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How did you become a fan of the team you cheer for?


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The talk about bandwagon fans led me to want to bring this up.

For those of you that don't cheer for your current home team, how did you become a fan of that team?

For me the path to becoming a Sabres fan consisted of me just flipping through the channels after moving to Vermont from Washington State and seeing the name LaFontaine on the screen (which is close to my last name of LaFountain), went back to that channel and watched the rest of the game (was already a hockey fan, just had no favorite team). Watched a lot of Sabres games after that so due to seeing LaFontaine's name on the screen became a Sabres fan. Later on I looked back and realized if that had happened one year earlier, I would be an Islanders fan.

Those that cheer for the home team, that is pretty much self-explanitory.

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Although I cheer for both Pens teams, I also like the Anaheim Ducks so can I use that for an example here? I can? Thanks. :D

OK well I started liking the Ducks in 2003 during the Stanley Cup Finals with New Jersey. Since my dad hates the Devils, I kinda latched on to how he was raising me and hated them too (although my hate has softened over the years b/c I have a great amount of respect for Brodeur and also think highly of Zach Parise...still not much of a fan though). I remember being amazed with Jean-Sebastien Giguere and how he basically put Anaheim on his back and carried them to the Finals...and I was pretty mad when the NJ fans booed him for winning the Conn Smythe. He really deserved it and they could've applauded politely.

Anyway, I was thrilled again in 2007 when Anaheim won the Cup and beat Ottawa, who I also don't like AT ALL...not even any of their players. Blah. Plus Chris Kunitz came from there and the Pens' head coach, Dan Bylsma, also played there...so it has some very solid, nothing to complain about Penguin connections. And that is how and why I like the Anaheim Ducks...and may be one of the few people in PA that does; let alone ever heard of that team.

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Since the Columbus Blue Jackets didn't exist when I was a kid, I didn't have a home team to root for growing up in Ohio. Living in Southwestern Ohio hockey wasn't even on most people's radar prior to the 1980 Olympics. Even though I was 6 at the time, watching the Miracle team made me a hockey fan. The Olympics were pretty much the only time hockey was on TV in my area and I remembered becoming a fan of a young goalie named Mike Richter during the 1988 Calgary games. When Richter became a Ranger, I became a Rangers fan.

I still remember going to visit my brother at college during the '94 playoffs. I ducked out of one of the first college keggers I'd ever been to find an empty lobby in of one of the dorms to watch Game 7 vs the Devils. When the Rangers won in double OT ("Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!") I jumped up and started screaming, apparently waking up one of the RAs. Apparently it was a "study" dorm and there were posted TV hours (even though it was a Friday night). To top it off he wasn't pleased to find out I wasn't even a student at the college. :D

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I like this thread. Great idea for a topic. Since I have a few teams that I'll follow...here goes...

St. Louis is close to Indianapolis and I've been to the city a few times as a kid. Strangely enough, the Blackhawks are the reason I became a bigger Blues fan. Up until 1998, the Indianapolis Ice were the primary affiliate of the Blackhawks. In 1998, the Hawks started sending their top prospects to Portland of the AHL. The Ice got NHLers on their last legs and by 1999 were on their way out of the IHL to the CHL, which was quite an adjustment in skill level to get used to after years of watching the I. I blamed the Hawks for it, even if it was business. I had followed both teams up until then. After all that happened, I put my support completely behind the Blues. I had always paid attention to them, but when Fox Sports Midwest showed up on our cable package in my hometown, probably around 1995 or 1996, I got to see them play more and got to follow them more. I don't hate the Blackhawks anymore, but I'll never like them as well as I once did. I'd say the Blues are the closest thing to my absolute favorite team. Many sports fans I grew up around in Indianapolis liked teams in Chicago or Cincinnati...I always preferred St. Louis. Probably because I'd been to the city several times as a kid.

When Patrick Roy went to the Avalanche in 1995, I became a fan of the Avs. Then not many people in Indianapolis liked them and I thought their jerseys looked cool. I became a fan of Sakic and Forsberg as time rolled on. Strangely enough, my dog seems to HATE the Avs for some reason, as she's gotten terribly ill when I went to their games in 2008 out in Phoenix. To make matters worse after they won the Cup in 2001, my old dog had to be put to sleep... To this day, my wife HATES the Avs.

In 2004, for some reason I started liking the Edmonton Oilers. I had always liked Ryan Smyth, but suddenly they just grew on me. I went to an Oilers-Coyotes game in January of 2006 and had some pretty good interactions with the Oilers fans there. The team was quite enjoyable to see play live. I hated to see them deal Smyth in 2007. I'll be moving up to Oklahoma to help care for my ailing mother-in-law and will be going back to school. The rumors they may put their AHL affiliate in Oklahoma City has got me excited over hockey up there.

I like to watch the Pacific Division, I've lived in Phoenix and Dallas so they were my first NHL home teams so there's that reason. I enjoy watching games in that division.

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My 2 Favorites are the Flames and the Penguins

the Flames because of my home town.

the penguins because when i was little, i had a huge fascination with any animal with a beak. Since the ducks didnt exist yet, i was a Pens fan.

I now follow other teams with players i like....St.Louis(Boyes), Atlanta(Lehtonen) Bruins(Kobasew and Ference)

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Very simple actually. I went to my first Rangers game with my uncle when I was 7. He got season tickets a few years later and took me even more often. The rest is history.

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Well, mine is kinda strange actually. I always liked the Flyers due to me having family in the area and cousins who really influenced me. When I got a bit older and was picking favorites I stuck with the Flyers. Few years went by, and the Sabres introduced the "slug". Well, contrary to most people...I really liked the logo. That was also the year they won President's Trophy. So, call me a bandwagoner, but the combo of the logo and the fact that they were good and the Flyers sucked that year, the Sabres took over as my favorite team and have been ever since.

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I'm a homer x 2.

I live in the metro Detroit area, so I think it's required by law to be a Red Wings fan! :) I started following them in the early '90s because a friend was a hockey fan and recreational hockey player so games would be on whenever I'd go over to his house. I followed them casually until about '95 or '96 when another friend who was a HUGE Red Wings fan (and not a jerk about it -- that helps a lot!) influenced me and I'd been hooked since. And the Stanley Cups helped out a year or two later, but I can at least say that I remember the Wings before the Cups! ;)

My Bruins love comes from the fact that I was born and raised in Boston. I moved to Detroit with my family in my teens but until then, it was all Boston all the time. Of course, it wasn't until recently (and with the advent and significant improvement of the Internet) that I could first listen to streaming Internet radio games, and finally watch them on NHL.com, so just as a result of distance and broadcast availability, I've only recently gotten even more deep into my Bruins love.

My jersey list in the "Show and Tell" forum shows that about a quarter of my collection is Detroit & Boston. And then there's my avatar, of course ;)

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I guess I'm also a homer x2

I am originally from northwest Indiana about a half hour from Chicago. my dad split 4 Blackhawks season tickets with a few of his friends starting in the 70's sometime, so he would take me to a few games a year. I went to my first game in 1981, when I was about 2. I was lucky enough to have a dad who didn't mind the burden of a small child in the insanity of Chicago stadium. I loved going to games as a kid, I can't remember everything about them, but I'll always remember Chicago Stadium, the cement floors, hard folding seats, the organ, the LOUD that went with every game, and my favorite players Savard, Graham, Larmer, Wilson and the awful Darren Pang. I got to see alot of the best players of the 80's even though I didn't know it at the time (mostly on other teams...).

In 1990 my family moved to Colorado, so the only hockey I got was the local CC games. then of course we got the Avs in 95, and we jumped on season tickets right away. we went to all the pre-Avs hoopla at McNichols Arena before the team even had a name, and I got excited about hockey again. the first 3 or 4 seasons I got to go to a ton of games and I have to say it was great to go from having no hockey to all of a sudden having the best team in the NHL :D

I love the Avs no matter how much they suck now, but I'm a lifelong Hawks fan. I go to about a several Avs games a year but I always get seats as close to the glass as possible when the Hawks come to town, and I can usually catch one game at United Center each year when I go back east for christmas to visit.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I live in Philly now, but I am definitely not a Flyers fan.

Being from the Detroit area, I was a Wings fan from the start, but was not a huge hockey fan until my family moved right on campus in Ann Arbor. A bunch of the neighborhood kids would get together to play street hockey in the summer & occasionally Aaron Ward and some of the other guys from the Wolverines would come play and bring us UofM pucks/posters/trading cards/etc. I went to UW-Madison, so I had to switch from a Wolverines fan to a Badger fan though.

I also kinda became an Islanders fan 2 years ago (I know - jumping on the bandwagon). My fiance's brother in law passed away & had never taken her nephew to a hockey game (he was pretty young). So 2 years ago I took him to his first game (they live on Long Island) & he loved it. As an 8 year old boy his attention span is pretty short, but he was glued to the game for the full 3 hours. His favorite part was the D - he says he practices skating backwards every time I see him. I try to make it to a couple of games a year.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Was a flyers fan as a kid. When I started watching and playing hockey they were the team that won the cup.

Was a leafs fan through much of the 80's. That's the only team you saw on t.v. on the cbc at that time - back before tsn and when cable was up to channel 13.

After watching them blow the lead in the 3rd period one to many times, switched teams to the nordiques and the sabres. Not sure exactly why those teams - didn't want to jump on the winning team bandwagon. the nodiques were partly for a dislike of the canadiens and their fans back then. the sabres were partly because they were a small market team. I remember malarchuk was on of their goalies at the time but can't pin down an exact year. Must have watched both teams play some games on t.v. and liked their style and/or some players. Nordiques vs Canadiens were usually good games to watch.

once quebec moved was no longer a fan of their's.

still a sabres fan (though not a fan of the buffaslug or the mad goat only fan of the original logo).

where i am the closest NHL teams were the jets and the northstars - both a good seven hour drive (now it's the wild).

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  • 2 weeks later...

I kind of lapsed from hockey fandom for a few years. I used to be a big Pens fan when I lived in PA. I was a kid and mario was bringing in the cups. I also liked the Hawks, mostly because I liked Roenick because he was a top-flight American player. Then Mario retired(the first time) and I lost interest for a while. Then last year I moved to Florida, and my brother(big hockey fan) came down to visit and we went to a Lightning game. It was the first time I'd been to a hockey game and it was like I was a kid again. So I've fallen in love with the Bolts, even if they only had 20 some wins last year.

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  • 2 months later...

Awesome thread. I moved to Denver in the mid 80's with my family. Hockey really wasn't much to me, but my brother was a huge Mike Modano fan at the time, until the North Stars moved to Dallas. He was crushed. While I was in Jr. high, I met and still am friends with a great friend that loves the Maple Leafs (hes from Windsor). He got me into hockey, and into the Leafs. A few years later the Nordiques moved to Denver. We instantly became Avalanche fans. So with two teams under my belt, I moved back to MN in Aug 1996, missing out on the 1st Stanley Cup for the Avalanche. I was pretty upset for that. Then the Wild came along in 2000. I just recently became a Wild fan since its hard to follow the other teams in a different state.

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Well when Hartford moved to NC, that pretty much did it for me. Before Hartford moved, i didnt really have a team i watched. I was still relatively young at the time, about 10 or 11 when the Jets moved to Phoenix. I just remember how awesome the Phoenix Jersey looked. Then Roenick was one of my favorites at the time and was shipped to play in Phoenix, so that added to it. It was a love relationship even though i never hardly saw a game on tv. I did go to The Phoenix vs Canes game at the infamous Greensboro Coliseum when the Canes were still here. I just remember Roenick going into the boards ackwardly in the first period and missing the rest of the game. That pissed me off. Good times though. Now a Canes/Phoenix fan through and through.

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Being that Philly is a couple of hours, if that, from where I live, and I grew up not only going to Flyers games, but every other Philadelphia team, I naturally gravitated to the Flyers (and the rest of Philadelphia's teams)

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  • 1 month later...

Being from the land of Orcs and Elves (New Zealand) I didn't have a hometown team when i started watching hockey.

First team I supported was Chicago, pure and simple because I played for the Glenfield Blackhawks and as such felt it was natural.

Then NHL 99 came out on the computer and I got it on release day...and fell in love with the Coyotes. No real reason...just randomly picked them, played as them, and loved it.

I also developed a strange connection with the Flames around 2001, Jarome Iginla wore the number 12 (which i wore to honor a friend/teammate who died at 12) and played similar hockey to how I saw myself...bam, flames fan.

Then i met my Wife-to-be...who is from Tucson, AZ, giving me another reason to support the yotes. :D

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  • 1 year later...

Grew up in Georgia. Was fortunate to have some Canadian neighbors that taught me what street hockey/hockey in general was about at an early age.

Dad took me to my first hockey game when the Macon Whoopee was around. Then it just escalated from there haha. I got sucked in, wanting to go to more games.

The Thrashers were announced to expand into Atlanta a year after I really got into hockey. I live 5 hours from Atlanta but I was there opening night in 99 and haven't missed an opening night since. When I was younger and got my first car I would ditch school and go up to Atlanta with friends for a game. lol Those were always fun trips.

I live somewhat far away but I at least try to go to 10 games a year.

Edited by thrashyourfacein
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Growing up in Chicago and the northern burbs, the Blackhawks were always my favorite team because they're my home team.

When I was about 11 or 12 I remember reading an article in Hockey Digest about the Devils and I don't know if it was their logo, the name, or what, but I became a fan of that team too, especially Scott Stevens and Claude Lemieux (let me hear the hating). The fact that the Devils were winning Cups didn't hurt either.

Toward the late 90's Hawks management was so terrible, they got rid of so many of my favorite players, and charged so much for tickets (not to mention they didn't televise games) I all but abandoned them for probably 5 years. Chicago Wolves (IHL then AHL) tickets were cheaper, seats were better, and the team could actually win so I went to more games and cheered for them more than the Hawks. The last 3-4 years really sparked my interest back up in the Hawks with new management and new talent. The last two and a half seasons have been especially fun to follow.

At least with the Hawks/Devils they're not in the same conference and only play each other once/twice a year so I don't feel bad rooting for both teams. Last year I was going out to bars to watch playoff games when both teams would be playing on the same day a few hours apart. I'd have a Devils jersey on for one game then change into a Hawks jersey for the next! LOL!

Oddly enough, out of any sport, the Devils are the only team I root for outside of Chicago.

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Growing up near Canada, we always had CBC so I got to watch a lot of HNIC. It was either that or NESN so I got to watch a lot of Bruins games, but for some reason I was always pulled towards the Flames. When I was a kid I always loved their unis, that red jersey with the flaming C always really appealed to me. Then when they brought up UVM's own Martin St. Louis the local press paid a lot of attention to the Flames. I still didn;t get to see a lot until a friend of mine from Edmonton started getting center ice and we would watch game after game. Before CI, it was hard for me to be an ultra die hard with no way to see them on a regular basis. Then 2004 happened and it cemented it for good. A Cup win would have been better, but it was still awesome.

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Great thread guys!

I'd love to hear from Whalers / Nords / Jets fans who've switched allegiances if there are any on here. And as a side note, I'm solely a Habs fan, but have held a very soft spot for the Ducks since Koivu left two years ago.

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I'd love to hear from Whalers / Nords / Jets fans who've switched allegiances if there are any on here.

Nope, never purchased a single item for anything Colorado. I will admit, I cheered them on after the Nords moved, especially to see Sakic hoist the Cup, but never became a huge fan, once the players started retiring or got traded I basically now just watch the NHL as a hockey fan. I would goto Avs games on the road when they come to Buffalo, Toronto or Detroit, but not anymore.

Oh, and back to the thread topic, I swear i thought I posted in here already, anyways... became a fan of the Nordiques early 80's, right around when Marian Stastny joined the other two brothers. Michel Goulet and Dale Hunter my fav players growing up, and I grew up in a house full of Habs fans so yes it was a fight! LOL Would always compare players like Goulet vs Mats Naslund, Hunter vs Chris Nilan, Gosselin and Bouchard vs Sevigny and Penney! ######, the good ol'days!

Got to see them a few times at Le Colisee, will never forget going to my first Nordiques home game, best ever! Always caught them on the road at Toronto etc, or pre season games... but living 10 hours from Quebec was difficult to get to a home game. Its nice as I live 2 hours from Buffalo, Toronto, Detroit, so can catch some road games often. And if you're not a Leafs fan growing up in ontario will make you hate the Leafs, LOL (sorry TMLFAN no offense)... the media and fans back then drove us other fans crazy listening to them expecting to win Cup every year, the Harold Ballard years, LOL.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I live in New Hampshire and became an LA Kings fan over the last several years.

I grew up watching the Bruins but after many years of poor ownership and lackluster play my interest in hockey dropped off. When the AHL brought a team to town I started going to Manchester Monarchs games. After a couple years watching and cheering for the Monarchs the players started to get called up to the Kings and my attention turned west to follow their progress.

I am now a season ticket holder for the Monarchs and regularly watch or listen to Kings games when possible due to the time difference. The Bruins get my money once a year when the Kings come east to play at the Garden but thats it.

The Bruins were my team for many years but now it's "Go, Kings, Go!"

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Grew up in the Milwaukee area and boy was it hard to get into hockey down there. Admiral games were always OK to pass the time, but never anything you'd want to jump onto. I moved right after they became the Predator affiliate.

The North Stars got moved, the Blackhawks were taken off of WGN, and ESPN/NHL didn't want to be friends anymore, so my only exposure to the NHL was during playoff time, and even then it was hard to get into because I didn't know players, teams, etc.

Fast forward to 2003. I move to Minneapolis to go to school in the land of the Gophers. A dorm mate of mine says "hey i got an extra ticket to the Gopher game tonight against North Dakota, wanna go?" I didn't have anything to do that night, so what the heck. Golden Gopher student section got me hooked on hockey. I loved the energy of the crowd, the fast pace, everything was awesome! I cut my teeth into hockey and became a big Gopher fan. Too bad I didn't jump on the Wild that year with their incredible WCF run.

Move to 2007, I am graduated and working. My office mate is a die hard Wild fan and he gets me interested in the team. He was a season ticket holder at the time and would have me go with when his wife didn't want to go. The Xcel is a great place for hockey, and once again I was hooked. Gaborik and company sucked me in.

And there we have it, my short history into the game of hockey. =)

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