Matt Good, Hockey, Toronto Fans.

[deremac]

I love reading all this different perspectives, First off let me say. I live in London which is about 2 hours from Toronto and I am a huge leaf fan. I love how so many western people hate the leafs and I got no problems with it. Everybody hates the top dog. There is no question that the leafs are the most popular team in the world. There are more leafs fans than all other canadian teams put together. If you debate this, you are wrong. Ya we havent won in 40 years and we've sold out every game since, that can not be said about vancouver and calgary. In the past few years, toronto has been pretty shitty but I still love them. calgary and vancouver have been very impressive. For the person who commented about toronto being on hockey night in canada every week it is because they get the most veiwers by fsar so oviously they do it. Who else are they gonna put, ottawa. If ottawa doesnt have a 1st place team, the fans dont show up and your team goes into bankruptcy. Being a hockey fan isnt about having the best team and for all you are just proving my point where you only care about results and you wont support your team otherwise. It is true, there are fans then there are leaf fans, the real die hard fans. now lets hear the fallout

[rebellious_L]

I live in London which is about 2 hours from Toronto and I am a huge leaf fan. I love how so many western people hate the leafs and I got no problems with it. Everybody hates the top dog. There is no question that  the leafs are the most popular team in the world.

Leafs the most popular team in thw world? Do you mean hockey team or sports team, because if you mean sports team I beg to differ. Ever heard of Manchesster United? Also, the only reason Toronto is the most popular NHL team is because the media portrays them as gods and because Ontario is the most populus province. Ottawa hasn't been around long enough to have the fan base of Toronto, and of course Toronto sells out better than anywhere else, they have the biggest population. You live in London, so by all means, you should be a leafs fan. What pisses me off is the masses of idiots in the West who are brainwashed by the media and there grandparents who had no one else to cheer for. At least this year CBC will be freed up for Montreal and Ottawa playoff action.

 

the Harold Ballard curse lives on...

Edited March 18, 2006 by rebellious_L

[deremac]

Yes I do mean most popular hockey team. And yes, population is a huge reason, but I just get annoyed how people try to rip on cbc for playing all the leafs games, when it is so ovious that they should. Even though alot of the media plays toronto up to be gods, the opposite is also true. The media is so much harder on the leafs than anyone else. Any bad move is over blown and seen as a life threatening event. Everything is bigger in Ontario, maybe not better but bigger. The leafs arent out of the playoffs yet but I doubt they will make it and it will be fun to see other teams in it. I will love to see montreal and ottawa die in the playoffs like every other year and I will be cheering for the western teams, like calgary and vancouver, cause I love there style of hockey. The thing that makes be so happy to be a leaf fan is the fact that they have to win at some point befor i die. And when it happens, it will be HUGE, the street of toronto and all of ontario will be lit up for days and it will make the wait well worth it.

[ecnarf]

because the canucks are symbolic of how a real canadian team should be

we kick ass, and we're multicultured

where else can you get canadians,swedes,russians,italians,african americans,koreans, and a few more i'm sure on any other team!

Go Canucks Go!

You are a fucking moron.

 

With the exception of blacks and asians, every other goddamned hockey team in the NHL has every ethnic group you mentioned.

 

EDIT: Toronto has a Kazakh. Beat that.

Edited March 18, 2006 by ecnarf

[garsk]

popularity doesnt mean anything when you are in 11 place, if toronto doesnt get to the playoff this year, do you think pat quinn will still be around? i mean, what has he done since he got there?

[rebellious_L]

I think Quinn will be gone after this year. Popular consenus is he is isn't able to adapt to the new NHL

[HouseOfSmokeAndMirrors]

u mean the maple laughs ;)

[deremac]

I dont think Quinn is all to blame. I am a huge leaf fan but the team is pretty crappy this year, getting old with no goaltending. I do believe that he will be gone after this year but I would not be surprised or disapointed if he stayed around. They got some good young talent and money to buy some new players and they should be back to make a run at it next year, or the next, or the ... as long as it takes till we win a friggen cup ;)

[heyrabbit]

I'll be the first to admit that the Leafs suck, management sucks, ownership sucks and there's a lot of ignorant fans. Of course when you have the largest fuckin market (by far) there's going to be a lot of everything. that includes stupid fans, but no more than there are in Calgary or Vancouver or anywhere else (save the States , which does have legimately ignorant fans). But there's also an abundance of intelligent and loyal fans.

 

There's no debating that the mass of Toronto's hockey culture is unmatched anywhere else in the world, nevermind in the NHL. Look at the statistics. The only other place that comes close is Montreal but even with their ridiculous amount of championships they don't sell out as much.

 

Toronto is the hockey Mecca of the world. so don't make yourself sound silly by acting resentful or jealous, it comes off as being pathetic. there's a reason why Blue Jays fans won't particularily bash the Yankees. There's also a reason why Yankee stadium is always sold out and the Rogers Center is not. Just like the Leafs and the rest of the league.

[Circum]

Problem with the leafs is they trade away all their draft picks and young guys for old guys.

 

Example, look at steve sullivan, or McCauley. They are great players who were traded away.

 

Toronto is my fav team to, but its time to start focusing on getting yonger guys and growing the team.

 

Pat Quinn is also a good coach, but he just needs the right kinds of players for him. The current leafs just arn't that.

[scheurminator]

the leafs suck

[heyrabbit]

What I find annoying is how everyone talks about how the Leafs just tried to buy a cup, well, no, they didn't. They could have, but they didn't. People don't realize the amount of money that Maple LEafs Entertainment produces. With merchandise along they probably bring in more coin than most teams total profit.

 

The Leafs suck now, but they did have one of the most potent offences in the league for the past six to eight years or whatever it was. They could have bought a stanley cup easily, when there was no cap, are you kidding me? All they needed was, like, two decent defensemen. Two top 4 guys, but that cost too much apparently.