No fan base despises its own players as much as this one, the mere mention of Fleury still triggers blokes here like they were in net and had to go through the shit he did and act as if he did it on purpose. It’s such a shitty thing to see, I don’t even see it from the fan bases we deem some of the worst in this sport on this board.
Then there’s the stuff about Malkin last year, which for me was just something that really pissed me off, because it went back to some shitty narrative of “lazy Russians” or “European players are lazy” narrative again, brought me back to being at games when we had Zubov and some of the vile shit I would hear from fans regardless of where we sat or where we were during intermission, then when Hatcher came over, it was this different tone about how they should have always had the American players, that mentality still exists. A N.A player isn’t a lazy player for not being there in his development or playing well in a system or used poorly or just not good enough to play at this level after being on several teams and different opportunities. But Euro players, they have to earn the right to not have that thought about them still to this day.
Goalies, easy to shit on by everyone, but it gets so personal for a lot it’s ridiculous. Fleury went on to win a Vezina away from this team and is still crapped on, Murray I hope rebounds and he has a chance to be in the NHL with the Leafs back up shit show right now, etc, right now this weird take that Jarry decided to lose confidence in his game on purpose because of some really poorly phrased comments about how he prepares, which they then had to double back and explain it wasn’t that he didn’t train hard or anything of that sort, just “their idea” of being prepared which of course, Mike Sullivan refuses to ever elaborate on anything.
Even saying Ned, who has struggled this season as well, isn’t good enough right now behind this awful team defense, has to be placated with a remark towards Jarry first.
I still hope to see Ex Pens succeed, personally, Fleury, Gustavsson, Addison, Sprong, Blueger, Murray, POJ, Kapanen, etc. To actively be so bitter towards them and enjoying their downfall is just so shitty to me. What would I get out of seeing them fail? Some weird satisfaction that I was right about disliking a player so much that I hoped they’d fail and their downfall would vindicate me on a message board with fellow haters?
We joke, a lot, about players playing poorly but the jokes with Letang vs say stuff about Jarry, there’s a huge difference. Malkin struggling last year was such a huge issue to a lot of blokes here and the media, Crosby being far worse to start this season is less of one, some things stay the same…
It reminds me of Leafs fans still going out of their way to constantly go on about Dubas destroying their lives.
