NHL Lockout over?

[greyskull]

Thank Fuck.
Go Leafs GO

 

[Revson]

Let's go, Blues!!

 

[madbutcher]

^what he said. GO BLUES

 

[fatalforce]

48 game season? I'll take it. Hey go wings!

 

[J the TyranT]

Rangers. ECF team last year just added Nash and got healthy. Awww yeah.

 

[Jind]

Rangers. ECF team last year just added Nash and got healthy. Awww yeah.

I'm with J on this one - Go Rangers. Up here in the north eastern corner of CT I'm sort of out of place when wearing my Rangers jersey as I'm surrounded by Bruins fans.

 

[Russtopher]

I'm one of the bitter, jaded fans who's tired of Gary Bettman, Jeremy Jacobs, and the like who don't give two shits about the fans that buy tickets, beers, and crappy merch which all in turn get them paid.

I agree with the "Just Drop It" group who's not watching, buying tickets, or buying merch for at least the first 10 games of this season. Third lockout in 20 years? Screw them. Bunch of billionaires and millionaires whining.

 

[J the TyranT]

I'm with J on this one - Go Rangers. Up here in the north eastern corner of CT I'm sort of out of place when wearing my Rangers jersey as I'm surrounded by Bruins fans.

Boooo Bruins, lol

 

[Jind]

Boooo Bruins, lol

I think I may have mentioned my reasons for being a Rangers fan and not a Bruins fan but just in case anyone is wondering why - I grew up a Hartford Whalers fan from all the way back in their WHA days (when they were called the New England Whalers), the company my father worked for AVCO was a chief sponsor of the WHA with the championship trophy being the AVCO Cup so we went to a lot of games back in the 70's.

When the Whalers joined the NHL in the expansion for the 1979-80 season with Winnipeg Jets, the Quebec Nordiques, and the Edmonton Oilers I remained a huge fan with season tickets for the majority of thier NHL seasons. Needless to say I was devastated when Peter Karmanos after having promised to give the Whale at least 4 more years in Hartford to turn some attendance issues around, moved the team after only two of those seasons to North Carolina to become the Hurricanes.

As a local hockey fan with no interest in ever supporting the team as long as Peter Karmanos was involved with them ever again, I was stuck with the choice of three possible semi-local teams to support - the Rangers, the Bruins, or perhaps the Islanders. I quickly ruled out the Islanders as I just did not have much interest in them. The Rangers were the clearly lesser of two evils as I had absolutely hated the Bruins as they were sort of the Whalers natural local rivals. My Bruin hatred ran deep despite being a Boston born boy (I was raised in CT however after only living in Boston for a year). My choice of the Rangers was made all the easier when it was announced that they would be moving their AHL farm team to Hartford and play as the Hartford Wolfpack.

Having a local AHL team related to another local NHL team allowed me to get the entire hockey experience - I went to a ton of Wolfpack games and saw the young talent while they developed and I would also make several trips down to NYC each year to see several Rangers games.

In 2010 the Hartford Wolfpack changed their name to the Hartford Whale (to honor the hockey heritage here in CT), they are still the AHL representatives of the NY Rangers but many of us here in CT still hold out hopes of someday having another NHL presence here in CT regardless how low the odds are.

So - that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

PS - when the Whalers left CT my stepson became a Bruins fan, a bad choice I will always have difficulties forgiving him for We have some heated conversations whenever the Rangers play the Bruins.