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Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Case for Supporting the Blackhawks

kevin james
Leaf fans may be conflicted about who to cheer for during this Stanley Cup Final. There are factors that could make seeing either Mike Richards or Jonathan Toews lift the Stanley Cup unsettling for Leafs Nation.

The Leafs and Flyers have a pretty heated rivalry that dates back to the 1970s when both teams took gooning to a whole new level. The rivalry was rekindled in the late 90s and early 2000s with a couple hard-fought playoff series. It’s because of the Flyers that instead of remembering this about the 2004 playoffs, I remember this.

While Leaf and Flyer fans do not like each other there is the complicating matter of Chicago’s last Stanley Cup victory – which happened a long time ago. Their last Stanley Cup happened so long ago that they actually own the longest drought in all of hockey. The team with the inglorious distinction of owning the second longest drought is the Toronto Maple Leafs. My math skills are lacking, but even I know that if Chicago wins the Stanley Cup then the Leafs will have the longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL.

This factor is so compelling that one Leafs fan (who shall remain nameless for his safety) said he would cheer for the Canadiens against the Blackhawks if that was the Stanley Cup Final. That’s obscene, but I think it shows how strongly some fans feel about this disgraceful record.

Even though it means that Chicago will erase their Stanley Cup famine, I am firmly cheering for them to win the Stanley Cup.

I’m also the guy who once gave the finger to a couple little kids on the side of the road holding signs saying “Honk for the Flyers”, so I’m not exactly impartial. In fact, I hate the Flyers. Probably not Montreal, Ottawa, Buffalo levels of hate, but I hate them. They definitely make the top-5.

But despite my hatred for the Flyers I’m not rooting for the Hawks solely because I’m cheering against the Flyers. This isn’t 2006 all over again where I was firmly rooting for the Ducks for the sole purpose of destroying Ottawa’s hopes and dreams (although looking back that Ducks team was extremely likeable).

Here are some reasons why you should cheer for the Chicago Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup. I’m mainly talking to you Leafs Nation, but many of the reasons extend to the rest of the league. And just for good measure I threw in a lot of Philadelphia pot shots.

Who cares about holding the record as the team with longest Stanley Cup drought? It’s not like we don’t constantly hear about 1967 anyways. This is something that’s thrown in the face of Leafs Nation all the time and it will continue to be brought up whether Chicago wins or not.

43 years without a Cup is a long time, I don’t need any sort of record to know that I badly want the Leafs to win the Cup.

Don’t you just have so much fun listening to this song when the Hawks score? Well, that is unless your name is Roberto Luongo. Watch this clip of various Canucks listening to the song. Gold!

The Hawks winning is good for hockey. Chicago is a major media market and this could continue to momentum hockey received from the Olympics (also known as the best hockey played in decades). Who knows, maybe hockey will actually be shown on a network that people actually get. Or maybe Gary Bettman will broker a deal with the Shopping Network to play tape delayed games at 3am.

The Hawks have the best jerseys in the league. You've got to support good aesthetics when the league still allows the atrocities in Nashville and Atlanta to exist.

Daniel Carcillo. Do you really want to see that dirty rat lift the Stanley Cup? Granted, he’s good at what he does, but he’s absolutely infuriating to watch.

Are you seriously going to cheer for a city that not only allowed a fan to be tased while streaking in their ballpark, but actually chanted for it to happen again the next night when another streaker tempted fate?

Chicago has future Leaf Patrick Sharp. Might as well get used to cheering for him now since he’ll be in a Leaf uniform come next season.

The Hawks are an extremely young and exciting team. They are fast and they are physical. They play like they’re having fun and that is something that is contagious. You can’t help but have fun watching them…unless you’re from Vancouver.

Shouldn’t we all support the poor city of Edmonton and hate on Chris Pronger? It’s not like they have much going for them anyways. They can’t see Pronger lift the Stanley Cup again after he muscled his way out of their frigid, meth infested city.

Olympic heroes Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, and Brent Seabrook. I know Philly has both Pronger and Richards, but Toews and Keith were probably the two most important players throughout the entire tournament and we Canadians need to show our gratitude for their play by cheering them on now.

Orange is a bad colour. This isn’t Halloween.

Philadelphia sports fans are passionate, but they’re insane and also sort of criminals. Phillies fans threw batteries (among other projectiles) at Dick Allen and J.D. Drew; Eagles fans threw snowballs at the Cowboys and they also cheered when Dallas wide receiver Michael Irvin suffered a career ending neck injury; they’ve booed Santa Claus; and one Flyer fan decided trying to fight Tie Domi in the penalty box was a good idea. You can’t cheer for this sort of group (lunatics).

If the Flyers lose maybe Scott Hartnell will finally cut his hair. He looks like Rowlf the dog from the Muppets.

The Hawks are an original six team. It’s nice to see a team with a rich tradition win the Stanley Cup (unless that team hails from Montreal).

Philadelphia took Roy Halladay away from us.

The Yahoo answer for “why does Philadelphia suck” that is voted the best is as follows:

Philadelphia, in short, is a pesthole seething with overdrawn accents and dietary conundrums; a place where no self-respecting person would abide unless it were either a matter of unfortunate temporary necessity, incarceration or Down's Syndrome gone wild. (The latter covers 90% of the population). The streets are filthy, the inhabitants are a pasty group of globally uninformed fat trolls, the sidewalks are littered with the dregs of human existence, passed-out on steam grates for warmth, and the climate is depressing. Everything is covered with a layer of grime.

Don’t think I can follow that up.

Go Hawks Go.

8 comments:

Bo Dangles said...

That Jeremy Roenick goal kills me... so I've blocked out that memory and replaced it with this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_aq3WlwPJM

Note the title of the video.

Anonymous said...

tldr; I hate the flyers, listen to me whine.

Unknown said...

Oh hey! A hater spouting off nothing but the typical stereotypes of a Philadelphia Flyers fan. I haven't seen one of these in the last 15 minutes..

OMG! We threw batteries 15 years ago! We booed a drunken, retarded Santa in 1968! A non-Philadelphian puked on a kid at a Phillies game (and was knocked the fuck out by a Philadelphian). Has anyone actually been to a Yankees game? How about having to deal with gangs in the LA upper decks? In Montreal they burn down their city if someone happens to win a playoff game. When the Phillies won the World Series 2 years ago, we had over a million people for the parade. Not one car was burned...
Seriously. Go f**k yourself. These Philly hate threads are so tiresome.

By the way...Chicago isn't exactly the most beautiful city in the United States. I was there last week on business. It's a crap hole right on par with West Philly.

Anonymous said...

Just a minor thing I noticed, and not a big correction at all. Neither of the Phillies fans were streaking. They were fully clothed, but the tasering stuff is accurate. Don't Toews me bro. Lets Go Hawks.

Anonymous said...

Hey Paul,

http://www.askmen.com/specials/2009_top_29/chicago.html

Suck it

Matt Horner said...

Sorry, Paul. I will always love Philadelphia for the 1993 World Series. If Philly fans are so hard then why didn't they boo the living hell out of "The Wild Thing" so there was no way he could serve up that tasty jack?

Thank you, Philly.

Bo Jackson said...

If you ask Yahoo why Chicago sucks there is no definitive answer like there is for Philly.

Tom said...

I guess the verbal and physical abuse of Montreal fans and the vandalism of CBC camera equipment during the Flyers/Habs series was just a fabrication?

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