I can say honestly that growing up in Boston as a hockey fan the one fanbase that I came to loathe were the Celtics fans who dismissed anyone who followed the Bruins as lowlifes. It was really bad in Cambridge in the 80's and I lost friendships over it.
To me the ultimate vindication of being a Bruins fan came in June, 2011 - not the night they won in Vancouver but 3 days later when they had the parade.
The 2011 Bruins parade rivaled the 2004 Red Sox parade in the sheer number of people that poured into the city. The best metric available is MBTA passenger counts and the 2011 Bruins actually had bigger numbers than the 2004 Red Sox but the 2013 Red Sox parade did exceed the Bruins. The 2008 Celtics didn't come close.
The Patriots parades were hampered simply because of cold weather and always on a weekday. I also know that the 2011 Bruins generated bigger TV ratings in the Final than the 2008 or 2010 Celtics did.
I wish the Celtics well but my focus in the winter is on the Bruins.
I'm pretty antisocial so I ignore most everyone. I do know what you mean though. The people that don't watch sports just talk about whatever's on the news. I did meet a woman however who asked me who my football team was and I said Minnesota and she said man tough break this year, your oline was decimated so it's no wonder why you fell apart. I was in awe. You generally don't get other than ugh, you suck.
Hockey talk around here is pretty bad. Maybe two out of ten people like it, and when I'm out at a bar or even at a church thing and I'm wearing Bruins whatever they are just so clueless. Rangers fans are by far the worst. There is a group of over adrenalized roid heads who talk about them constantly and they are just terrible. It's painful. I'd rather listen to the bored housewives talk about thier unromantic husbands.
