View My Seats

At the Intersection of Sports and Culture

Photo Credit for Header: Alex Foucre-Stimes

Take Out the Garbage

by

In a battle between two NHL bubble teams trying to find themselves, the Bruins laid an egg and made Jonas Hiller and the “no longer Mighty” Ducks look like world beaters. Hiller stopped 45 Bruins shots, at times looking like Dominik Hasek in his prime. The Bruins danced like they had lead weights tied to their skates and, in all honesty, the Ducks were the beneficiaries of some fortunate puck bounces into their sticks on the first two goals.

The real fireworks came in the 3rd period with 3 minutes left to go when a youngish, barely five foot tall “lady” straight out of the Ecklund household decided to vault over her seat in the row behind me, swinging fists wildly at a “gentleman” behind her with whom she had been having an animated conversation only moments earlier. About two minutes, 8 combatants, 6+ police and security guards, a couple broken Rene Rancournaments, one bloody eye socket and the fight was over. My buddy Derek and I hoped that the woman who initiated the yard-sale would not get off the hook on account of her feeble “self-defense” claims.

This incident begs the question that I must admit makes me uncomfortable to ask: are hockey fans somehow different? Do they possess a certain distasteful joie de vivre that reflects poorly on the sport? No, wait, Jets fans are the same way. Nevermind.

Share your views.

Philadelphia on the East, Pittsburgh on the West, and Alabama in the Middle

by

The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 Tuesday night ending the Penguins 12 game winning streak. Apparently, for a mid December NHL game, this was as big as it gets.  I don’t mean to minimize the significance of this event at all but, to be honest with you, prior to this morning I had no idea that these teams were 1-2 in their conference and that the Pens had won 12 in a row.

Even with my “hockey ignorance”, I still plan to watch part 1 of the “24/7 Road to the Winter Classic” on HBO tonight. I expect to see plenty of Alex Ovechkin driving 125 mph around the beltway in his brand new Mercedes-Benz. What’s everyone else watching this evening?

Share your views.

A Fan’s Eye View: St. Louis Blues – A Baseball Town with a Hockey Problem

by

Admittedly, I know very little about either St. Louis or the Blues. The previous extent of my St. Louis Blues knowledge was formed while playing an unhealthy amount of NHL ’94 on my old Sega Genesis. (Al MacInnis had an absolute rocket for a slapshot.) So for this post, I had to enlist the help of Dan who is from “the Lou” and a hardcore fan of his hometown hockey team. He was nice enough to share an insider’s view of the Blues and their fans.  He even helped me remember that Wayne Gretzky was once a member of the team.  Below is an edited version of our email exchange. Thanks for all the great help Dan. This one’s for you Jon Hamm!!

View My Seats: How would you describe a typical St. Louis Blues fan?

Dan: You have to remember St. Louis is a baseball town and the Cardinals are by far and away the #1 team and passion of the city.  The Blues fan base is definitely made up of your core hockey fans.  They are knowledgeable and passionate, but don’t have the same lewdness and craze that you would see from Rangers, Flyers or Wings fan.  STL fans were spoiled for so many years because the team always made the playoffs.  The streak of 25+ years was finally broken in 2004 or 2005.  Attendance took a big hit when the team started rebuilding because they lacked a big name without Pronger, MacInnis, or Hull.  Fans have finally started coming back this year with teams strong start.  Nearly all of the home games have been sellouts.  However, I did notice when we at the game last week that it was much more of a family crowd than I remember.  As a result the building lacked a lot of buzz, energy and rowdiness for a Saturday night game against a rival.  (They played Dallas and it was the second night of a home and home).  I was a little disappointed since I had been reading about how great attendance was this year.

VMS: What would an outsider say about the typical Blues fan?

Dan: An outsider attending the game I saw would probably have been disappointed by the fans.   However, core Blues fans are great.  Its just tough being that fan in a baseball town.

VMS: Do fans show up and support their team regardless of their record? [Read more…]