Favorite NHL teams

Sabres · Guru

Favorite NHL teams

Predsgm · Guru

I am a die hard fan of the Dallas Stars.. as Mike Modano is also my favourite player. My dad took me to a junior game with Prince Albert vs Swift Current. and he told me watch out for this kid.*modano* cause he will be big in the nhl... And now after that 1987 season.. he was drafted first overall in 1988 and became an nhl cup champ in 1999... and hopefully after this season become the most prolific goal scoring american ever to play the game.

David Barbosa

Hawks_G · Guru

Sabres wrote:

I wouldnt mind finding out what kind of a distribution of NHL fans we have in this league to see if there will be any debates between rival fans and just for fun. Personally Im a Flames fan, born in Calgary and have like the Flames prob ever since Iginla suited up for the Flames in his first NHL game in the 96 playoffs against Chicago... That was the start of the Flames 7 straight years without playoffs. Ive stuck with them through thick and thin, mostly thin and now see them as a cup favorite. Its a real treat. Luke is also a Flames fan but both of us love the Sabres as our 2nd favorite team.

THAT explains it.....Oilers and Habs here. Been a fan of the Habs since around 1975 or so. They were just so much better than the other Canadian team at the time, they had great history, a great venue, and the greatest team of all time. They weren't tough to like.

I lived in NW Ontario and we also had the WHA when I was growing up, and I had family out in Edmonton. The Oilers were easy to like. Then the came into the NHL and immediately started making noise. I moved to Edmonton in 1984 and got caught up in the sensation of a hometown Stanley Cup. I attended training camp and met all the Oilers...Gretzky, Kurri, Semenko. Back then they were stars, but still a little more down to earth than the players of today.

So dual allegiances....

Sabres · Guru

Predsgm wrote:

I am a die hard fan of the Dallas Stars.. as Mike Modano is also my favourite player. My dad took me to a junior game with Prince Albert vs Swift Current. and he told me watch out for this kid.*modano* cause he will be big in the nhl... And now after that 1987 season.. he was drafted first overall in 1988 and became an nhl cup champ in 1999... and hopefully after this season become the most prolific goal scoring american ever to play the game.

David Barbosa

I (Aaron) used to HATE the Stars more than any other team. My reasoning behind it was that they pretty much had the Flames number, and still do it seems. But also I just hated the idea of way south teams in the NHL, that climate is just too hot for a team, but Im starting to shift a bit. I actually now dont mind the direction they are heading, and as you can see by our drafting, we think they have a very bright future even though HF ranks their prospects as 28th in the league or something... We have I think 5 stars prospects. Eriksson, Lindgren, Neal, Polak and Lessard are all Sabres property in BRHL. The Stars prob rank somewhere near 20th in my rankings of teams I like though now, 1-2 years ago they were 30th with Philly being 29th, but both teams have now risen and TB has fallen because of 2004.

VanIslander · Guru

First watched the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry of the late seventies, both teams were great but Montreal was just an itsy bit better, making for tons of great, close hockey games. Got to like both teams. Cheered for Lafleur, Dryden, Gainey especially. Yet because I knew the Boston players I rooted for them when they played any other opponents, which was easy, because the rest of the league was pretty easy to beat.

Then I tried to get into my hometown Canucks, only, the team was the laughingstock of the league, the franchise had never had any success, and they couldn't give away tickets to attend games. Finishing ahead of the Colorado Rockies (later moving to Atlanta) was considered an achievement. Ugh.

The only hockey I gained any pleasure from besides the Habs-Bruins was the international competition, not just with the Soviet Union, but also with the phenomenal Czechoslovakians (less hyped but great, winning teams in seventies and eighties). Canada would lose but dang the games were great. And there were a few years when a Soviet team played Montreal on New year's Eve, it became a family tradition to watch them!

Then two magical things happened to make me a hockey fan for sure, certifiably, and undeniably, for the next quarter century:

1) I saw every game of the Canucks 1982 run to the Finals. It is better referred to as "Towel Power" because that early series against Chicago WAS the real glory moment. When Roger Nielsen raised the hockey stick with a white towel on it to protest the officiating, I was one of the many fans who awaited the next game back in Vancouver and waved white towels in my living room, screaming at the t.v. as loud as anyone at Pacific Coliseum. Gawd that was the greatest moment in franchise history (beating cup favorite Calgary in the first round twelve years later is a close second). Oh, by the way, the New York Islanders dominated the Canucks in the finals, sweeping so hard that I knew TEN MINUTES into the first game that my Canucks had no chance, zip, of winning the series. But it didn't matter. We had done the unimagineable and gladly accepted second place.

2) Wayne Gretzky. He was the reason to watch and cheer for the unsuccessful new Oilers. I later came to cheer for Coffey even more (and much later, in the nineties became disappointed to see how lousy Coffey played defense when I finally saw him play during my years of university in Windsor, going to games at the Joe Lewis Arena in Detroit, when he played there as a one-dimensional soft scorer, more like a Luc Robitaille of the blue line, or worse: Craig Janney, a guy I loved to touch the puck but did squat away from it. Anyways, you had to love Gretzky (majority) or absolutely detest him for what he kept doing to your fav team (a rare few).

Eric_Isles · BRHL2 Co-Commish

Penguins for me, grew up with them. Will always be #1.

I like the Edmonton Oilers since about 2000-01. There's something about their style of play that draws me to them.

As well as I do like the Wild because of their organizational structure, draft choices, coaching, and they have the best player in the world in Marian Gaborik.

VancouverGM · Senior Member

New York Rangers over here....i know me and the Islander GM will have a few chats about Ranger-Islander games. Also Rico's 15 year contract....WOW!!!!!

VanIslander · Guru

VancouverGM wrote:

New York Rangers over here....i know me and the Islander GM will have a few chats about Ranger-Islander games. Also Rico's 15 year contract....WOW!!!!!

*sigh* If you'd read my post you'd know I'm not an Islanders fan. I'm an islander, as in Vancouver Islander, VanIslander.

I have a long dislike for the team that beat my Canucks in 1982. But I also have a more recent hate on for the other New York team of 1994.

The only saving grace for the Islanders is that they are NOT the Rangers, nor the Devils, and they have Ted Nolan now, and I got to love Nolan in Buffalo when I watched them closely nearly a decade ago when I was living in southern Ontario for a few years and the Sabres had Michael Peca, and us Canucks fans loved Peca when he was an NHL rookie in Vancouver before being traded to Buffalo. So any interest I have in NYI goes back to my Canucks.

By the way, I tried to move the Islanders from Long Island to the West Coast but the commishes here told me there won't be any relocations.

VanIslander · Guru

My entire last post should be surrounded by a smirk

VancouverGM · Senior Member

VanIslander wrote:

VancouverGM wrote:

New York Rangers over here....i know me and the Islander GM will have a few chats about Ranger-Islander games. Also Rico's 15 year contract....WOW!!!!!

*sigh* If you'd read my post you'd know I'm not an Islanders fan. I'm an islander, as in Vancouver Islander, VanIslander.

I have a long dislike for the team that beat my Canucks in 1982. But I also have a more recent hate on for the other New York team of 1994.

The only saving grace for the Islanders is that they are NOT the Rangers, nor the Devils, and they have Ted Nolan now, and I got to love Nolan in Buffalo when I watched them closely nearly a decade ago when I was living in southern Ontario for a few years and the Sabres had Michael Peca, and us Canucks fans loved Peca when he was an NHL rookie in Vancouver before being traded to Buffalo. So any interest I have in NYI goes back to my Canucks.

By the way, I tried to move the Islanders from Long Island to the West Coast but the commishes here told me there won't be any relocations.

Sorry man thought you were a NEW YORK ISlANDER fan. Oh well......and sorry about 94 we were due for one that year.

Pittsburgh GM · Senior Member

OK, some has to be a Leafs fan so I guess that makes me a bigger sucker than most, but being a full bloom homegrown Torontonian , this is what I am.

I go back a lot further than most of you and remember being Dave Keon, or George Armstrong when I was a young boy playing road hockey. I also have the disguishability of saying I played most of my hockey with one of those styrofoam helmuts and a tiny mouth guard for most of my career. No cage in our days till right near the end. I have pics, damn one day I will scan a few of them just to show you how ridiculous we really looked back then, lol.

My favorite player is finally going to get his sweater raised to the rafters this season at ACC and it is about time, Borje Salming was the one reason we had to vote for the leafsduring and after the Sittler years. Good thing Ballard actually liked the hearted Swede. Someone to share his coke days with I guess. But then Borje never had sinus problems now did he ? He was however the epitamy of what a true canadian hockey player was even if he wasn't. He was tough, took all the abuse you possibly could from players like Dave Schultz, and the rest of the broad street bullies, and still was the heart of the leafs for close to 20 years. If anyone ever deserved his sweater hung it would definately be Borje.

All I can say is Go Leafs GO, and hope we can just make the playoffs this year. Prediction: Leafs win Stanley Cup in 4 in 2067. Too bad I will not be around to enjoy it !

nuckfan · Veteran Member

VanIslander wrote:

" Finishing ahead of the Colorado Rockies (later moving to Atlanta) was considered an achievement. Ugh."

I believe the Colorado Rockies became the New Jersey Devils... but maybe I misunderstood what you were saying. Anyway...

Both Wild GM's are Vancouver Canucks fans... I always have been, and always will be. As for my most hated.... that's tougher, so many to choose from though the Flyers, Avs and Leafs immediately come to mind (likely in that order).

VanIslander · Guru

nuckfan wrote:

I believe the Colorado Rockies became the New Jersey Devils...

You're right of course.

The Atlanta team moved to Calgary. Got my wires crossed (that was a quarter century ago, and hadn't given those franchises a moment's thought in the meantime).

Philippe27 · Guru

Habs for me

OilersBrent · Senior Member

I'm a die hard Leaf fan. Always have been, always will be.

Recently they have really frustrated me with their poor management styles and goals. Hopefully they will fix it up in the next few years. I also hope that we get new owners but that will never happen.

Finally, i hope to see a cup in Toronto before i DIE.