Some of these gents - two of the Tims - were featured in the football blogs in August (one a Vikings fan, another of America's Team), so they have quite the background in rooting for non-Chicago entities.
With these friends of mine (four of them answered my questions), I was looking to see the roots of their hockey interest, what steered them to the teams they rooted for, and why not the Hawks?
I also gauged their thoughts on the large increase of Blackhawks fans who have (for the most part) been filling the United Center since Rocky Wirtz took over the team in 2007. They had varying thoughts on the bandwagon fans, ranging from acceptance to complete disgust.
Enjoy!
Bubba - Wings Man
The first one to answer (we'll call him Bubba) is a Red Wings fan, which seems to be the most common out-of-market team for Chicago people to root for. Needless to say, he's a happy camper as they sealed their third straight win to go up 3-1 in their best of 7 against the rival Hawks. When he answered this, they were down 1-0, so his answers may be different now than before, especially his predictions, which I'll mention below.
Bubba's roots as a Wings fan date back to his days of playing Sega Genesis, when the Red Wings had the best team in the game. "You couldn't beat them with (Steve) Yzerman, (Sergei) Federov, (Dino) Ciccarelli, and (Chris) Osgood," he said.
In a rivalry like Detroit/Chicago, you might find this nugget from Bubba surprising: not only does he not mind
the bandwagon of fans that have come cheer on the Blackhawks recently - he also cheers for the
Hawks...when they're not playing the Wings. He was rooting them on in the 2010 Stanley Cup - how many
Wings fans can you say did this? However, to be a true Hawks fan, Bubba has a few criteria.
"Give me stats and show me they know the game," he said. "If they know old players and key moments in history, I'd label them a true fan."
Entering the playoffs, Bubba said he would have considered this postseason a success if the Red Wings advanced past the first round of the playoffs.
"Since we did, I'm happy with whatever happens from now on," he said.
Having held onto his answers since Saturday, he might want to revise his Cup prediction (the Hawks losing to the Penguins in 6), but I'm sure he doesn't mind possibly being wrong about that.
So we know why he liked the Wings - why not the Hawks?
"Just not a Hawks fan," Bubba said. "I was born a winner and the Blackhawks were shitty for so long."
More Wings Please - The Tim C. Story
Another Wings fan in my group of friends, Tim C. fell in love with Motown's hockey team for a much different reason than Bubba. Instead of video games, Tim was introduced to hockey by Wings fans.
"After learning the history and traditions, I was hooked," he said.
Tim is a little more rough around the edges (to put it nicely) when it comes to his distaste of the Blackhawks and their fan base. As a kid, the Hawks were irrelevant to him, largely due to their lack of television presence.
"The Chicago Wolves had a better attendance rate," he said. "It's hard to root for a team that gets no local coverage."
When the Hawks won the Cup in 2010, Tim turned his TV and went to bed - so no celebrating with his Hawks friends like Bubba did.
His thoughts on the bandwagon fans are a lot different than Bubba's as well, and Tim certainly didn't mince words.
"Everyone is technically a bandwagon fan. They're no different," Tim said. "Now if you want me to answer what it would take for me to remove them of the label of low IQ'd morons, then my answer would be 'Shut up and listen. Learn something before you open your mouth because you spew verbal diarrhea.'"
Regarding his Wings, he has been very surprised to see the Wings playing so well, especially with their youth movement.
"For them to help grab the 7th seed, knock off the 2 seed, and give the 1 seed a run for their money," Tim said, "I'd say that's surprising and very impressive."
Like Bubba, Tim answered this before the Wings took a convincing series lead, so his series pick (Penguins over Hawks) may be different now.
"That's the match I'll root for if the Wings lose because it will be a classic," he said.
Another Tim, Another Out of Market Team A'Bruin
Yet another Tim in my group of friends can't root for the Hawks. This particular Tim roots for a team a little east of Detroit.
Tim W. became hooked on the Boston Bruins in a similar way that Tim C. did - with historical players on the team as he started following hockey. These greats included Ray Bourque, Cam Neely & Andy Moog, making his liking of the team come "pretty naturally."
He knew that his hometown team had some great players like Ed Belfour, Jeremy Roenick and Chris Chelios, but Tim couldn't bring himself to root for the Blackhawks.
"The Hawks and their poor management/ownership really steered me away from them," he said. "Not showing home games on TV really was a turn off and didn't make them seem fan friendly or accommodating to their fans."
Since his Bruins aren't really rivals in the truest sense of the word, Tim didn't find himself rooting against the Hawks like an average Red Wings fans would. Consider his Cup reaction in 2010 a cross between the Wings fans mentioned above.
"I was happy for the fans that I knew were true fans and tried to ignore the ones that just started following them," he said.
For those fans that fall in the latter category (the bandwagon fans), Tim believes there is hope for them to become real fans. In addition to touching up on the team's history, he believes showing loyalty will weed out the bandwagon fans from the ones who actually became fans in the past five years.
"If they are new to the game, they can prove their worth by sticking with the team through tough times, " he said. "Because it's easy to like the hot team when you first start following the sport."
Entering the Bruins second-round series versus the Rangers, Tim didn't think his team would advance. Now that his team has a 3-1 lead (lost Thursday in Game 4), he believes advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals is a given "barring collapse", but doesn't see them advancing past the Penguins in the next round.
"I don't think they are consistent enough offensively to beat the Penguins though, but they will give them a good fight," said Tim, who now has the Penguins over the Sharks (after revising it from a Blues over Rangers prediction before the playoffs started).
Penguin Pride
The last fan profile is on Don, who became a Penguins fan with help from his cousins and brother, with a little help from Mario Lemieux being a staple of the team when Don was a kid. Like the hockey fans above, his lack of exposure to the Blackhawks made his interest draw to a different squad.
"When I got into hockey, it was hard to watch a Hawks game with them not being televised," Don said.
His Penguins won the Cup in 2009, so seeing the best championship trophy in sports go to the hometown team the next year should have been tough on Don - but it wasn't.
"I was out with friends who were Hawks fans at a bar and took it as an opportunity to celebrate," he said, "seeing as though the Pens won the year before and I didn't do much for that."
Don finds the bandwagon Blackhawks fans to be annoying and more focused on social interaction with their friends while the game is on instead of intently following the action of the games. He does believe these bandwagon fans can become real fans if they try to educate themselves on the game.
"Real fans follow their team every day. They know all the players, when the games are, who they're playing against," Don said. "They know who's hurt or who's a scratch. They aren't there just for social interaction."
Making it a clean sweep among the out-of-market fans, Don is sticking with his prediction and bet from a few months ago that the Penguins will win the Stanley Cup. As a witness to his prediction, I can say that he had the Penguins over the Red Wings before the playoffs started.
"I think they have a real good shot at the Cup," he said. "But I thought that two months ago too when I bet it!"
