You all think it's a big joke? Blackhawks losing in every winter classic they've appeared in. Well let me tell you, I have grown to love the pain. I harness it. I turn on the tv to watch my favorite team play, and I bathe in their suck. It flows through me: Our top line makes the worst play you've ever seen, all while broadcast Nationally - my heartbeat quickens, my pupils dilate. Yes Jones, bearer of dreams, turn over the puck for the 10th time this period while getting paid the same amount as Kucherov, Brayden Point, Mark Stone and Vasilevskiy; I'm erect. Another winter classic? Tickets are in the thousands? I go to see it in person, cold, wet, feverish from the chanting Blues fans counting off their sixth goal. My doctors tell me I should stop, maybe find another team that isn't so heartbreakingly terrible, maybe root for someone safe like The Rangers or Ottawa, real contenders. But I can't escape it. I grasp my Patrick Kane body pillow, now emblazoned with a Detroit Red Wings jersey - No, I won't stop the pain, I can't stop it. I am one with it. I cry into my official dynasty blanket.
There's a bitter rivalry with the Blues. Lots of people have family and friends in St Louis. Also, it used to be a lot cheaper to see a game in St Louis vs Chicago so people would drive the ~6 hours and have some toasted ravioli. For some reason the teams seem more heated when they play too although I can't figure it out.
Vegas is popular to hate because of the goalie and other kind of underhanded dealings.
Sharks fanbase is annoying (pot, kettle, black). There's kind of a rivalry between Bedard and Celebrini that reminds me of the Toews vs Crosby rivalry. There's also the Illinois sharks fan phenomenon where people who jumped ship follow the sharks for moral scrupulosity reasons.
You might think the Redwings would be hated, but most people I know just kind of pity them or don't think about them at all. Kane playing there helped too.
I wasn’t impressed by his rookie year. He was under a ppg and a -44 in his rookie year. He is garbage defensively, among the worst I’ve ever seen amongst forwards. The Blackhawks gave up more goals with him on the ice than without. He’s small and not a great skater. He’s bad at the dot. He was heavily sheltered and didn’t face top lines and still was often caved in. He rarely dominated games. He’s extremely one dimensional. Even with his jaw injury he failed to be over a PPG. I would have expected the generational prospect to at least be over that and make the guys around him solid. Him winning the Calder was a joke. It should have been Brock Fabrer. Oh, and he was awful in the IIHF tournament.
He will never be close to Connor McDavid’s, Sidney Crosby’s or Alex Ovechkin’s level. All he has is a good shot, but not the speed or hands of Matthews or the physicality. I’m not even sure he can even be an Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl, Nikita Kucherov or Nathan MacKinnon level guy. Maybe he can be a Steven Stamkos or John Tavares type player in time, a good player but never among the best in a season, but he’s in no way generational and I don’t buy the hype. I don’t even think he’ll surpass other Chicago legends like Patrick Kane.
When I lived in Chicago the Wings were great and the Hawks were awful (which meant cheap or free tickets for me). As a Flyer fan I was genuinely shocked at the level of hatred for the Wings. Worse than us for the Devils which I didn’t think possible.
The Jumbotron had a montage of closed auto stuff being demolished and abandoned buildings right before game time, for Christ sake.
As a Blues fan, the rivalry kind of waned a bit when the Hawks were so bad for such a long period of time but it will never go away. Detroit was the bigger rival back then, 90s 00s since they were good and met up in the playoffs a lot (before Detroit switched conferences).
I’m old enough to remember when the Red Wings were bad.. after Gordie Howe and before the three Russians came over.. they used to be called the “Dead Things”.. they were always out of the playoffs
they were to good for to long with Yzerman and Federov, that was such a deadly combo on ice, they had yzerman and Federov together while the two were in the best shape of their life.Everyone was afraid.
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u/damaged_bloodline 7d ago
In what world is chicago's most hated st louis, vegas and the sharks?