There certainly are a great number of Flyers fans in Philadelphia, knowledgeable, die-hard hockey fans. But then there are those people who conveniently decide to pay attention come playoff time. For some reason, even though it really doesn't affect me whatsoever, this bothers me to no end. My freshman year of college, when the Flyers were taking on the Maple Leafs in a brutal first-round series, a few of my friends who had previously shown absolutely no interest in the Flyers or hockey were suddenly watching every game and talking about how intense the series was. I hated it, telling them to name five players on the team. They couldn't. I told them it was a disgrace not to know your own team's players and claim yourself as a fan. They challenged me to name the entire team. I had no problem doing this because I've been following the Flyers with an unending passion my entire life. For some reason, to this day, it irks me when people who clearly don't care about or follow the team until the playoffs roll around try to engage me in Flyers conversation. I'm not trying to be arrogant. I just can't take someone's opinion seriously when I know they don't know what's been going on all season.
So are you a real Flyers fan? Sure, you know who Eric Lindros is. And John LeClair, Ron Hextall, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. Hell, you probably even know Rod Brind'Amour, Mark Recchi and Rick Tocchet were once upon a time Flyers. And Keith Jones wasn't just an announcer. But can you name entire line combinations? Do you know who the Flyers traded Justin Williams for? (Answer: Danny Markov.) Did you know Dale Hawerchuk was once a Flyer? Do you know who Peter Svoboda is? That Paul Coffey had a cup of coffee with the Flyers (I like my Coffey black, with a tint of orange)?
And Adam Oates sucked doneky balls for the Flyers while being a dominant player before and turning back into an assist machine after? No? Then you suck. If you don't know who these former/current Flyers are, then you deserve a punch in the cock.
Mikael Renberg. Kjell Samuelsson. Dmitri Yushkevich. Shjon Podein. Joel Otto. Trent Klatt. Jody Hull. Sami Kapanen. Jeremy Roenick (seriously, if you don't know him, I don't know what to tell you). Keith Primeau (ditto). Jiri Dopita. Michael Handzus. Rob DiMaio. Dmitri Tertyshny. Sean Burke. John Vanbiesbrouck. Garth Snow. Kevin Haller. Karl Dykhuis.
Vinny Prospal. Jim Vandermeer. Andy Delmore. Kim Johnsson. Chris Gratton. Alexander Daigle. Patrick Thoresen. Kyle Calder. Nolan Baumgartner. Craig MacTavish. Ben Eager. Todd Fedoruk. Robert Esche. Ulf Samuelsson. Sandy McCarthy.
Freddy Myer. Petr Nedved. Mike Rathje. Randy Robitaille. Alexei Zhitnik. Tony Amonte. Geoff Sanderson. Kevin Dineen. Steve Duchesne. Garry Galley. Dan Kordic. Dan Quinn. Dominic Roussel. Terry Carkner. Brent Fedyk.
Dan McGillis. Luke Richardson. Donald Brashear. Patrick Sharp. Robert Esche. Denis Gauthier. Joni Pitkanen. Branko Radivojevic. Dennis Seidenberg. Jon Sim. Chris Therien. Rob Zettler. Eric Desjardins. Jim Montgomery. Mike Comrie. Jeff Hackett.
Claude Lapointe. Neil Little. Marcus Ragnarsson. Eric Weinrich. Peter White. Zlex Zhamnov. Bob Corkum. John Druce. Pat Falloon. Pavel Brendl. Roman Chechmanek. Radovan Somik. Rusty Fedotenko. Kent Manderville. Chris McAllister. Marty Murray. Billy Tibbetts.
Colin Forbes. Daniel Lacroix. Janne Niinimaa. Dainius Zubrus. Kevin Stevens. Gino Odjick. Dean McAmmond. Daymond Langkow. Dave Babych. Mike Sillinger. Valeri Zelepukin. Paul Ranheim.
OK, maybe I can forgive not knowing some of those guys. I did literally just spend my entire lunch hour and entire afternoon at work thinking about former Flyers. But if you can't name the roster now, or know the fact that there are plenty of current NHLers playing now that once were Flyers, well, then you aren't a hockey fan. You just aren't. At least not one I want to talk to.
Also, this is the greatest fight in NHL history.
I was watching this live at the time. The fight got so raucous that everyone was fighting and so much was going on that they sent both teams off the ice and ended the period, adding more time to the 3rd. It was pure insanity. And awesome.
I don't understand how people don't like hockey.
I like watching the Flyers now, I only watch maybe 40-50% of the games, but it took me a looonnnnggg time to get into hockey at all. The first time I cared at all was, of course, in the playoffs 2 years ago, when all the guys in my frat started watching too.
ReplyDeleteBut before that I just never had a chance to get into it. I didnt play hockey, none of my friends played or watched hockey, and neither did anyone in my family. I didnt know any rules (except that it was 3 periods) so I had no chance of following a game.
The only way I got into it at all was by playing NHL 08 on XBox, eventually learning most of the rules. Then I started living with a roommate who was a huge Flyers fan and actually had someone to watch with.
Thats just my story, but yeah I agree that I was missing out. I like reading what you say too, it helps me understand the little things in the game a little better too
I certainly don't begrudge fans who want to learn hockey and enjoy it. You have to start somewhere. I'm just not a huge fan of people who really have no interest while the NFL, NBA and baseball are going on. If you like hockey, do what you're doing, learn it, watch it more and all that.
ReplyDeleteIf not, feel free to keep watching in the playoffs and the like. I just don't want to hear from you about it.
Yeah I know what you're talking about. Its happens all the time, theres always bandwagon fans.
ReplyDeleteNot sure why hockey is especially like that. Theres tons of absolute diehards, but even more little to no interest.
I also remember watching that fight. It was great. Anytime the goalies get involved it automatically gets bumped up a level.
ReplyDeleteThere aren't any 'casual' fans for hockey because its an impossible sport to understand before you see it live. Go to a game in person first, THEN watch it on TV, and it make so much more sense. Visually, you have to be able to anticipate where the puck will be going otherwise your eyes will be lost in the screen.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I think I am somwhere in between the slouches you bemoan and someone like yourself. I recognize 90% of the names you had up there but no way in hell I could have peeled them off on my lunch hour. Nice work though.