[lafountain]

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.

[WBSBurghFan2001]

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.

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.

[akteon]

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.

[ZoomZoom18]

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.

[Flames Jersey Collector]

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)

[Brilliant!]

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.

[hockeycam1344]

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.

[RolandKing]

Fair and simple. You are a fan of a key playey(s) that play for that team. I liked the Boston Bruins the second I saw the level of skill that Bobby Orr held.

[Crimson]

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

[HawksFan79]

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

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.

[Made in Motown]

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.

[greyraven8]

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).

[attila]

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.

[Avalanche freak]

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.

[CanesCop86]

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.

[PYLrulz]

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)

[Timmy Hate]

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.