How do you choose the team you root for?

[jalapenoWithAnH]

It's obvious that one of the main reasons for people to root for a team in NHL is because it's their home town's or home state's team. But is there something else that gets overlooked?

I live in northern Europe (Finland) so for me it's not clear at all. I've been following NHL for about a year now, since last playoffs, and I've basically followed teams because of few individuals: Pens because of Crosby and Stars because of the newly formed Finnish mafia. With lack of geographical connection the hierarchy of emotional connection to a team when it comes to different type of factors goes something like this for me:

1. Admirable player on and off the ice (Crosby)
2. Fellow countrymen in the same team (Dallas/Florida)
3. Highly skilled gameplay (McDrai/MacMak/MarMatt)
4. Underdog (St. Louis, Montreal)
5. Great fan culture / history (Toronto, Montreal)
6. Youthful team/bright future (Sharks, Montreal)
7. Aesthetics of jerseys (Red wings, Canucks)

But now I'm in a pickle because come next saturday Stars and Pens will face each other. And so I'm thinking "who should I root for here?". Obviously a win doesn't matter for Pens at this point. But I do respect Crosby the most out of anyone on those two lineups. But then again Stars have five of my countrymen on their team and they deserve to win as they have won 7 games in a row, so I'll probably root for Stars.

How do you choose which team(s) to root for?

 

[ShootIt]

Local. Was on the TV often. By the time I was watching the Panthers, Bure was recently added to the team so they had an exciting "superstar" and weren't too far off from the 96 run.
Friends at school also watched hockey.
Then the dark almost 2 decade era hit. But stuck it out.
Over the years would watch teams like The Canucks with the Naslund-Morrison-Bert line which was fun to watch. Ovy in Washington was a love/hate player to watch. Hate as he always scored against us when they were divisional rivals.
Mike Modano in Dallas was someone I liked. Maybe some weird Nationality thing or cause Dallas had cool jerseys.

But was always a Panthers fan.

 

[Jared Grayden]

Was five playing hockey and my father said I reminded him of Lemieux. So I became a Penguins fan. It was only years later when I asked him why he made that remark that he revealed he was referring to Claude and not Mario. Which makes sense as I played RW and took a lot of penalties.

 

[Suntouchable13]

In soccer, non-local fans choose the richest biggest most historic clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Barcelona. I’d wager non-local hockey fans cheer the most for teams like Toronto, NYR, MTL, Boston, Detroit. Or you had a legendary player from your country play for a certain team and you can become a fan of them. Swedes could be Leafs fans because of Sundin, Salming, etc. Or they could root for Detroit because of Lidstrom, Zetterberg, etc.

 

[rojac]

I was raised a Leafs fan. Both my parents were Leafs fans as were both my maternal grandparents and my paternal grandfather. My grandparents' Leafs fandom want back to the early 1930s. When my dad died back in 2005 (the day before the end of the lockout was announced), the guys who used to work for him (he had been retired for a out eight years) sent a large bouquet of blue and white carnations in honour of hits love for the Leafs.

 

[Dirty Mind]

Didn’t care for hockey until I worked at what was then Skyreach Centre. I watched the game on my breaks and got hooked that way. Been watching the Oilers ever since.

Sure picked a great time to jump on the bandwagon: one Cinderella run in ‘06 surrounded by a bunch of crap.

McDavid era’s been great. No Cup yet, but beating our biggest divisional rivals (Calgary in ‘22 and Vancouver in ‘24) in the second round is still a pretty sweet memory. Felt great to shut those fan bases up. For Leafs fans it would be like beating the Habs and Sens in the second round. Cup(s) will come. Bottom line: players like McDavid don’t go Cup-less in their careers.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

 

[PolishPrince21]

My dad was a huge islander fan from 1975- in the building for the first and last cup. He took me to the playoff game between the rangers and islanders in 1990, the famous pat lafontaine game and i was only 6 years old. I had beer thrown on me by a rangers fan after Trottier scored to cut it to 2-1(which ended up as the final score for the rangers). I was crying being 6 years old and after the dude was thrown out and my dad had his words with him he told me thats why i hate these fans. Well ever since then i was an islander fan. Although these days being 40 i dont really hate the fans as much as i used to as a teen etc....

 

[elvisisalive]

I was 5 when my big brother got a coleeco hockey game for Christmas that had all the teams with it. I liked chicagos sweaters the best, then I got to watch them on tv against Toronto and was instantly hooked on how Tony Esposito played net, and that was it for me, 55 years later and still a fan of the team

 

[HabzSauce]

I'm from Montreal and spent my roots there before moving to Toronto. Never cared for hockey until I sat down to watch game 1 leafs vs sens in 2004. I was hooked ever since & started as a leafs fan because of it.

Then the lockout in 2005 I was obsessed with NHL on the fly - watched whatever I could. All the great playoff series in the 90's and early 2000s. Fell in love with the Devils because of Brodeur. Also loved other teams like Dallas, Philly & Buffalo but leafs were still my main.

Spent next two seasons cheering for the leafs including that 6-5 win over MTL in last game of 2007 season, ONLY to miss the playoffs by a point because of Wade Dubielewicz on the Islanders vs devils, where the isles won in a shootout & clinched last playoff spot.

After that I started watching more of the Habs and i fell In love immediately. I loved the colors, I loved the team, I loved the city - they had so much soul and I couldn't resist. I told myself yo im still young enough to switch teams, im from MTL, if I am going to switch teams it's now or never.

So I said bun the leafs & decided to main the Habs full time. Never looked back & that was honestly best decision I've ever made. Way more enjoyable of an experience cheering for MTL, I could not imagine being a leafs fan over the past 15 years instead.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Handed down to you by birth , or a location you live near or were born in. Province/State/City

Any other answer is just a bandwaggon

 

[Breakers]

Because of the current political climate

Only Canadian teams

That didn’t used to be the case once the playoffs hit.

 

[dangomon]

My dad moved to Canada from Greece and despite knowing nothing about hockey (or ice) he fell in love with the Leafs. Then being born in Toronto I was raised on Leafs' games and HNIC.

Alas, I've been sad ever since but have no plans to stop.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Grew up in New York so most of my sport teams are from the both east(Yankees, giants, Knicks, Michigan college sports), my family is all islanders and ranger fans, but I didn’t really fall in love with hockey until i moved to California, and saw selanne and kariya play live together

They got me to fall in love with hockey, and as I followed them I became more attached to the ducks/hockey.


I consider myself a hockey fan 1st…. Ill watch any game on tv and any league I can find… ducks usa and Michigan are just my top teams.

 

[HugeInTheShire]

My dad was a Flames fan so obviously I became an Oiler fan until Wayne Gretzky said the New Jersey Devils were a "Mickey Mouse Franchise" I was like 8 and I thought that was quite rude, so I decided I'd cheer for them. I've been a Devils fan ever since.

Still like the Oilers but the Devils are by far my top team

 

[Peasy]

Growing up there were Leaf games on TV so thats what I watched and cheered for. Little did I know it would bring me down this agonizing path for the rest of my life

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

I cheer for teams in high-tax municipalities. Then, when they lose, I blame the loss on low-tax municipalities.

 

[Monkey D Luffy]

If I may make my pitch to you good sir,

As a Jets fan (cause I've lived here my whole life) I believe we would be a great fit for you. Excellent team, most under dog of all under dogs for obvious reasons, Teemu Selanne, Laine legends here especially if you're Finnish. Might be a bandwagon time to join but the playoffs here are like no other with the whiteout and huge street party.

 

[jalapenoWithAnH]

If I may make my pitch to you good sir,

As a Jets fan (cause I've lived here my whole life) I believe we would be a great fit for you. Excellent team, most under dog of all under dogs for obvious reasons, Teemu Selanne, Laine legends here especially if you're Finnish. Might be a bandwagon time to join but the playoffs here are like no other with the whiteout and huge street party.

How would you say you are underdog as your team is leading the West in points?

 

[Summer Rose]

Always been one to go for the local team, which, luckily for me, there generally was one available. Things started getting a little strange though when I moved states and one of my teams moved, and then I got back into a sport after not caring for it for a while. For reference, I was born and raised in Arizona, and I now live in Gainesville, Florida.

Hockey - started with the Coyotes, adopted the Bolts as a second team. Stuck with the Coyotes when they moved to Utah.
Football - started (and am still with) the Cardinals, adopted the Buccaneers as a second team.
Baseball - started with the Diamondbacks, but then stopped watching baseball. When I got back into it, I was married to a big Rays fan, so I became a Rays fan, but got back into the Diamondbacks somewhat as a second team.
Basketball - been variously through phases of being into the Suns and not caring at all for the NBA. As it currently stands, I ignore the NBA outside of watching the Suns in the playoffs when they're good. The Orlando Magic don't interest me.
Soccer - this one's weird because there wasn't much of a local team in Arizona, although I did once attend a US Open Cup match between Arizona United SC (as they were then called) and the LA Galaxy (who basically fielded their B/reserve side and still won). Didn't want to bandwagon one of the big clubs so I wound up following the Blackburn Rovers for a few years for no good reason, then found out that I didn't actually really like soccer much so I stopped watching it except for US national team (both men's and women's) matches.
Rugby/cricket - was gotten into these sports by someone from New Zealand, so I ended up watching (and somewhat rooting for) the All Blacks and Blackcaps, even though I'm American. The USA national teams in each of these sports kind of suck, but I root for them anyway.
College sports - Arizona State University in anything. Don't really care about the local university (the University of Florida) but have been to two of their baseball games, and I watched one (and maybe two but I don't remember) Gators football games last year.

 

[94 Oil Drops]

I was born in St. Albert, a small city which is just outside Edmonton so my reason for being an Oilers fan is mainly being a local. The fact that Gretzky played here was also a major plus. Mark Messier was born and raised in the same city as me too so that's neat.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

It's obvious that one of the main reasons for people to root for a team in NHL is because it's their home town's or home state's team. But is there something else that gets overlooked?

I live in northern Europe (Finland) so for me it's not clear at all. I've been following NHL for about a year now, since last playoffs, and I've basically followed teams because of few individuals: Pens because of Crosby and Stars because of the newly formed Finnish mafia. With lack of geographical connection the hierarchy of emotional connection to a team when it comes to different type of factors goes something like this for me:

1. Admirable player on and off the ice (Crosby)
2. Fellow countrymen in the same team (Dallas/Florida)
3. Highly skilled gameplay (McDrai/MacMak/MarMatt)
4. Underdog (St. Louis Blues/Mtl)
5. Great fan culture / history (Toronto)
6. Youthful team/bright future (Sharks, Montreal)
7. Aesthetics of jerseys (Red wings, Canucks)

But now I'm in a pickle because come next saturday Stars and Pens will face each other. And so I'm thinking "who should I root for here?". Obviously a win doesn't matter for Pens at this point. But I do respect Crosby the most out of anyone on those two lineups. But then again Stars have five of my countrymen on their team and they deserve to win as they have won 7 games in a row, so I'll probably root for Stars.

How do you choose which team(s) to root for?

We’ll see I’ve always been a nihilist. I was born into darkness, loathing, and hate, and so rooting for the Sabres and their Sisyphean efforts- just came naturally.

 

[wasup]

Dart board

 

[Bring Bak Damphousse]

my advice is to just watch hockey, sooner or later the team chooses you. My city has a team, I don’t cheer for them, my parents hate hockey so it was never on in the house. I started collecting Cards as a kid, not knowing anything about the sport other than I liked the cards (90s pro-set) started collecting goalies, and this guy Patrick Roy was pretty hot at the time. Been a hab fan ever since.

 

[HomeAndHome]

I've lived in SW Ontario my whole life and watched countless Leafs games as a kid because they were the team on TV... but my two uncles both liked the Habs and they were the coolest dudes I knew so it was an easy choice for me. As a smaller kid I looked up to S Koivu alot too, which helped solidify my life long fandom