Musings on Habs bashing...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

When I got into hockey, I got into it because it looked cool. Seeing a bunch of guys skating around while trying to put a little black thing into the back of the net looked like fun to watch. And I expected it to stay fun. I didn't expect to witness huge amounts of bashing of the team. I was surprised - perhaps I shouldn't have been in hindsight - at the sheer amount of bashing that has come from all sides. It's come from the media and the fans outside of the province and it's come from the media and fans inside the province. I have to say I'm still a little baffled and angered by all of the bashing. Call me completely naive, but I don't get it. I thought only the Leafs were hated this much. Man, was I ever wrong...

The media outside of the province interests and confuses me quite a bit. In a perfect world, the media shouldn't be subtly biased against one particular team. Obviously this isn't a perfect world. I always thought it was just my imagination that all the highlights on TSN showed people scoring on the Habs, or that TSN's commercials for the playoffs would invariably have the Habs losing or some PA shouting "AND DOWN GOES MONTREAL" while other teams got footage of their guys scoring and winning. But then I asked other people about it - yes, other Habs fans. No they don't all live in Quebec- and they say they noticed it too. Are we just that insecure that we think that everyone is against us? or is there actually something to be said for it? I honestly don't know.

As a Habs fan, I can be a quite defensive of my team so maybe I'm just being overly defensive. I don't know. But I can tell you that the first thing the people on TSN said after the Habs game was "fans booed the American national anthem". Look, I don't endorse that type of behavior at all, but I don't remember TSN saying anything about the Bruins or Blues fans booing the Canadian national anthem while the Habs and Canucks were playing in Boston and St. Louis. Why is it a big production when it's done in Montreal and never a big deal when it's done somewhere else? If you think that it's wrong - and it is wrong - then say it every time fans do it. Don't just pick out Montreal, please.

There was a lot of outrage when Kostopoulos injured Mike Van Ryn. There was a whole spiel about how dirty the hit was and how he wasn't suspended long enough. But when every Habs' least favorite Leaf injures Markov - and doesn't even take a penalty for it - there isn't any noise from the media. Nada. Matt Hunwick get his eye injured in a scrum and all of a sudden Komisarek has to be suspended for "eye gouging" him. Hunwick then comes down with a spleen injury and all of a sudden it was because was injured while playing those nasty dirty Habs. But when Lang got injured with what could be a career ending injury and Latendresse also went out on a pretty nasty hit against the Bruins earlier in the year, it's just "part of the game". Like I've said, I don't want any player to be seriously injured. As much as I hate most of the Bruins as players or Grabovski, I don't want to see them get a serious injury. But I don't like the media playing up every injury that happens to players when they play against Montreal and the hear nothing when the Habs players are injured.

That's the feeling that I get from the media. I'll be fully honest and say maybe part of it is in my head, but I find it hard to believe that it's all in my head. I don't believe that my judgment is that clouded by my love for the Habs.

The fans outside of the province are a little easier to deal with. Fans of different teams are allowed to bash each other's teams. Within reason of course. The amount of hate and just plain rudeness that I've seen come from other fans this year however, is amazing (in a bad way). Look, Habs fans are not perfect. We can be mean and rude too and I'm not saying that all fans of other teams are like this, but there just seems to be so much hate from other fans towards the Habs in general. I don't know if it's resentment of the team in general, resentment of the policies and politics in Quebec or if it's done because it seems to be the "in" thing to do. Or all of the above. The baffling part for me is the amount of people who just seem to be taking so much delight in the Habs doing poorly. Do they really dislike the Habs that much that they'd spend most of their time dissing them? I find it kind of bizarre.

As for the media and fans here in Quebec.....You'd think that a little Habs fan could find some solace in her own media and her own fanbase at least supporting her team, right? Dead wrong. Some of the biggest crap I've seen and heard has come from the media in Montreal and from supposed "Habs fans". I have no idea why anyone would call themselves a fan and then proceed to do nothing but whine, complain and boo the team. I will whine about the team sometimes, yes, but boo them at a game? No. If all I wanted to do was whine about the guys then I'd wouldn't be following hockey. It's a game and it's supposed to be fun. Sure losing sucks, but it happens. It's part of it. Sometimes a team has a really good year. Sometimes they have a really bad year. It's part of it. Things aren't so enjoyable when people keep jumping on and off the bandwagon. It's not enjoyable when people keep throwing the team under the bus. I know there's a mentality that "well, it's my team so I can say what I want about them" but it's really not all that fun when I hear dozens of people bashing Price after the team loses. It's not fun when I have to hear people screaming for Carbonneau (and now Gainey's) head. If I find it sad and depressing, I can only wonder what the team thinks?

And it's certainly not enjoyable when the media gets on their own obsessive bandwagons. I had some respect for the media at the beginning of this year. I think most of that respect went out the door when all these so called "scandals" broke out. Kovalev stays home? "Oh my god, he's leaving the team! END OF THE WORLD! Kovalev sucks! We're screwed!". Those photos of some of the guys in Mexico (which were taken at least sixth months ago)? "See? They partying too much. They don't focus enough on hockey... blah, blah, blah..."

And then they wonder why nobody wants to play here? Well, let's see... would you want to play in a city who's media goes way over the top at the littlest things, goes ballistic if you don't speak French, does nothing but whine and complain if you don't win 80 of 82 games in the regular season and then throws you under the bus when you're about to be eliminated from the playoffs? Didn't think so. I know the media's job is to sell a story. But when those stories features nothing but bashing of the team, it makes me mad. Do they really want to sell a story that badly that they'll spew the first thing that comes their way and put a spin on it so it'll sound bad?

With 6 hours to go before the puck drops for what could be the last time this year, I'm bracing myself for a new wave of Habs bashing. It's sad to think that on a night when the Habs could really use our support, they're probably going to get the loudest chorus of booing by their own fans. We can't control the media, and if the other fans want to hate us, then fine, but people who profess to be Habs fans shouldn't be bashing or booing their own team. As tough as it can be to love a team that loses, they're still our team. And we should be supporting them.

8 comments:

lisa said...

well said.

Grrrreg said...

I don't know if that's because I'm not exposed to the media here, but I'm not sure I agree with everything you wrote here. Especially the part about the double standard when it comes to injuries suffered by the habs and by other teams players. In my mind, the hit by Kostopoulos on Van Ryn was dirtier than the hit by Grabovski on Markov (as much as I dislike Grabs, I think bad luck played a part on Markov's injury) So it's fair to expect the media will talk more about it. And I'm not sure why you brought up Lang in here. No one can be blamed for that one. It was a devastating injury for him and the team, but it was pure bad luck I think, so there's no reason for the media to talk much more about it than they did.
I don't think your love for the habs is completely blinding you. It's normal to feel defensive about your team, especially when they are on the brink of elimination.

Anyway, good luck for tonight! Are you gonna be here during the game? If you're here, I could come by and make some comments about the game on this thread.

Grrrreg said...

Well, it's seems you're commenting on twitter. But I still stubbornly refuse to twit. Anyway, let's hope the rest of the gme is better than those freaking last 3 minutes.

Eternal Pessimist said...

Grrreg - Where would I be if I didn't have you to catch my mistakes? I mean that. I should hire you to be my personal editor *g* Seriously though....

Okay so I was wrong to bring up Lang in that manner. I know it was a freak accident. My mistake for leaving it in there (that's what I get for writing part of this at 1 in the morning. I should have gone over my work first).

And yes, Kostopoulos' hit was dirtier than Grabs. I don't remember what I said at the time but I'm fairly sure that I didn't endorse his hit outright. But Grabs' hit wasn't exactly perfect either and he still took out Markov. I don't know if Grabs intended to injure Markov or not but the hit was unnecessary at the time as his team had virtually lost anyway.

I think my point was more that when a player is injured - freak accident or not - we hear more about it if it happened against the Habs versus if a Hab did it against another player.

I know I'm defensive of my team but I refuse to believe it's all in my head. I know for a fact that Quebecers in general are not well loved in other parts of the country because of certain political decisions (namely trying to separate from the rest of the country). I think the real issue there is that the Canadiens probably the only hockey team to be directly affected by politics. It affects who gets hired in the management positions, it affects who gets hired as the coach, it affects what players we get and it affects how other people view our team.

As someone who has lived here all my life, I can't tell you how other people feel about us exactly. But aside from the sports aspect, we really aren't loved in general. I honestly believe that some of those sentiments towards this province in general translate to how people feel about the team.

Grrrreg said...

I think you make a very good point about politics and hockey.

Well, the way things are going, I won't have to bother watching the third period. I don't want to hear the boos.

Eternal Pessimist said...

I don't like to talk politics but it's getting hard to not talk about them when it comes to the Habs sometimes....

The chances of us not having an owner, a GM, a coach or a players next year is not appealing.

Grrrreg said...

We'll have all summer long to think about that!
Well, it's useless to stay up for this. So it's time to call it a night. Enjoy your last moments with the 2008-09 habs!

Eternal Pessimist said...

I'll enjoy ripping the "fans" after this. What they're doing to this team is awful....

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