MONTREAL, QC. – We belong to what’s probably the most widely-hated fanbase in hockey. I know Leafs fans try and stake their claim on that title once in a while, but how cute is that? The fact remains that we are a pretty vocal, incredibly passionate fanbase, and that passion has earned us a reputation that’s not all good.
I’m not talking about isolated incidents where a small minority makes all of us look bad, such as wearing blackface to the Bell Centre or looting and torching police cars after a playoff win. Those are, as mentioned, isolated incidents that are not representative of Canadiens fans at all.
I’m talking about the vitriol we often attract when we’re liberally booing bad calls (or any calls) at the Bell Centre and singing the Ole song loudly all game. For some reason the expression of love for our team gets on other hockey fans’ nerves.
“Classless,” it’s called.
“Everything is not a penalty,” we are reminded.
“Ugh. I hate Habs fans,” we often hear.
Should we be taking a page out of their books, then?
There is a disturbing trend I am noticing among message boards, on Facebook, on Twitter and on some blogs from fans of other teams when it comes to the Habs and their fans. Too often, people are resorting to classless, ignorant comments, which is probably not new but definitely becoming more and more prevalent.
In the last few weeks alone I’ve winced about 59 times.
A couple of weeks ago when Carey Price capped his shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins with a talked-to-death pose, I noticed a Penguins fan on Twitter say she hoped he would die in a car crash on the way home that night. A few days later, a grown man from the Boston Bruins camp said something along the lines of, “I’ll name my firstborn after the Bruin who concusses PK Subban tonight.” Not long later, a New York Rangers fan made some racist slurs with reference to French people.
Tonight, during a beatdown of the sleeping Habs by the Philadelphia Flyers, Twitter showcased the “best” ignorance had to offer, from homophobic remarks to more slurs against the French to a Philadelphia fan retweeting everything Habs fans said and adding some really idiotic comments, such as “all the female Habs fans are butt ugly.”
Really, Internet? This is what we’ve come to? Wishing death and injuries upon players? Racist remarks about a large portion of the Canadiens fanbase? Homophobia? All of which are coming out of the mouths (or keyboards) of grown adults who should really know better?
Maybe it’s just that I choose to interact only with the Habs fans that would not make ignorant comments like that, but I really haven’t seen any of that stuff coming from Habs fans (or Leafs fans, for that matter).
No, we’ve just earned our reputation for being classless by singing a little too loudly when our team is winning.