Trying To Break Down The Reason As Of Why The Canucks Are The Most Hated Team In The League

[cmpunk]

My cousin lives in Edmonton and hates the canucks with a passions. His biggest reason is the fans.

He says we celebrate alot for having accomplished nothing. We are mostly fair weather fans ( which is true, when the playoffs hit the canucks fanbase goes up 500%)

[dura_mater]

Following the details of Duncan Keith's suspension, I started to wonder why, or what granted us the title of the most hated team in the league (and potentially the world, according to some media folk).

Angered and bitter about the hit, and the witness to countless other dirty hits this year leading to (I believe) a record setting amount of concussions I decided to do some investigatory work.

WHAT COULD IT POSSIBLY BE?

TL:DR version:

We haven't been suspended more times than Chi/Bos in last 3 years.

We have legitimate complaints if we're referred to as "whiners"

We've rioted, but so has the rest of the world in regards to sports. (Amnesia?)

Our players, while getting suspensions, usually, if not always have the decency to apologise

So I started with the obvious.

The Canucks are the most hated team because "They're the dirtiest team in the league".

Maybe! Maybe me being a Canucks fan has blinded me, and diluted the truth.

So, I took a look at my good ol' pal wikipedia for some suspensions...

So far, this year, the Canucks have 0 suspensions. This is the second year of our illustrious "most hated team in the world" title. (We're #1!) So, it isn't fair to just judge this prestigious award on just one year.

Oh, for the record, the well respected, and universally loved Bruins, and Blackhawks both have 3 each. The bruins have 2 fines.

http://en.wikipedia....sions_and_fines

Moving onto the 2010-11 season, I dig up some good stuff. We had been suspended 3 times, and fined twice! Nasty! I can see why people hate us.

Rick Rypien, altercation with a fan. Definitely not classy, but nothing "too severe". No one was hurt, and if I remember correctly Rick apologised. He was also going through some tough times, but I won't get into that too much.

Next up, Torres with a 4 game suspension for a pretty bad hit. I'll be honest, I didn't like it. Notch one to our belt. Aaron Rome's was a little hard to gauge. The hit was a bit late, sure, but he's not known to go head hunting or anything.

He also had the decency to apologise, and not rub it in his face as seen here by the Chicago Blackhawks

where after Morrison was hit, and limping off the Hawks decided to taunt him. Classy!

http://www.zimbio.co...appy+Blackhawks for his comments regarding it.

The Bruins had 2 suspensions, and 2 fines

Chicago had 2 suspensions.

http://en.wikipedia....sions_and_fines

We had 2 suspensions, and 3 fines in 09/10

http://en.wikipedia....sions_and_fines

Anyways, so it's clear that we don't have a perfect record, but neither does Boston, or Chicago, and I hear most of this "most hated team in the universe" crap from these guys.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say they're likely not hypocrites.

Moving on, I exercised the possibility that we whine too much.

One thing I do see is: Canucks fans do like to whine!

Is it warranted? Tough to say, since I'm a fan, and like to whine too! I think any fan of their team whines when a call BLATANTLY doesn't go their way, when it should:

Here's a few examples, blackhawks, bruins fans, please feel free to throw your opinion in if you're here.

First example is Daniel Sedin's disallowed goal versus the Kings in the playoffs.

I won't get into it, because it's ridiculous. If you somehow agree with the NHL's ruling you're either blind, or employed by the NHL. That's a fact.

The "explanation"

The "no penalty" call/non call.

Type in Brad Marchand Canucks in youtube. When half the videos are of him doing ridiculous, dirty, disgusting crap, you know he's a class act.

And the Canucks are whiners for thinking otherwise. This guy has a bright future if someone doesn't decapitate him for being the dirtiest player in the league before he reaches 30.

Alright, so we kinda whine a bit, but there's a few exmaples of why.

Nothing no other fan of another team would do.

Ok, ok, so maybe it's because we rioted.

TWICE!

So does the rest of the world:

http://www.totalpros...e-sports-riots/

I'm out of ideas. Can anyone else help me out?

I also don't feel Chicago, or Boston is jealous of us. Chicago's got a good team, and Boston has a deal with the refs to let them do anything they want in the playoffs.

It has to be something deeper.

[the boards]

I only looked at this thread because of the 'as of why' strangeness in the title. I thought it would be crap, too.

But...not bad. You did some research, and put a great deal of effort into the post.

But, 'as of why'? That's horrible...

[Cindilette]

I don't really care if we are the most hated team in the NHL (I could honestly care less about other teams and their fans). All I have to just say is "embrace the hate".

They can hate us all they want. This just makes our victory sweeter if we win the cup and rub it in their faces

[FallenCR7A]

Well, firstly our fanbase does contain a lot of whiners, but so does every other fanbase. So why are we singled out? Because we have so many fans, thus we have that much more whiners. Second, if you look at online pages (like tsn articles) or youtube clips related to the Canucks you'll see the same thing. If someone (not a Canucks fan) says something even mildly bad about the Canucks, it's like the person gets jumped left and right. Third, the "Toronto Maple Leaf" effect. We're growing more hated and it's being "legitimized" with stuff like the riot, Lapierre's finger incident, etc that it's becoming "fun" to hate us, like it's fun to hate on the leafs. Fourth, I think we all know, there are a few of us here who are quite arrogant and really like to break things down "scientifically", which is demeaning to the other person. Fifth, some of our fans are oversensitive. Way too sensitive. This is all magnified by the fact that we have such a large fan base. We're not doing ourselves and this team a lot of favors. There's so much media attention on them and us. We may be good, but I don't think that's a huge reason why people hate us. You can be good and be respected.

[Stefan]

You really needed to create a thread on this? People always hate the best team. And the Canucks have consistently been one of the best teams in the West for a while now. The only other team you might be able to say that about is Detroit.

[Edler0023]

It gets frustrating, all this hate crap - but whatever, I've fully embraced it.

[marleau_12]

I will +1 any post that says "embrace the hate". Love that.

[Joel Heyman]

We made Matt Cooke who he is and unleashed him on the east. That probably has a good deal to do with it.

[MoneypuckOverlord]

Being a good team comes a price. The better you are the more hated you are. It's a price i'm willing to pay. What? You want us to have a mediocre team so we won't be as hated? Look at the Red Wings. The Bruins are very hated also. The Avalanche in their hay days. They were known as the Divelanche. It comes with a price, and who cares what others think. I rather be hated then liked. As Hitchcock said, and even he was backing us, we are hated because we are good. And he went through the exact same thing in Dallas. They were real good, and they were hated. You see anyone hating on the OIlers? Flames? Blue Jackets? No! It's us Bruins, to an extent the Red Wings. Who cares.

[Buttock]

We have every god damned right to celebrate. It's called passion. Something deadmonton doesn't have. We'll celebrate all we want. Whether it is a first round win, or our eventual lifting of the Stanley Cup. We are loud and proud. This is Canuck Nation!

So every single hater can suck it.

[Brockbuster]

Who cares? We were loved when we were losers! We are hated now cuz we kick ass! I'll take hated thanks.

[Cindilette]

My response to that is, unless you're 30+ as an oilers fan, or 60ish as a leafs fan, what the hell are you celebrating?

If you weren't alive, or old enough to appreciate something, then all it is is history. History you didn't embrace.

I could throw down the "the millionaires won in 1918!, we're #1! we're #1!"

A) I don't care

I wasn't alive

C) There wasn't a respectable amount of teams to compete for it (COUGH) LEAFS FANS (COUGH)

Anyways, keep enjoying that trophy you never even compete for, EVER, that you won 25 years ago oilers fans....

[Ṣpiderman]

The answer is simple. Look at our roster.

Then look at the fans.

Add those 2 with the fact that we're a pretty good team, but has never won a cup shows why we are hated.

[RBCanucks]

It's not that hard to figure out. We dive. We whine. We think we're better than everyone else.

[McBackup]

It's not that hard to figure out. We dive. We whine. We think we're better than everyone else.

[Canuck or Die]

I don't hate Detroit.

I don't hate Pittsburgh.

They're both great teams.

There's plenty of teams that have consistently been better than us for longer, and aren't widely hated.

So, your argument isn't valid...

[VAN_FAN_MATT]

With success, comes jelousy and envy. It's just as simple as that, and it's so obvious.

If you were a Canucks fan in the '80's like me, than you'd likely recall just how much you couldn't stand Gretzky and the Oilers, yet you secretly wished the Canucks had Gretzky and the Oilers roster, and wished it were the Canucks that had the success that the Oilers were experiencing back in those days. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. (unfortunately minus the Cup success, yet)

[Darius]

Part of the problem is our two best players are Swedish pacifists. This fuels media criticism and results in the likes of national commentators branding them as "sisters" and "thelma and louise". Fans from other teams really emphasize this image.

The only way other teams can control them is to man handle them, mock them, push them around. Very few can counter with skill vs skill. These guys always take a beating and for the most part turn the other cheek. As a result they are branded as cowards and push overs. Look at how the CBC has treated these guys over the years as an example.

For this I blame Gillis. This has been one of his biggest failures. Like it or not we need a legitimate goon that has NHL skating abilities. Last night someone took a swipe at Karlsson from Ottawa and guess what Chris Neil was there within seconds, he dropped his gloves and attacked the guy.

Unlike the sedins, Karlsson is not put in a position where he has to defend himself or constantly take punishment while looking like a fool. And another example.. does anyone here think that Sakic or Yzerman took the abuse the Sedins have taken?

[Bertuzzi Babe]

It's not that hard to figure out. We dive. We whine. We think we're better than everyone else.