Why I Won't Support The Vancouver Canucks
Comments (21)
At least one Canadian won't be rooting for Ryan Kesler and the Canucks. (Mafue via Creative Commons)
The Toronto Maple Leafs are my home team and a little part of me dies every time they don’t make the playoffs, as is the case once again this year.
But that in and of itself does not bother me. No, I have made peace with it and am looking forward to next October.
What does bother me are the stories published by Reuters, the National Post and various other Canadian news outlets that seem to be under the impression that all of Canada wants to see the Stanley Cup come “home,” regardless of which city hosts the parade.
This is complete and unmitigated crap.
There are six NHL teams throughout Canada – the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens, the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers, the Vancouver Canucks and the Ottawa Senators – and they all loathe each other only marginally less than the fans do.
Yet the media still insists on printing stories explaining to me why, as a Canadian, I should be excited for a playoff run of a team I find even more annoying than the portion of their fan-base that genuinely believes Roberto Luongo is the best goaltender in the league.
It was even worse last year when the eighth-seed Canadiens somehow made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals and the media could barely contain its excitement in the rush to tell us all how great the advancement was for Canada (for those of you not fluent in hockey, go tell a Red Sox fan that the Yankees are America’s team and see how well he responds).
Thankfully, the fact that the Canadiens were all under 5-feet and not actually that good finally caught up with them (thank you, Pronger), and I was able to sleep soundly knowing my friends at McGill weren’t going to get burned alive in the streets of Montreal.
But the oldest rivalry in the National Hockey League aside, I just don’t understand how it still surprises people to find out that Canadians don’t view the NHL as a “Canada vs. The States” thing.
How could we when approximately 54 percent of the players in the league hail from up North? That’s why it always kills me when the Leafs play in Boston and are taunted with chants of “U-S-A!” despite the fact that the Bruins roster contains 70 percent Canadians, not to mention even fewer Americans than Toronto’s.
It’s never really a question of nationality unless discussing the Olympics or World Championships. For Leaf fans, the Cup would be “coming home” to Vancouver about as much as the Commissioner's Trophy “came home” to the San Francisco Giants when the Atlanta Braves won it in 1995.
I am a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and that is the only team I will ever actively cheer for.
As far as this year’s playoffs go, I have preferences – teams I would prefer to see go further and teams I would prefer to see crash and burn under the weight of all its fans’ hopes and dreams. But at the end of the day, I don’t really care who wins.
Well, as long as it's not another Canadian team.
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Reach Sophie by email.
Comments
what a stupid article, you are obviously not a hockey fan if you all root for is the Leafs...even Leafs fans are rooting for the Canadiens or Canucks right now! Hockey is HUGE for Canada (ie Vancouver Olympics) and we all want to see a CANADIAN team bring home Stanley, we don't care if the players are Canadian or not!!!
I could have written this article myself. I was born and raised in BC, but I have never (and will never) be a Canucks fan. My grandfather was a Leafs fan, my father is a Leafs fan, all of my uncles are Leafs fans- and so am I. There's more to it than geography or just rooting for who's doing best. It's about history, you know? I know I'm 'supposed' to be rooting for the Canucks now (based on where I live) but it's never, ever going to happen.
This article is AWESOME
YOU READ MY MIND! THIS IS SO TRUE!
There are several "American" teams who had more Canadian players than "Canadian" teams (at least last season).
Spent a good hour counting the numbers on the playoff teams last year haha.
Really? The Commissioner's trophy? I think you're the first person ever to call it by name. Clearly a canadian
Reach is right. Luongo IS NOT the best the best goalie in the league. Thomas (Bos) and Miller (Buf) are both better. I totally respect Reach's fan-hood right to only want to back the Maple Leafs. I'm a Red Wings fan, and believe me, the sickest thing in the world is watching those Stinkin' Blackhawks bums putting their grubby mitts on the Cup. Nauseating.
i know how you feel.. just because i'm from Kenora doesn't automatically mean i have to cheer for the leafs or any other canadian team.. I'm a lifelong Red Wings fan and will always cheer for them regardless.. those media outlets aren't speaking for me when they always shout that "all of canada" is cheering for whatever canadian team continously advances each round...
It's hard to be a fan of a crappy team, but I've been one for 37 years of a 40 year existence with no cup. There is a real excitement this year in Vancouver. If national newspapers report the facts, they're doing their job. You don't have to cheer for us west coasters, Vancouver people hate the Leafs nation and the Toronto Sports Network for the most part as much or more than you hate us. CBC stuffs the Leafs down our throats all year, then when TSN should be talking about the NHL Playoffs, they're talking about Phaneuf, Schenn, and Reimer going to play in a tournament full of second rate players from second rate teams. There are many Canadians who talk about the last cup in Canada as being 1993, and lots of people want a Canadian team to win it. Rivalries can be fun, you should loosen up a bit girlfriend.
Luongo sure looked pretty good last night. Just sayin.' I was once a Leafs fan myself. Then I moved to Vancouver about fifteen years ago and slowly started to change allegiance. I weathered the lame Messier years and within a couple of seasons, I was a die-hard Canucks fan. A buddy in TO once asked me how I could abandon the Leafs. But it was the Leafs who abandoned me. Over. And. Over. And. Over. You have no idea how refreshing it is to have hope.
Go 'Nucks! Go Luongo!
@BrianBurkeftw: Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Traitor.
@Ackthpt: You just proved my point.
@Anonymous: "Bitter Leaf fan" is redundant.
@Anonymous: How is what I'm saying hypocritical when I would never expect a Canucks/Flames/Oilers/Senators/Canadiens fan to cheer for the Leafs? To clarify, I recognize the Canucks are incredibly talented, which must be very exciting for their fans, but I'm not going to suddenly cheer for a team just because they start winning. I cheer for the Leafs because of the emotional and geographical connection I have had to them since I was a kid and will stick by them through the good times and the bad - that's what being a fan is.