R3 - Series Thread - Jets (C2) vs Golden Knights (P1) Vegas Wins 4-1

[Toonage]

When the Flames are out I still enjoy the playoffs because its almost always great hockey. That being said a fair bit of my enjoyment also comes not from wanting certain teams to win but in hoping certain teams lose. If a team I could otherwise not care about is in a position to make me happy (hello Washington) then they'll have my support but never to the extent the Flames would. Not even close.

In the case of Vegas vs. Winnipeg, I don't want either team to win so I just have to hope for the lesser of two evils (in my mind). Go Vegas, I guess.

[CSharp]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Half the kids in a Calgary elementary aren't cheering for the remaining team from the prairies.

Not a good sign.

Even kids know what good hockey is. Hate to say it, but the Vegas Knights are playing some of the best hockey with highlite reel scoring almost every game. Can't beat that kind of hockey, especially when it's done during the playoffs. You actually don't get to see offensive hockey very much during most of the playoff rounds. So, when a Cinderella team does this, you can't help to be a bandwagoner. I normally don't cheer for any other team than the Flames, but this year is different because the Golden Knights are playing some really fast paced, exciting hockey right now - and I'm lovin it!

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

Jets got back to back periods getting 16 shots on goal, i feel that doesn't happen very often to the Knights in their own barn. Full marks to Vegas for the first period but after that the Jets took over.

I didn't think the Jets took over until the third. They may have had 16 shots in the second but that was only 4 more than Vegas. I thought both teams had their moments in the second and the Jets just happened to get a few more shots on net.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Beninho

There’s a difference between enjoying good hockey and actively become a “fan” of a team because they are good. If a team is great kids will like them and Vegas is very likeable so no problem there. As a passionate Flames fan I could never actively cheer for any other team like I do for the flames, even if they are playing a team I hate. I don’t know how people have “second” teams, that just doesn’t make sense for me. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up in a soccer family with intense loyalties but I could never cheer for another hockey team with the same passion as I do for the flames.

Maybe I take sports too seriously, but I still think people in Calgary who are from and live in Calgary who wear Knights jerseys are tools and bandwagon jumpers. I don’t care if you’ve been a fan from the beginning, don’t come back to the Flames whenever they decide to become decent again.

I grew up a Flames fan in Calgary, then I moved away about 17 years ago. Have only been back once in the last 10 years probably. I still cheer for the Flames as my number one team, but I've also felt more and more that it's totally arbitrary that I cheer for them as it happens to be where I grew up. Firing Hartley and following it up with two years of GG really made me feel the Flames were giving me nothing to cheer for. I'm not surrounded by other Flames fans, so being tribal about it doesn't give me any tribe and just makes me attached to a franchise that has pissed me off the last couple of years. Makes it easy to cheer for teams like VGK that are fun to watch and have one of my favourite players in Fleury, who I have cheered for since back in his world junior days. It's easier for it to all be fun this way. Why punish myself by only cheering for the Flames?

[stone hands]

I don't think one person's reasons for arbitrarily supporting millionaire teenagers playing a game of skill and luck for amusement is any more valid than anyone else's, to be honest

[Beninho]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

I grew up a Flames fan in Calgary, then I moved away about 17 years ago. Have only been back once in the last 10 years probably. I still cheer for the Flames as my number one team, but I've also felt more and more that it's totally arbitrary that I cheer for them as it happens to be where I grew up. Firing Hartley and following it up with two years of GG really made me feel the Flames were giving me nothing to cheer for. I'm not surrounded by other Flames fans, so being tribal about it doesn't give me any tribe and just makes me attached to a franchise that has pissed me off the last couple of years. Makes it easy to cheer for teams like VGK that are fun to watch and have one of my favourite players in Fleury, who I have cheered for since back in his world junior days. It's easier for it to all be fun this way. Why punish myself by only cheering for the Flames?

I think I didn’t make a distinction clear between cheering and actively being a fan of another team. I’m not attacking people for cheering for teams to win or lose in the playoffs, I do that as well.I’m saying that I don’t understand how someone can feel the same joy with watching another team outside of the Flames winning. Adopting a second team means you are not able to suffer through the process of being a fan of a team that isn’t always at the pinnacle of the sport. These types of fans are arising more and more often in this age of instant gratification. I for one will suffer with the Flames just like how Cubs fans suffered through their drought along with other teams with major championship droughts. I will never purchase or wear another teams uniform and call another team my “second” team. Call me old school but to me this is being a true fan. You can cheer for whoever you want but deep down inside you know it’s not even close to when you watch the Flames.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Beninho

I think I didn’t make a distinction clear between cheering and actively being a fan of another team. I’m not attacking people for cheering for teams to win or lose in the playoffs, I do that as well.I’m saying that I don’t understand how someone can feel the same joy with watching another team outside of the Flames winning. Adopting a second team means you are not able to suffer through the process of being a fan of a team that isn’t always at the pinnacle of the sport. These types of fans are arising more and more often in this age of instant gratification. I for one will suffer with the Flames just like how Cubs fans suffered through their drought along with other teams with major championship droughts. I will never purchase or wear another teams uniform and call another team my “second” team. Call me old school but to me this is being a true fan. You can cheer for whoever you want but deep down inside you know it’s not even close to when you watch the Flames.

The longer I've been away, the more I question what it actually is I'm being loyal to as a Flames fan. The players? Owners? City? Fellow fans? What deserves that loyalty?

[Beninho]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

The longer I've been away, the more I question what it actually is I'm being loyal to as a Flames fan. The players? Owners? City? Fellow fans? What deserves that loyalty?

Well I don’t really know what to say to that. If you don’t want to stay a fan of a team for when they suffer for long periods of time maybe you should reconsider why you are a fan of any sports team in the first place. I’m more than fine suffering through years of crap as the victory will taste much sweeter. I’ve also become used to this given that I cheer for a mid table Brazilian league football team, the Toronto Raptors, and the Chargers (don’t even get me started with the ####ing chargers). Others may not be so used to this and I can see why that has you questioning your fandom. I don’t really have an answer for you

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Beninho

Well I don’t really know what to say to that. If you don’t want to stay a fan of a team for when they suffer for long periods of time maybe you should reconsider why you are a fan of any sports team in the first place. I’m more than fine suffering through years of crap as the victory will taste much sweeter. I’ve also become used to this given that I cheer for a mid table Brazilian league football team, the Toronto Raptors, and the Chargers (don’t even get me started with the ####ing chargers). Others may not be so used to this and I can see why that has you questioning your fandom. I don’t really have an answer for you

I'm not really looking for an answer. Not criticising your point of view either. Just putting my own thoughts to words. Cheer however works for you.

[rage2]

Originally Posted by Beninho

I don’t know how people have “second” teams, that just doesn’t make sense for me.

I started cheering for a second team purely for the amount of time I spent in other cities. For around 6 years I spent a lot of time in Chicago and was my 2nd home. Cheering for the Hawks just made the game more meaningful when I was watching games down there. Nowadays I spend a lot of time in Vegas, basically my 2nd home, and here we are. It's not about cheering for a winning team (Hawks didn't even make the playoffs once during the years I was there), just a way to make the games more meaningful, and an excuse to watch more hockey. What's funny is nobody gave me grief for cheering on the Hawks during their crappy years, 1 year cheering for Vegas and people are giving me crap because they're winning lol.

There is no right or wrong way to be a fan. Life's too short, enjoy what you're given under the circumstances.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Beninho

I think I didn’t make a distinction clear between cheering and actively being a fan of another team. I’m not attacking people for cheering for teams to win or lose in the playoffs, I do that as well.I’m saying that I don’t understand how someone can feel the same joy with watching another team outside of the Flames winning.

I think you are reading too much into people's usage of this term, or the notion that one can identify with more than one team in the same sporting league. I would be very surprised if any Flames fan claiming a "second team" would also experience "the same joy" in seeing them succeed. There are many types and gradations of "joy."

Adopting a second team means you are not able to suffer through the process of being a fan of a team that isn’t always at the pinnacle of the sport.

This is at best presumptuous and at worst mildly offensive. I think more often than not the adoption of a "second team" is relatively arbitrary, meaning nothing more than that a person loves to watch hockey at the highest levels. Why should it mean anything else?

These types of fans are arising more and more often in this age of instant gratification. I for one will suffer with the Flames just like how Cubs fans suffered through their drought along with other teams with major championship droughts. I will never purchase or wear another teams uniform and call another team my “second” team.

What a martyr. "Cubs fans" are pure as the driven snow in their single-minded devotion to their team—forsaking all others? Such nauseating drivel.

Call me old school but to me this is being a true fan. You can cheer for whoever you want but deep down inside you know it’s not even close to when you watch the Flames.

I seriously doubt that anyone—except perhaps for you in your inability to "suffer through the process of being a fan" pontifications—would disagree with you here. Yes. Many Flames fans will watch a lot of playoff hockey, and will very frequently cheer for other teams. And yes, this level of devotion and emotional investment utterly pales in comparison to what any sports fan feels for their favourites. If this is your resolution in the end, then I am completely mystified about your point in the first place.

Hockey is fun. NHL playoff hockey is the best sporting event on the planet. People who enjoy watching hockey will also enjoy watching the playoffs, and will find themselves—quite often inadvertently—cheering for one team, or a player over others.

[Flamenspiel]

Originally Posted by Beninho

I think I didn’t make a distinction clear between cheering and actively being a fan of another team. I’m not attacking people for cheering for teams to win or lose in the playoffs, I do that as well.I’m saying that I don’t understand how someone can feel the same joy with watching another team outside of the Flames winning. Adopting a second team means you are not able to suffer through the process of being a fan of a team that isn’t always at the pinnacle of the sport. These types of fans are arising more and more often in this age of instant gratification. I for one will suffer with the Flames just like how Cubs fans suffered through their drought along with other teams with major championship droughts. I will never purchase or wear another teams uniform and call another team my “second” team. Call me old school but to me this is being a true fan. You can cheer for whoever you want but deep down inside you know it’s not even close to when you watch the Flames.

Its great for you, but not everyone is into it that much. I suggest you read Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch to know what levels of absurdity that can lead to. I thought I was a fan until I read that, he was truly insane about Arsenal and how far it went to destroy the rest of his life.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

It's also crazy how popular Vegas is with the local kids (in Calgary). My 10yr old LOVES them for some reason, and so do all his friends. No idea why. I bought him a hat and a Fleury shirt, and he sleeps in it FFS.

I don't know what the appeal is, but I noticed this when they played the Flames. Seemed like half the fans cheering for them were under 13yrs old, which was weird.

It gives them the opportunity to get in with a team from the ground floor and frankly, Vegas just ticks all the right boxes.

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

My 10 year old daughter tells me half the kids at school are Vegas fans. She calls them bandwagoners and mocks them.

They're children, its hard to call them bandwagoners.

'Sins of our Fathers' and all that...

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Beninho

I think I didn’t make a distinction clear between cheering and actively being a fan of another team. I’m not attacking people for cheering for teams to win or lose in the playoffs, I do that as well.I’m saying that I don’t understand how someone can feel the same joy with watching another team outside of the Flames winning. Adopting a second team means you are not able to suffer through the process of being a fan of a team that isn’t always at the pinnacle of the sport. These types of fans are arising more and more often in this age of instant gratification. I for one will suffer with the Flames just like how Cubs fans suffered through their drought along with other teams with major championship droughts. I will never purchase or wear another teams uniform and call another team my “second” team. Call me old school but to me this is being a true fan. You can cheer for whoever you want but deep down inside you know it’s not even close to when you watch the Flames.

I get you man. I enjoy watching any NHL playoff hockey, but I really couldn't care less who wins or loses (except for the damned Lightning).

And I go nuts the rare times the Flames do well in the playoffs.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Locke

They're children, its hard to call them bandwagoners.

'Sins of our Fathers' and all that...

Kids also like to tease one another. It's all in fun.

[djsFlames]

Go Knights go!
Jets suck.

[Brick]

Go Jets!

[MoneyGuy]

An "associate" put up a profanity-laced tweet threatening to block anyone who "jumps onto the Vegas bandwagon instead of cheering for the Canadian team." I'm supposed to jump onto the Jets bandwagon instead? I have no attachment to either team so I'll cheer for whichever team I want. **** you and go, Vegas.

[ken0042]

Whenever I've been in that situation of "why aren't you cheering for a Canadian team" (which usually meant Vancouver or Edmonton)- I usually respond with "Did you know there are more Canadian players on the Bruins than the Canucks?"

I don't even bother fact checking that first either. As the "pro-Canada" person usually isn't enough of a follower of hockey to know better either.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Whenever I've been in that situation of "why aren't you cheering for a Canadian team" (which usually meant Vancouver or Edmonton)- I usually respond with "Did you know there are more Canadian players on the Bruins than the Canucks?"

I don't even bother fact checking that first either. As the "pro-Canada" person usually isn't enough of a follower of hockey to know better either.

In this case, it's true too.

The Jets have had 18 players play in at least 10 playoff games. 6 are Canadian. They're at 9 of 24 if you include all players dressed in the playoffs.

The Golden Knights have had 16 players play in at least 10 playoff games. 9 are Canadian. They're at 13 of 24 if you include all players dressed in the playoffs.