Spoiler!
VANCOUVER—How is it that the Canadian team with the best chance at the Stanley Cup is one of the most hated teams in hockey? Shouldn’t we love these guys?
Mention the Vancouver Canucks in Vancouver and the love overflows. Mention the same team anywhere else in the league and the venom is palpable.
Non-Canucks fans point to the team’s reputation for whining — GM Mike Gillis was fined during last season’s playoffs for complaining about the officiating — the diving abilities of the Sedin twins, the hair-pulling and finger-biting tactics of forward Alex Burrows.
“They are the most arrogant team I played against and the most hated team I’ve ever played against,” former Boston Bruins forward Mark Recchi told an American radio station last year.
Why exactly are the Canucks so despised? For a second year in a row, the team captured the President’s Trophy as the NHL’s top team and odds are the Canucks will have another extended run in the playoffs with their second chance in as many years of ending up in the finals. The Canucks will begin that quest Wednesday night in their playoff opener against the Los Angeles Kings.
Cambridge, Ont., resident Jim Chaplin says one reason the Canucks are so despised is because they have an inflated opinion of themselves.
“This is not a team that goes out and plays tough and backs up their talk. They hide behind officials and they don’t play an honourable, tough brand of hockey,” says Chaplin, who lived in Vancouver in his early 20s and is a lifelong Chicago Blackhawks fan. “Hockey fans love a good work ethic, players who hit and backcheck. Fans like fighters, not chirpers.”
Chaplin thinks the Canucks’ reputation for being a dirty team reaches back years, starting with the 2004 Todd Bertuzzi hit on Steve Moore of the Colorado Avalanche.
Kelly Kirch, program director for Sportsnet 960 The Fan in Calgary, says whenever the Canucks are raised as a topic on radio call-in shows, the response from callers is disdain.
“What people don’t like the most about the team, I think, are the Canuck fans. The Canucks fans lose all sense of judgment; they think everyone else is against them and they aren’t graceful when they lose,” says Kirch. “There is an arrogance with the Canucks and while people can respect that they’re a very good team, no one likes them very much.”
That’s why Kirch believes so many fans of other teams like seeing the Canucks lose.
Canucks fan Sean Zandberg, one of the writers for the Canucks blog Nucks Misconduct, cites simple jealousy as the reason his team is so hated.
“The Canucks have been so successful that everything they do is scrutinized,” he says. “No one hates a loser but they really hate the prom king.”
I guess the media doesn't get it......... it's getting old. People, for the most part, are aware of media sensationalism. Try something new, like reporting on facts or something.
Mark Recchi... LOL, like anyone respects anything he has to say. Former Boston Bruins player.... right. Like they are the most loved team in the NHL. Shit smells no matter which asshole it came from.
Sidney Crosby said it best, "What happens on the ice is what matters."
Anyway, can't wait for the puck to drop Wednesday night.