OT: Need some MGoAdvice Re: Local Minor League Hockey
Down here in little old Evansville, Indiana, we have a minor league hockey team who just announced this summer that along with their rivals, the Fort Wayne Komets, are joining the ranks of the ECHL this October.
At first, this was very very exciting news. My friends and I have been supporting the Evansville Icemen ever since they started playing semi-pro in the ice rink I played youth and high school hockey in, when they skated on the same ice my buds and I do for our men's league games.
So today, the Icemen announced that they were officially affiliated with an NHL franchise. The build up to the announcement had me nervous all morning. The thought of having potential NHLers playing just down the road from where I live was racking my mind.
Then the news came.
Columbus Blue Jackets.
As a Red Wings fan and a Michigan Man since birth, many of you will know how this made me feel. It seems somewhat dramatic, I know.
I am a die hard Michigan supporter. I hate Ohio, blah blah blah and I won't even set foot in columbus. I would be happy if OSU athletics, The Blue Jackets and the Crew all had a combined winning percentage of .156
I've watched this team grow, and supported them, wholeheartedly. I've been there since the birth and I can't turn away now, but if watching a hometown team grow is somewhat like having a kid (I know, I know, follow this broken similie), well...my daughter just walked in the door arm in arm with some young man that smells like weed and sports MULTIPLE neck tattoos.
I don't think I'm going to any Icemen games this year. I don't want to support anything having anything to do with Columbus. Maybe I can just go and root for Toledo.
What do you guys think?
I think you're overreacting. Just because they're the farm team for the Jackets doesn't mean you shouldn't go to the games. This is like saying you won't cheer for Jack motherfucking Johnson or Tiny Jesus because they play for the Blue Jackets. If it's you're local team, you like going to the games and your kids have fun, don't worry about who their affiliate team is.
Plus, the Blue Jackets suck anyway.
Right on. I can't really tell which way I'm leaning. I think I'd feel "dirty" rooting for them. Thanks for the input, dudes.
It is rare to see ECHL players make it to the NHL. Many of these players will play in the minors or overseas their entire careers and never play one NHL game. It is sad but the truth.
Maybe the proportion is small, but 490 players have made the show from the ECHL, which is not itself a tiny number.
Yes and no. I was surprised at the 490 number, which seems huge, but is technically correct.
http://www.echl.com/alumni-s12397
My problem with this is that it counts every NHLer that has played at least 1 game in the ECHL. That's a little bit misleading. It's hard to find anyone on that list that had major NHL careers that played more than a handful of ECHL games. (Marty Biron, 2 games; Ruslan Fedotenko, 8 games; Dan Girardi, 7 games; Jaroslav Halak, 20 games; Johan Hedburg, 2 games, etc.) And I'm not cherry picking data here, just going down the list and looking up names that I recognize as having been above-average NHLers at some point.
If Columbus keeps him, he would probably be sent down to the ECHL.
You may be cheering for Shawn Hunwick this fall!
First thing I will say is GO KOMETS, then I will tell you to chill. You can still root for the Icemen and individual players that may be with the Blue Jackets. You can still root for the Red Wings to beat them. I don't see any real conflict. I am a Red WIngs fan and a Fort Wayne Komets fan, if the Komets annouce an affiliation with (example only) the Avalanche, I can still cheer for some players to have success and not feel all dirty.
That Picture of Hunwick made it all make sense to me... ha
Support your local team because it is hockey and hockey is good. Also because most of the players are busting their asses for little money and few will ever get a sniff of the NHL.
Enjoy the Michigan-OHIO rivalry but don't give up something that you enjoy just so that you can claim some kind of fandom purity award. Leave that kind of crap for the troglodytes in Columbus and East Lansing to worry about.
I miss the Detroit Vipers...
you should go and just cheer for the komets at every possible opportunity. that's my plan for ECHL games.
Toledo is a mixed affliate with Detroit and Chicago. I live in Toledo and i still root for the entire team, i don't only root for the Detroit prospects and cast evil upon the Chicago prospects.
Root for the Evansville team, ECHL hockey is fun to watch because you know these guys are playing their hardest every night to get a chance at the AHL.
When you choose favorite players just choose low ceiling underdogs that work hard. They still may be able to do well for the league (example a high A minor leauge
Was saying, in baseball for example, a guy with a lot of power with a hole in his swing might night find that exploited until another promotion or two. A guy like him will probably never burn your favorite tea later on, and if he does get a little bit good it's a nice story anyway.
Let yourself like your team. In general, it's better to go through life getting to like things and being positive than finding negatives.
Favorite college ("amateur") football team --> Favorite college ("amateur") football team's (not so amateur) archrival --> City that team plays in --> Professional hockey team located in the same city --> A few players under contract to parent club --> AHL affiliate --> A few players affiliated with parent club --> New ECHL Affiliation --> With your favorite minor league team.
You are more closely connected to Kevin Bacon than you are to Ohio State through rooting for your team. The Jackets aren't even a particularly big rival of the Wings, and their signing of Hunwick more than cancels out any lingering hostility. This, to me, is a non-issue. Cheer on your team.
When I lived in Lancaster, the local single-A team (the Jet Hawks) were a pleasant evening's worth of baseball for a good price featuring players that you would never hear of again. They actually switched affiliations midway through my stay there (from the Diamondbacks to the Giants or something, I can't even remember) and it basically meant nothing, either to this Tiger fan or to the Dodger and Angel fans in town.