McBackup

Meh. I appreciate what Luongo did here and I'd be happy to see him win a cup, but he's a Panther through-and-through and that isn't enough to sway to me start cheering for them.

I just watched the Stars-Kraken game at a bar. The Kraken fans seem to have a pretty strong dislike of the Canucks and the Canucks fanbase. Maybe it’s just performative because they’re a new team, but it’s there. Meanwhile most Vancouver fans don’t think about the Kraken at all, and they actually seem to have a lot of support here, at least on these boards. But I’m not going to go cry about how the Krakens fans don’t like the Canucks. If you take the Leafs defenders word for it (I don’t), this is an inverse parallel of the Canucks-Leafs relationship. Take note closeted Leafs fans, I’m not going to go cry to the Kraken fans about how they don’t like the Canucks.

Sometimes I forget that the armpit of coastal BC is still better than 99% of the world.

That’s silly. Players regularly re-sign for cheaper contracts as they age and their play diminishes.

I think the 'voluntary' issue is the problem here. This wasn't a case of the Canucks demanding these guys get out on the ice with the Sedins, they wanted additional help and were obliged. You could make the argument that teams setting up 'optional' skates in the summer is coercive, as they have control over roster decisions and would make note of who partook. But I don't think I really buy that. As NHL97OneTimer pointed out, teams in the playoffs are still receiving team guided training and coaching. Maybe the compromise here is to have teams be allowed to have optional training sessions while the playoffs are going on, but have to cut contact until training camp once the Stanley Cup is awarded.

As someone who grew up in Victoria I’m happy for the city. I really like when the Canucks host these kind of things around BC and engage with the entire province.

Yes Draisaitl has been unbelievable too. If McDavid and Draisaitl aren't on the ice they aren't a very scary team. The Oilers had a higher ceiling but than we did in 2011 but we had a higher floor.

The Oilers remind me a lot of the 2011 Canucks. Very skilled, and relying on a deadly power play. But don't have much of an answer for when things get greasy 5on5 and if the whistles go away they're in trouble.

He gazed up at the enormous face. 56 years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I remember during Matthews sophomore season I was listening to a Hockey Central podcast and they were earnestly debating if he was already the greatest shooter of all time. Not “has the potential to be” the greatest shooter of all time. Not even “is on his way to being” the greatest shooter in NHL history. Is he already the greatest shooter in NHL history. The Laffs media presence is really something else.

That’s only the case because Calgary won the cup that year. I only see that getting brought up when they cry about 04. ”ThE pUcK was In the nEt!” Okay and Otto kicked it in the year you won, so swings and roundabouts.

"The NHL is distracting everyone by having the Leafs lose". That makes no sense, why would a regular occurrence be a distraction? That's like trying to distract everyone by having the buses run on schedule.

I frequent r/hockey and I'm talking more universally. I think outside the internet Vancouver fans have a reputation as being particularly bad, whereas Leafs fans get made fun of and mocked, it seems like we get a lot of scorn. We're the "riot" fanbase. Is that deserved? Somewhat. This fanbase does have a lunatic fringe and nobody can deny that. However, I don't think we're any worse than other large fanbases. For example Mike Matheson mugs Pettersson and Canucks fans go ballistic in their reaction and it becomes a story about how unhinged we are because some asshole threatened his dog on social media. Sam Bennett does the same thing to Knies, Leafs fans go ballistic as well and nobody brings it up. Canucks fans have extremely high attendance during arguably the worst 10 years of franchise history but don't completely sell out every night, it shows we're a fairweather fanbase. Another Canadian team doesn't sell out and they're "protesting with their wallets" etc. Now I don't think this is some deliberate conspiracy to make this fanbase look bad or anything, but I think narratives tend to take on a life of their own. The narrative about Canucks fans being psychotic gets embedded and people start noticing it more because its what they're expecting to see. Heffy posts something unhinged about how the refs in some game where they made a bad call deserve to be shot, its taken as a token representative as the fanbase. Leafs fans on reddit say the refs in the Tampa series deserve to be raped to death by a pack of wild animals, which I actually saw, and its just taken as some random guy instead of reflecting on the fanbase as a whole. The one thing I've noticed about Canucks fans thats different than other fanbases, is there is a noticeable chunk of the Canucks fanbase that hates on itself like nothing you've ever seen, which I don't see in other fanbases. They'll talk about how we have the worst fans in the league, blah blah but never include themselves in that assessment. They're the exception. Whereas seemingly every other fanbase just goes "yeah we've got the best fans".

Hell it boils over into the regular season too. Look at the Tortorella Hartley fiasco.

Oooh an online poll

The online stuff is really annoying. What annoys me a lot are the transplant Leafs fans in BC. They move here, cry about how much better Ontario is, shit talk the local hockey team, then when you say anything back they act the victim.

Hoping the Canes win. It was fun to see the Panthers eliminate Boston and Toronto but now that that's over with I don't need to see Tkachuk lifting the cup.

I wonder how much overlap there is between the people here who say Leafs fans are just like every other fanbase only bigger, and the ones who say the Canucks fanbase is uniquely terrible. Because I'm starting to suspect its bigger than I initially thought.

Honestly I dislike Calgary more. The Oilers seem to always be bad when the Canucks are good and the Canucks are bad when the Oilers are good, so we haven't developed that much of an on-ice rivalry. Whereas with Calgary there's been some pretty intense matchups both in the regular season and the playoffs.

Yup. I will add that I hate the Flames as well. But the difference is when a Flames or Oilers fan says “I don’t like you” and I respond with “I don’t like you either”, there is a mutual understanding. When a Leafs fan says “I don’t like you” and I say “I don’t like you either”, it’s followed by pissing and moaning about how I’m supposed to love them regardless.

Mate you’re the one who can’t handle a different opinion, you’re crying about people disliking the Leafs as something uniquely unacceptable. I don’t like the Flames: ‘Completely understandable, have a nice day’ I don’t like the Oilers: ‘Completely understandable, have a nice day’ I don’t like the Blackhawks: ’Completely understandable, have a nice day’ I don’t like the Bruins: ’Completely understandable, have a nice day’ I don’t like team X: ’Completely understandable have nice day’ I don’t like the Leafs: ’NOOOOOOOOOO HOW DARE YOU THE LEAFS ARE CANADA’S TEAM HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?! YOU’RE OBSESSED. TORONTO IS AN AMAZING CITY TAKE IT BACK RIGHT NOW’.

Biznasty seems to be gone however.

Now you’re putting words in my mouth. Nowhere did I say “rebuild”. I said I don’t expect them to magically clear up their cap issues, run back the same roster that failed the past year, and magically sneak into a wildcard spot and make a run to the cup. Aiming for the playoffs and hoping for the best is a less likely to be successful strategy than aiming for a cup and long term competitiveness.

You’re putting a lot of words in my mouth. Isn’t there a Leaf’s board you can go to to cheer on your favourite team instead of this one?