norrisnick
The best...
- Apr 14, 2005
- 28,683
- 17,743
Spammed random on EA NHL94 for season mode. Then Fedorov sealed it. Helped that the Wings were good at that time...
How do you choose the team you root for?
- Thread starter jalapenoWithAnH
- Start date
Growing up in Florida, in the 70's - 80's, hockey was not on the radar. No write-up even in the newspaper. I was on a trip with my father, and the hotel was giving away tickets to the Colorado Rockies ( soon to become the Devil's the next year ). I remember it was during the week and the arena was 3/4 empty. As chance would have it, the Oilers were in town, and the Great One scored two and had two assists. I did know who Gretzky was, or that he was going to be the Great One. All I knew was the action of the game was nothing like I had ever seen. I was hooked as a hocket fan from that day.
Not having a team anywhere near Florida in those days, I was fans of players, more than of any certain team. When Tampa received a team is when I started rooting for them as my team. There were long dark years at the beginning, but the past 10 years have been great.
Not having a team anywhere near Florida in those days, I was fans of players, more than of any certain team. When Tampa received a team is when I started rooting for them as my team. There were long dark years at the beginning, but the past 10 years have been great.
number 5 made me laugh, thanks
GIN ANTONIC
Registered User
Uhhh... we'll give you a pass since you've only been following for a year but your points for #5 is a big time swing and a miss
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Liked the colours+ New York is my favourite city in the world (after my hometown, but we don't have NHL team, lol). That's it- and stayed loyal for nearly 30 years, and probalby for the rest of my life, for good and the bad.
HockeyVirus
Woll stan.
- Nov 15, 2020
- 16,295
- 34,411
It's brain washed into you before you have the ability to understand. My grand parents did it to my dad, he did it to me.
Now I am doing it to my daughter. She's only 27 months old but on weekends when there is early hockey I put it on and she gets very excited there is hockey on. Still working on only cheering when the blue team scores...
Now I am doing it to my daughter. She's only 27 months old but on weekends when there is early hockey I put it on and she gets very excited there is hockey on. Still working on only cheering when the blue team scores...
Derailed75
All time jerk
Born in Cleveland OHIO. So I was born and Browns, Cavs, Indians/Guardians, and Buckeyes fan. Moved to southern Va at 15 and started playing the EA NHL games. Not sure why but I always liked using the Bruins and became a fan of Borque, Oates, Neely. Joined the Navy and was stationed in Cali and watched the 96' Playoffs and the epic game 4 of the finals.
I got out of the Navy in 97' and moved back to Va just in time for the Whales to move to NC. I could pick up a Raleigh rock station that had a morning DJ that was a huge hockey fan (Chopper Harrison) and he had a lot of players that would come on his show along with Paul Maurice. While I was out of the area and could only keep up with them through the radio, when they played the Caps , the few National games, and the playoffs my fandom really took flight in the early 2000' with their series against the Devils and their epic underdog run to the cup.
I got out of the Navy in 97' and moved back to Va just in time for the Whales to move to NC. I could pick up a Raleigh rock station that had a morning DJ that was a huge hockey fan (Chopper Harrison) and he had a lot of players that would come on his show along with Paul Maurice. While I was out of the area and could only keep up with them through the radio, when they played the Caps , the few National games, and the playoffs my fandom really took flight in the early 2000' with their series against the Devils and their epic underdog run to the cup.
Djp
Registered User
I grew up in buffalo area so I'm a loyal Sabres/Bills ( NFL) fan.
Buffalo dudnt have a baseball team so I'm more agnostic on fav team. It's more associated to places I have lived over the years.
Growing up in buffalo we get on TV Toronto stations and we get their radio stations. When I was around 10 we got cable. I would ser gsmes from montreal and toronto on the Canadian iui sn stations. We would get independent stations from ny that had mets and Yankees. TBD aired Braves. I think we got wgn si ee saw Cubs games. Buffalo elevated to a AAA city. Thru cable wed get some games the AAA team was under.
My second team iui s nashville.
My brother has lived in nashville before the preds existed. His kids became hockey fans and preds fans. I avr follow them closely.
One if the areas ive lived in is philadelphia. I just cant like their yrams.
Buffalo dudnt have a baseball team so I'm more agnostic on fav team. It's more associated to places I have lived over the years.
Growing up in buffalo we get on TV Toronto stations and we get their radio stations. When I was around 10 we got cable. I would ser gsmes from montreal and toronto on the Canadian iui sn stations. We would get independent stations from ny that had mets and Yankees. TBD aired Braves. I think we got wgn si ee saw Cubs games. Buffalo elevated to a AAA city. Thru cable wed get some games the AAA team was under.
My second team iui s nashville.
My brother has lived in nashville before the preds existed. His kids became hockey fans and preds fans. I avr follow them closely.
One if the areas ive lived in is philadelphia. I just cant like their yrams.
Djp
Registered User
My brother was more of a football and basketball fan than hockey
His wife, also growing up in yhr sr yoen, was a hockey and football fsn.
I believe the kids being hockey fans was more on her.
They libr in nashville before the preds existed. Their first was born around when nashvilke started. She watched the team.
Because before Nashville they had lived in a non hockey area for grad school she lost touch with the sabtes but not with football due to national TV
My parents were not hockey fans and I was not born anywhere near Montreal. The Habs were a good team when I started watching, but anyone who is a fan of a team that last won in 1993 can hardly be considered a bandwagon fan.
Monkey D Luffy
Go Bombers!
This season we're leading the league but in general Winnipeg is the biggest under dog purely based on the fact that it's the league's smallest market.
We lost our team in the 90's and we're finally back. The team has super passionate fans that live and breathe the team.
Sergei Fedorov scored a lot of goals for me on like Sega Genesis or one of those console against my brother. It was love for him/the wings ever since
- Mar 25, 2025
- 45
- 54
What do you mean?
Toronto is one of the O6 teams and has second most fans in social media. As you can see social media following is roughly correlated with 06 status = all in the top 7.
Toronto also has second most Stanley Cups (13).
I think I just chose quantity over quality as the latter is harder to measure when it comes to fanbases. I think I should also add Montreal to that list of great fanbases as they seem to have high average attendances for home games but also alot of following on social media.
I picked a few favorite players from my national team and followed their NHL teams for a while. And then picked the one whose vibes I liked best.
The unfortunate thing is that I stopped watching the NHL for a few years, and when I came back that team was almost unrecognizable. Coincidentally, a hyped prospect from my country was about to have his first NHL season, so I started following his team and kinda liked their vibes too, so now I root for them.
The unfortunate thing is that I stopped watching the NHL for a few years, and when I came back that team was almost unrecognizable. Coincidentally, a hyped prospect from my country was about to have his first NHL season, so I started following his team and kinda liked their vibes too, so now I root for them.
Spargon
Registered User
- May 31, 2019
- 941
- 1,800
I was a big Mario Lemieux fan but living near Toronto in the late 80s/early 90s the chances of catching Penguins games was slim to nil. So I started cheering for the Leafs. I then found out my parents were also Leaf fans they just hadn't been watching due to Ballard era.
Once I got big into hockey, my mom made it a mission to re-learn the game so we could watch together.
Once I got big into hockey, my mom made it a mission to re-learn the game so we could watch together.
The passion to root for the Kings was passed down from my father to my brother and to me.
Years ago an AHL team came to town (does the math...good lord, it's been over 25 years...). At the time we lived 10-15 min from the arena. My wife ran into one of the promotions people at some sort of event. She talked my wife into signing up for a (really cheap) partial season ticket package. So we went (two of us & three kids under 10) & had a lot of fun. Throughout the season, if nobody else was lined up, Jen (promo type) would come & grab one of our kids to go ride on the Zamboni in between periods, I got volunteered to go do some of the intermission entertainment (inflatable sumo suit wrestling, pushing a kid on a sled around a slalom course, shoot a puck at a mostly blocked off net (I won $50 at that one), typical minor league promotions). Point is we had something fun to do as a family for not an excessive amount of money (maybe $50/game for all of us).
Naturally the big league club was who we also rooted for, especially those that had come through town on their way up (everyone but one since retired...)
We kept that package for a few years until we moved about 30 miles south & it wasn't easy to get there any longer. Two years later they folded/moved. I hope we weren't the reason...
/we'd also reasonably often wind up on the weekend wrap up tv sports shows. Apparently exasperated/exhausted parents riding herd on three active kids makes for good B Roll.
Naturally the big league club was who we also rooted for, especially those that had come through town on their way up (everyone but one since retired...)
We kept that package for a few years until we moved about 30 miles south & it wasn't easy to get there any longer. Two years later they folded/moved. I hope we weren't the reason...
/we'd also reasonably often wind up on the weekend wrap up tv sports shows. Apparently exasperated/exhausted parents riding herd on three active kids makes for good B Roll.
Wretched Oil
Right out of 'er
- Feb 19, 2008
- 1,755
- 1,490
Hennessy
Ye Jacobites, by name
Raised. Colorado. Avalanche are the constant. But I was born in LA and still have roots there, so I'm a well-wisher for the Kings. Most years. Sometimes that gets in the way of the Avs so I drop them like a drunk with a slippery baby. Otherwise, I'm a keen fan of the underdog in almost any match-up, save for games with playoff/seeding implications for Colorado.
GIN ANTONIC
Registered User
Well you said great fan culture and history so I suppose it depends on how you want to define that.
Toronto has historically been the most futile franchise since the league expanded past 6 teams. So I mean, sure, they have history. They have been around for a long time. So that is history. Is it good history? Again, it depends on how you want to judge that. There are really only 5 other teams that you can have a somewhat apples to apples comparison with.
Fan Culture.... is... well... there sure are a lot of Leaf fans. I will give you that, so if you go by quantity it is a great fan culture. Many would say they and the Toronto media are annoying, biased, entitled for no reason. The arena they play in is lifeless and extremely corporate with exorbitantly high tickets while their conglomerate ownership milks as much money out of the situation as possible. It's a great business.
Like I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying there are different ways of looking at things as well. But this is coming from someone who is born and raised in Toronto and has never liked the team even a little bit so I'm not gonna say I'm not biased either.
Every fan base has great fans and every fan base has idiot fans. Toronto just has a lot of fans so those numbers are gonna be higher on both sides of the ledger.
InsideLaineBOOM
Registered User
For me, I jumped on the Flames bandwagon when they won the cup in '89 (I was 5, to be fair) and I've stuck with them ever since, even though I live in Ontario. It was just that simple for me, and thinking of other sports, it's been a similar story.
To me it's not something you choose, you either cheer for a team or not and I couldn't force myself to like/dislike one. It's automatic based on a life full of inputs. I will say for the most part I am totally indifferent about who win an NHL game but as an example I often find myself rooting against Toronto due to the fanbase on here and the fun threads their continous fails create.
Growing up I just gravitated towards the flyers simply because Big E became something of a mythical player in my circle and the one you pretended to be playing streethockey etc, probably helped that Renberg(as a Swede) was part of Legion Of Doom. I still somewhat find myself cheering for Flyers the odd times I see them play.
Just two examples but I have similiar ones about, say, half of NHL teams were as the other half makes me feel just about nothing. Oddly enough Vegas have my strong dislike and is probably the only new team I have any feelings towards, why? Just an odd place for a hockeyteam and I dislike the degeneracy the city as a whole stands for. Also feel like they skipped the dog years and just became a successful team overnight.
Naturally I get over who wins/loses the cup in about a day or two(although I can have a preference beforehand), were as how my team(regulary crap) does in the SHL sometimes even affect my daily life/mood.
Growing up I just gravitated towards the flyers simply because Big E became something of a mythical player in my circle and the one you pretended to be playing streethockey etc, probably helped that Renberg(as a Swede) was part of Legion Of Doom. I still somewhat find myself cheering for Flyers the odd times I see them play.
Just two examples but I have similiar ones about, say, half of NHL teams were as the other half makes me feel just about nothing. Oddly enough Vegas have my strong dislike and is probably the only new team I have any feelings towards, why? Just an odd place for a hockeyteam and I dislike the degeneracy the city as a whole stands for. Also feel like they skipped the dog years and just became a successful team overnight.
Naturally I get over who wins/loses the cup in about a day or two(although I can have a preference beforehand), were as how my team(regulary crap) does in the SHL sometimes even affect my daily life/mood.
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McShogun99
Registered User
There’s 4 teams I cheer for and each is a different reason.
Oilers- Born in Edmonton so most of my family and friends were Oiler fans. Probably the reason 99% of us are fans of a team.
Sabres- Grandparents gave me a Sabres bath robe when I was 3 and for some reason became a fan of the team.
Penguins- Lemieux is my favorite player. He was so fun to watch play that I became a fan.
Nordic’s/Avs- The Nords were such a bad team that I just felt bad for them and liked following their prospects. Once they moved to Colorado everything started clicking for them and they’ve always been an exciting team.
Oilers- Born in Edmonton so most of my family and friends were Oiler fans. Probably the reason 99% of us are fans of a team.
Sabres- Grandparents gave me a Sabres bath robe when I was 3 and for some reason became a fan of the team.
Penguins- Lemieux is my favorite player. He was so fun to watch play that I became a fan.
Nordic’s/Avs- The Nords were such a bad team that I just felt bad for them and liked following their prospects. Once they moved to Colorado everything started clicking for them and they’ve always been an exciting team.
McShogun99
Registered User
When my nephews were young I just kept giving them Oiler themed gifts even though they lived in Calgary. Now that they’re older they became Oiler fans.
