Why Does Canada Hate the Flyers?

Being a Philly guy, I'm obviously a Flyers fan.  But those who read this site know hockey is certainly not one of my first passions as a sports fan.  That said, one thing I absolutely don't understand is the Canadian medias hatred for all things Philadelphia hockey.

Headlines like "Once a bully, always a bully" or "Broad st. Bullies alive and well" seem to pop up left and right out of the Canucks.  Is this something like our hatred for the Cowboys or are there some ulterior motives that I'm not aware of?  Or are they just a sensitive bunch up north?

Comments

[Kulp]

Why do Steelers fans hate the Eagles?

[jd]

you would think that the candians, of all people, would love "old tyme hockey"

[michael]

that to them though was never old tyme hockey. they think intentionally fighting and over the top hits are goonery, i think they are hypocrites to be honest. but yeah they hate overly physical play

[James]

Specifically, Toronto hates Philadelphia. The Flyers have stomped on their favorite team the Leafs too many times in the past, particularly when hopes were highest, that the fans have a particularly intense hatred of the Flyers.

It doesn't help that the Flyers out-gooned some very goonish teams that fielded thugs like Ty Domi. Unfortunately for Canada, it's been one-sided rivalry where most people around here barely even know how much pain and anguish our team has caused their fans over the past few decades.

[ColeHamelsIn2008]

Well one article was written by an Ontario newspaper. I was just up in Toronto for the recent Flyers victory at the Air Canada Center (along with the Rutgers Bowl win) and I think Ontario's hatred for the Flyers comes down to their bitterness as hockey fans. Being at the ACC last week, I realized for one of the few times in my life I was in another hockey arena where the Flyers actually had a cup (1974-1975) more recently than the home team (Toronto 1967). The other team in Ontario is even worse, look to Ottawa, a city that hasn't won a cup since 1927. The other article was written by a Vancouver newspaper who is probably also even more bitter for the same reason because Vancouver hasn't had a Stanley Cup since 1915 when they had a team called the Vancouver Millionaires! And we are talking about the Canucks, Leafs, and Sens teams with Canadian fans who devote themselves to their hockey team almost like us to the Eagles. In addition, talking to some of the Leaf die-hards, they compared the Maple syrup boys to the New York Yankees as far as press coverage in Canada and pressure by the fan base (hmm...sounds a lot like Philly's coverage of the Birds, "The stock market crashed today and the President has declared war on Iran and North Korea simultaneously, but the big story on Action News is Donovan McNabb said we need playmakers." [hypothetical example of course]).

So in sum, the folks in Ontario and British Columbia are just bitter that their most important teams haven't won a championship in this generation (hmm that sounds really familiar).

[Phils Phan]

Enrico:

First, your server sucks. I'm struggling to get this form to load on a Comcast 6MB connection.

Second, look to the late 70s when the Bullies truly existed:

The Broad Street Bullies
In the early 1970's, the expansion Philadelphia Flyers were building a team which would eventually pound its way to the Stanley Cup Championship. On December 29, 1972, the Flyers visited Vancouver for a game against the Canucks. During the game, a fight broke out (which was not uncommon when the two teams met). With one of the Flyers pinning a Canuck along the boards at the Flyer bench, a fan reached over and grabbed the Flyer player. The rest of the bench erupted and started wading into the stands to take on all comers. There are those who believe that this battle brought the Flyers together and helped propel them to their Stanley Cup Championship the following season (similar to the Canuck melee with Quebec fans in 1982).

Half a dozen or so were charged with assault, one on a police officer in the stands (bogus charge), etc.

[Phils Phan]

Enrico:

First, your server sucks. I'm struggling to get this form to load on a Comcast 6MB connection.

Second, look to the late 70s when the Bullies truly existed:

The Broad Street Bullies
In the early 1970's, the expansion Philadelphia Flyers were building a team which would eventually pound its way to the Stanley Cup Championship. On December 29, 1972, the Flyers visited Vancouver for a game against the Canucks. During the game, a fight broke out (which was not uncommon when the two teams met). With one of the Flyers pinning a Canuck along the boards at the Flyer bench, a fan reached over and grabbed the Flyer player. The rest of the bench erupted and started wading into the stands to take on all comers. There are those who believe that this battle brought the Flyers together and helped propel them to their Stanley Cup Championship the following season (similar to the Canuck melee with Quebec fans in 1982).

Half a dozen or so were charged with assault, one on a police officer in the stands (bogus charge), etc.

[Chris]

plain and simple: the maple leafs have not won anything in a really long time, and the team is going nowhere. right now the only good canadian team is the montreal canadiens and they are the new york yankees of canadian hockey.

[johndewar]

Great question. Part of the reason is total jealousy. For all of the reasons already mentioned.

I think a good analogy for the Flyers might be the NFL Raiders. Both have tough minded owners, both are hated around the league, both franchises have had players who played fast and loose with the rules, and both franchises have fans in places you wouldn't expect because some people like players who don't always follow the rules.

I think you could also accuse the Canadian press of being xenophobic on some levels (go out of their way to praise canadian players and teams and downplay non-canadian players and teams), but that's a topic for another day.

[digi]

The Leafs are so bad this season that they'll use anything as a distraction to what's piling up in the loss column. The night Downie "rubbed" Blake's eye for him... that's all anyone would talk about.

[thechief00]

ColeHamelsin2008 has it right on the money. It's not jealousy, it's just a constant frustration at always winning international competitions (Olympics, World championships) but never winning the biggest prize in hockey, the Stanley Cup. We're pissed off at all American teams for stealing our trophy (it was granted by the Governor-General of Canada to be awarded to the best team in Canada, after all), and not giving it back. Kind of like the neighbourhood bully who takes your ball and won't give it back no matter how hard you try.

And inre: the Downie punch, it wasn't the fact that he threw the punch that annoyed people, it was the fact that he sucker-punched a cancer patient.

Lastly, f*ck the Leafs. They perenially suck, and yet every sports network here in Canada puts them first on the highlight reels and writes more stories about them than any other team. So it's Toronto that has the Yankees of Canada. And the Montreal Canadiens are NOT the best Canadian team (that honour goes to the Vancouver Canucks right now), and they only get attention in Quebec. They are nearly universally hated outside of "La Belle Province", except in New Brunswick and PEI.

[Flyertown]

Good call, Matt. All one has to do is pay a visit to TSN, and there's always an anti-Flyers headline or article waiting to be read. I'm getting sick and tired of all the Flyer hating.

[digi]

everybody needs to drop this "Blake is a cancer patient."

If it makes him that special or untouchable... should you just let him skate by you and score a goal cause he has cancer...?

If he is that vulnerable... then he shouldn't be on the ice. Cancer obviously wasn't a factor in any of the cheapshots or scrums he got involved in during that game.

If you watch the replay, HE engaged Downie and then skated away. You can't bump someone and then when they want to fight say, "You wouldn't hit a man with cancer, would you...?"

[dr Nik]

yo guys

The Canadian hatred for the Flyers is not just a Toronto thing.

The fact is that before the Winter Classic, the Flyers were the only non-Canadian team to be in the top five in home attendance.

The year after the lockout, Philadelphia was voted the #1 hockey city in America by one of the major sporting websites (espn.com, nhl.com, yahoo sports -- I forget which).

As far as Montreal goes, the Flyers have successfully lured two of their best players, Gagne and Briere, away from very lucrative "Canadien" offers. Oh, by the way, both of those guys are French-Canadian. No wonder they both get booed so much in Montreal. As far as the Canadian fans and media are concerned, these guys turned their back on their team and their country. (Sidenote: this same fact is ignored every four years for the winter olympics)

It is not hard to see that Canadians despise hockey furor not coming from their own side of the border (buffalo, detroit, minnesota, boston, new york), because they feel they are to most passionate and, more importantly, the most knowledgeable. Somebody had previously mentioned anger over what was a "Canadian cup," they were right.

Don't get me wrong, I love belligerent beer-drinking, Canadian hockey fans, but it astounds me that these people don't have more of a respect for Philadelphia or Detroit or Buffalo, they are cities that have supported the sport and their teams for years. If Canadians want to complain, they can put their jealousy of prominent American hockey markets aside and start complaining about teams like Nashville, Phoenix, Carolina and Florida, teams all in the bottom ten for attendance this season.

[Sanganoski]

If Blake "laces 'em up" then he assumes ALL that goes with doing that simple act.

[BGNJason]

All these Canadian writers grew up in the 70s as Habs and Leafs fans and despised the Broad Street Bullies of that time.

[thechief00]

For the record, I agree that if Blake's on the ice, he should get no special treatment. But that's just me, and that's not how the media up here chose to play the angle. Downie's history made the "he's a goon who has no respect for anybody" card a good story. Especially now that Chris Simon's not playing, TSN needs a new league thug to stir righteous indignation towards.

[Kurtis]

To James,
You seem to miss the point that The senators went bankrupt in 1929-1930 and didnt come back to the NHL till the early 1990's. And the fact that Canada's hatred towards Philly has nothing to do with stanley cup's rather it is the way they play. This year they have purposely injured at least 7 other players. They play dirty. And for those of you who dont realize its called hockey not boxing or wrestling. It takes talent to play hockey, however it does not take any talent to annoy, punch, injure others, and in general playing dirty.

[Kurtis]

Did I forget the game where the most penalty minutes given out in a game in NHL history. Ottawa vs Philly. After the game, the Philly GM went to have a fist fight the the ottawa coach. Now thats sportsmenship. Real winners right. And the fact that the current coach incourages the practice of injuring the opposition. And for those of you who think we hate all american powerhouses, we dont. Detroit for 1 is a great team that plays the sport rather then consentrating on annoying the opposition or injuring them.

[Jim M]

Where's Ottawa? Is that on the Main Line? No? It's in Canada? Oh. If you watched that game, the Sens kept starting the fights -- (even though they couldn't win a single one). So who were the goons?

As for your other post, about "purposely injuring seven players," you're just trying to resurrect a tired, dead argument that realistically isn't there.