadian teams cheering for other Canadian teams.

No chance, the media in this country are the ones obsessed with it.
That Boston Pizza commercial was probably the worst one I've seen, they overcharge their food and the service is terrible.

 

[Dingo]

All the non-hockey fans in my world were cheering for Edmonton as "Canada's team"

All the Oilers fans were the same as before, except louder.

Most, but not all, the fans of other teams were cheering against the Oilers.

I think that fans of other Canadian teams want their team to be the one to break the drought, coupled with - its annoying when everyone starts acting like they care about hockey all of a sudden. (I actually dont mind, I did when I was younger, but now its just nice to see people positively excited about something)

 

[Bradely]

I am a hockey-fan from Austria. And I know, my country is no big deal in hockey. But a t least in this years world cup we could go into overtime against Canada. And beat Finland. An in my part of our land (Carinthia) hockey plays an important role...

I've been following the NHL for about 25 years now. And to be honest: I was always cheering for the Canada based teams. IMHO Canada is ice-hockeys homeland. So I was always sad, when Canadian teams lost in the Stanley-Cup-finals.

What I do not understand: In all these finals - when I was going through the forums afterwards - it was strange to see, that most Canadian fans were happy, that the Canadian team lost, no matter if it was Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Edmonton.

Look, it is now more than 30 years, that the cup is away from Canada. For me that is a shame. So why do Canadian fans give the impression, that they are happy with it? Is there nothing like patriotism? No national pride? And don't tell me, that this is of no importance, because the majority of players in US-based franchises are Canadians!

I simply don't understand that inter-Canadian-hate, that self-humilitang attitude. And can anyone tell me, why there are so few Canada based franchises? Is no one in Canada, who has money interested in hockey. Who needs another team in the US? Who needs for example a Utah-hockey-club?

Back in 1987, while travelling through AUstralia, I met a Canadian guy, a huge hockey fan. I remember him telling me: "We hate the Russians, cause the beat us so often." It seems to me, there a change: Now Canadians hate themselves and love the United States.

For my part: I prefer Canada...

SO: Can anyone give me some explanations.

Greetings from Austria!

Karl-Heinz

For me, it is not a question of US or Canada. Some American team do have more Canadian then some Canadian team.

 

[BleedBlueNYR]

The country is freaking huge what patriotism do I share with a guy that lives across the globe from me lol. I'm a fan of hockey and my team , would a guy from New York cheer for a team from California because they are in the same country?

Personally I hope no canadian teams ever wins aside from mine.

Never lol. Only way is if they played a direct rival of the Rangers (icelanders, NJ, Flyers, etc.).

 

[mogs]

How hard is this to understand? A hockey team based in Canada is not Team Canada. We will all be cheering for the same team at the next Olympics. Until then, no. The NHL is a professional league, not an international tournament.

 

[NikolaTesla]

Im canadian and my fav team is montreal and i was rooting hard for Edmonton to win. Oh well still a great run.

 

[Gary Bets Man]

If it was Vancouver who won, how much time would the cup spend in canada? A quick look at their roster has just 8/39 players from Canada.

Also, the cup lives in Toronto most of the itme anyways.

 

[Oddbob]

It is the Stanley Cup Playoffs, not the Olympics or World Championships. Most teams in the NHL have about the same amount of Canadian players on them as any other team. When a Canadian team wins a Cup it isn't Canada winning a Cup, it is an NHL team winning the Cup. Never got that narrative, that Canadians should care that another team they aren't a fan of wins or not.

 

[VictoriaJetsFan]

'Canada' is not a unified country. Its history is rife with infighting, separatist movements and regional resentment toward Toronto/Ottawa. I have traveled to every province and lived in Winnipeg, Victoria and Vancouver. Canada is actually 7 countries stitched together.

Given the right political crisis, Canada is weak and fragile and could break up into pieces.

A lot of Canadians will be angry with this, but given the times now is the time to speak the truth, not sugar coat it. All of this spills into other parts of the culture.

 

[Peltz]

I never understood the notion that Canadian fans should root for another team that isn't their team, that also happens to play in Canada.

I don't like other American teams.

I don't like anybody. I don't like my own team.

I don't even like myself.

 

[Machinehead]

I don't even like myself.

We like you. And we like your avatars.

 

[Drake1588]

Canadians cheer like hell for their national team, but they cheer for their club team against their fierce rivals in the NHL.

Compare it with football in Europe. Once their team is out, should Barcelona fans have to cheer for Real Madrid in the Champions League simply because it's also a team in Spain? Most would say "of course not; that's a fierce rival of ours in La Liga." By and large, the Eastern Canadian teams are all fierce rivals with one another, and the same is true of all the Western Canadian teams. The hate is less across conferences.

I'd also argue that cheering for a remaining Canadian team is more of a media-generated idea than something that is organic among fans. The networks just don't want the ratings to tank when Canadian teams get eliminated. When it's all clubs based in the US that remain, those numbers crater. As long as there is one Canadian team left, the networks play the nationalism card hard to see if they can hold interest outside of the one city remaining. It's not a grass roots thing, though, and enthusiasm for it is minimal.

I always find that in Europe, there is also a lack of understanding of scale in North America. Each of the US and Canada is enormous, continental in scope. You have a lot less in common with someone in a state or province halfway across the country than people across many smaller European countries have in common with one another. It takes six hours to fly across the country. LA and NYC is like Lisbon to Istanbul. So are Halifax and Vancouver. That may help explain regional rivalries.

 

[5 14 6 1]

Hardcore fans dont root for other teams, casual Canadian fans will

Always wondered if the majority of Canadians root for the Blue Jays in baseball (particularly Expos fans) and the Raptors in basketball considering they are Toronto teams? I assume they would follow the US team nearest their city rather than support a Toronto team.

Definitely Jays and Raps are the #1 teams, especially the Jays

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Contrary to what the name may imply, the National Hockey League doesn't have nations competing. Canada cannot ever win the cup. There is nothing for all Canadians to cheer for together.

Wait until you hear about what’s happening next year at the all star break

 

[God]

Let me put this in terms Europeans can understand.

Were Barcelona fans cheering for Real Madrid in the Champions League Final to win it for Spain?

Didn't think so.

This is 100% correct, and just to add onto it with a more accurate analogy, France hasn't won a Champions League since Marseille in 1993 and you can bet your ass Marseille/Monaco/Lille weren't cheering for PSG in 2020. Neither would Porto for Sporting CP, neither would Inter for AC, and vice versa.

If any Canucks fan was cheering for the Oilers this year, they're free to go join that fanbase, and I know the true Oilers fans would feel the same way about any of their fans cheering for the Canucks if they make it to another final.

 

[Farmboy Patty]

This isn't really a country vs. country matter. It's a club level competition, no different from the Premier League or Bundesliga in football, or the NFL in football. I wouldn't expect an FC Augsburg fan to be happy when Bayern wins the Bundesliga just because they're both in Bavaria. I live in Pennsylvania, but does that mean I'm happy to see the Penguins do well, because they also represent Pennsylvania? No, not remotely. I'm more miserable when they win than when any other team does.

Sure, Canadians are (broadly) happy when Canada does well in international competitions, but the NHL is every club for itself, and always has been.

That is well put, but the thing of bringing the cup back to Canada (the birthplace) should carry some weight IMO as an outside observer.

 

[Else Ermine]

To completely not answer the OP; I'm a European Canucks fan living in Europe. Most of my hockey media consumption comes out of Canada. I find the nature of hockey coverage to be incredibly insular on a team level but Canada does at least acknowledge Canadian teams so I get the rivalry across the entire country.

My acquired natural state of is to lean against the Oilers and Flames due to divisional rivalry, and absolutely and utterly against Toronto for the reach of their fandom and the disproportionate media attention they get (which is totally understandable and justified based on the scale of the fan base).
The obnoxious Winnepeg, Montreal and Ottawa fans don't really reach me and I'd loosely be in favour of their teams having success.

In general US national pride is a bit much but then again so is Canadian hockey elitism. Beyond the Canucks I end up rooting for teams for specific individuals. As a back up going into the season I hoped the Oilers would win because of McDavid but also after three games of the final hoped Florida would sweep because that being funny was more important to me.

Every team has a proportion of fans that are truly annoying in their blind homerism combined with dumb hate for others but also in literally every fan base I find reasons to respect. The fervour of Canadian fan bases does give them extra points to me however that it would be hard for many US teams to match all other things being equal. But all other things are never equal and stupid stuff like jersey designs ultimately what's important to me in teams I don't follow.

 

[Farmboy Patty]

Let me put this in terms Europeans can understand.

Were Barcelona fans cheering for Real Madrid in the Champions League Final to win it for Spain?

Didn't think so.

Why would fans of two Spanish teams root for the other team in the finals?

 

[optimus2861]

It's a club level competition, no different from the Premier League or Bundesliga in football, or the NFL in football. (...)

Sure, Canadians are (broadly) happy when Canada does well in international competitions, but the NHL is every club for itself, and always has been.

I'd quibble with this interpretation for a couple of historical reasons. The Stanley Cup was originally a gift to the country of Canada and had nothing to do with professional or even world hockey supremacy. The NHL was originally founded as an all-Canadian league; what nation did you think the "N" stood for? The NHL didn't even gain exclusive control of the Cup for some years after it was founded.

Now, those initial conditions have long passed us by, but even after those things were no longer true, you still have the Cup and ice hockey holding a place in Canadian lore that go beyond it being a simple "club level competition." Very few people in Montreal from the 1950s to 1970s would have felt that way about it for instance.

So we end up with the two sets of fans: those who look at the Cup as just the club level competition, who care little who wins it if their own team doesn't, and those who do view it through the old Canadian lens and would like to have the Cup spend at least one year in the custody of a Canadian team after its three decade stay south of the border.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Patriotism is dumb in a club league imo. American teams winning the cup doesn't make hockey less Canadian. I have zero allegiance to Pennsylvania in this league for example. I would root for ISIS over the flyers.

 

[Coffey]

Canada is actually 7 countries stitched together.

Still better than 50 countries stitched together I suppose.

I would root for ISIS over the flyers.

This is what I love seeing.
I've seen some disgusting love for American regional rivalries in the last year, I'm glad some hate still exists.
I would cheer for anyone over Vancouver or Calgary and I pray they would do the same.