Why Can't Athletes be People Too?

Phoenix Coyotes winger Paul Bissonnette recently made an appearance on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM station on the Scott Ferrell show. He did what any good guest on the Howard Stern Network should do – he talked about getting laid. Yes that’s right sex. With women. God forbid.

As I was driving home tonight I heard Ferrell losing his mind. Now I turned it on in the middle of his rant but from what I can tell after Bissonnette’s honest, refreshing and entertaining interview irate listeners started emailing the Coyotes franchise complaining they were offended.

Can I just take a moment to touch on the fact that if you are listening to the Howard Stern Station and you are offended by words like sex, pussy and tits – you are clearly an idiot. Now let’s also briefly mention that if you spend 20 or 30 minutes of your life composing an email of complaint instead of taking 1 second of your life to put yourself out of your own misery and change the channel you are a self-loathing, miserable, douche.

Now to the real heart of the matter - Paul Bissonnette should not get grief for his interview. Not from the Coyotes or the NHL or fans of hockey. He's not a liability to the league he’s an asset!

Bissonette’s on twitter and, unlike 90% of the other NHLers on there, he’s not afraid to use it. Biznasty2point0, as he goes by, has over 45,000 followers. Ryan Kesler, a forward with the number one team in the league only has 21,000. Michael Grabner a scoring machine and hottest rookie in the league right now has 7,000.

So why does a 4th liner on a bankrupt team in the desert have more followers than NHL poster boys? Because he’s honest and interesting. I started following Biz on twitter because people kept retweeting his tweets and they were funny. I was pleasantly surprised he was an NHL player. And I’m willing to bet there’s a good number of his followers that are discovering the NHL because of Biznasty’s twitter. So you should thank him, Bettman.

How many more cocktail waitresses does Tiger Woods have to bang before we realize that professional athletes who make millions a year are doing exactly what ANY of us would do with that money, talent and fame – enjoying it.

It’s so ridiculous to me that there are still people out there that expect athletes to be these immaculate versions of human beings.

Remember when Tiger Woods cheating hit the media? Remember how he handle it with rehearsed, vague, inoffensive and insincere statements? Remember when David Letterman was caught cheating? Remember how he just went on the air and admitted he’d done it, it was a screw up and his wife was pissed? Did you know David Letterman’s ratings shot up after that?

Clearly people appreciate honesty & candor. So I can't be the only one who realizes that if we not only allowed these celebrities and athletes to be normal human beings but also embraced them for it, we'd all be better off.

The NHL loves Sid the Kid as the face of the sport not just because he’s the best player in the world but because of this squeaky clean public persona. It’s the one part of him I don’t like. I mean, not that I’d kick him out of bed for it or anything, but Sidney’s scripted, bland interviews are not nearly as engaging as Biznasty waxing poetic about girls in yoga pants.

I’m sure Sidney Crosby is an actual human being when the cameras are off. I’m sure he sleeps with women and gets drunk and does all the things that any 20-something male with a giant paycheck and a very pretty face should do. But I appreciate Paul Bissonnette for not being afraid to publicly be what we all know (but won't admit) professional athletes are – women-loving, partying, opinionated, normal people.

St. Louis has Vancouver Singing the Blues

We're Learning to Handle Hiccups
This is one of the key things that has changed in Vancouver's game this season. When we fall behind, we don't immeadiately fall apart. Despite blips... okay fatal flaws... on our PK and Luongo's retro puck handling skills (you know from when he sucked worse than this year) we came back. Canucks didn't give up. Lu shook it off. This is further proof we're not the team we used to be. We bounce back - and it takes minutes, not games. This is a good sign. Yes we lost but the Canucks of yesteryear would have lost by more.

Monkey Stat on our Back
When we started this game in St. Louis we hadn't won a game when trailing after the first 20. We still haven't. I hate stats.

Let's Not Panic
We have to remember that this really is not a big deal. So Bobby Lu's streak ends here. That means we get to see his new goalie mask in action! We're still number one in the league. The LEAGUE people - with 81 points. Philly is 4 points behind us. Also, Canucks lead the league in scoring with 192 goals. In 2nd place is Detroit with 187. I love stats!

D is for Decimated
We lost Alberts - again. With a broken wrist he's out indefinitely. (new twitter rumors say it is not broken although I heard Av say it was in interview) Hamhuis, Ballard and Edler are not set to return any time soon. And now there are rumors of a Salo injury. I hope that's a joke - it sounds like a joke. Av has announced that Yann Sauve is being called up from the Moose. To say we're scraping the bottom of the barrel is probably accurate right about now.

Sauve means Save in French!
Yann Sauve was drafted 41st overall by the Canucks. He's not exactly a two-way defenseman, but he's big and skates well. At this point what else can we ask for? And even if Sauve’s offensive game is not as developed as we may like, his name is French for Save so that can only mean he's going to save us... right? Save us from losing one more. It would be horrendous to slip into 2nd overall. How horrible. Yann, it's all up to you buddy! No pressure. Get it done.

My Canucks 3 Stars of the Game
1) Andrew Alberts because I feel sorry for the big lug. If you seen him and his gimp wrist around Vancouver, give him a hug. Tell him Concretefluff sent you.
2) Bieksa for being a lean mean skating machine who just never gives up.
3) Luongo - also known as Lulongo by stupid American Announcers. Sure he totally shit the bed on the Steen goal but he shook it off and went on to be the main reason the game was as close as it was. Great job Bobby Lu!

2011 is the new 1977

If you watch this week's hockey highlights, 2011 looks more like 1977. I feel like I should be wearing bell bottoms not yoga pants.

Honestly when the Boston-Montreal slamfest happened I was amused. It was unexpected. It was unheard of (in the last 10 - 20 years or so) and it seemed harmless enough. I joked about Johnson and Depietra starting a new trend since they were the first goalies to drop the gloves.

But after the Penguins- Islanders slamfest last night I am no longer amused.

The Islanders took that to a whole new level. And it wasn't pretty. It wasn't classy. It shouldn't be without heavy repercussions.

I get retribution is a part of hockey. I fully understand that it's not going to go anywhere no matter what the NHL does. But just like anything, there is a right and wrong way to handle it.

In the "right" category - the way the Penguins handled the retribution on Steckel for giving Crosby a concussion. They dropped the gloves and duked it out and it ended there. Steckel manned up (unlike Steve Moore way back when) and faced his punishment.

The Isles wanted revenge on both Brent Johnson and Maxime Talbot for the goalie fight and the questionable hit. Fine. So if the fact that the Isles scored 6 goals before the 2nd was over wasn't good enough for them, then engage Talbot in a fight, engaged Johnson in a fight AND THEN MOVE ON.

That would have been the right thing to do and clearly the Islanders - as their season record shows - are all about the "wrong" thing (losing a lot and winning without class).

I don't want to go into all the gory details - although you can find them here and a million other places on the net. Here's what I do want to point out. This is the National Hockey League's opportunity to do the right thing.

The NHL has been acting like a shitty parent. Randomly tossing around punishments with no rhyme or reason. You can't keep blaming/punishing Cooke cuz he's the bad kid but cutting Getzlaf and Steckel and others slack because they're "normally such good boys". A hit that is dangerous is a hit that is dangerous - no matter the intention the injury (and the anger of the team losing a player) is real.

Matt Martin's sucker punch of Max Talbot can in NO WAY be overlooked. The fact that Talbot skated away - unlike Moore - should NOT be a factor. If the league lets the extent of an injury be the leading factor in punishment instead of the dangerous act then it's the same as a judge saying "I know you shot a gun at this guy's face but you missed so it's fine."

The league may want to turn their famous blind-eye to the Gillies hit on Tangradi but they definitely shouldn't ignore the way Gillies kept attacking the guy who was clearly injured and fighting for consciousness. The only thing more offensive and classless than that, is Gillies moustache.

I'm not sure how big a suspension should be handed down to Hayley. The recent AHL call-up was like a rabid dog out there swinging at everything in a Pens jersey. I find it mostly just disturbing that the kid really thought that was the best way to make his NHL debut. Sure right now the Isles fans - all 12 of them - think he's a rockstar but 2 seasons from now he'll be begrudgingly looked at as their version of Cooke/Avery/Carcillo. Is that really a reputation that a boy dreams about earning?

The Penguins Godard leaving the bench was ridiculous. Johnson clearly proved prior that he could handle himself in a fight. But that said I couldn’t imagine the anger, fear and frustration that had developed at that point. Godard should get his mandatory suspension but Bylsma should be left out of it. If you penalize Bylsma you really have to look at the lack of control Capuano had over his team too. No one left the bench but just about every Islander was out of control. I believe Crawford took a hit (fine) for Bertuzzi's actions - the league should consider depleting Capuano's pocketbook for the Martin sucker punch too. That is if they feel like being consistent and making a statement that may stop this from happening in the future.

Come on NHL, let's put a stop to the time warp. Maybe everything old should not be new again.

Canucks Ducks Recap

Okay my lovely Verizon Wireless phone roams on Telus in Canada – for some reason this means I have absolutely ZERO reception in Rogers Arena (Rogers Arena, Telus roaming... Coincidence? Doubt it) So I couldn’t tweet everything I wanted to about the Anaheim-Vancouver game I attended.

Without further adieu here are my thoughts.

We Need Alberts
Alberts is not afraid to hit. In fact he seems to like it and he’s definitely good at it. Vancouver doesn’t have a lot of people who finish checks and we need someone. Alberts is our man. He was checking like a rockstar out there.

Hodgson Is Afraid
The kid has a lot of potential and he makes some smart plays but as I watched him it became very clear that he’s afraid to hit and be hit. He’s always looking over his shoulder and he never ever finishes a check. Maybe it’s his long list of injuries that makes him nervous or the fact that he’s just getting his NHL feet wet. Whatever it is, I hope he grows out of it or gets over it. He’s never going to live up to his hype or potential if he doesn’t.

The Refs Sucked Donkey’s Balls
The Ducks were hooking and tripping machines out there tonight and somehow the refs just couldn’t find their whistles. I shouldn’t be complaining about this because sucktastic reffage is what had us beat Chicago so maybe this is karma. Who knows?

I Know He’s Cute But I Wanna Bitchslap Raymond
The kid is making me mental. He just can’t do anything right. Even after he scores and you think the slump would be over – he somehow returns to the land of Suck the very next game. I keep telling myself it’s okay right now. That if he has to suck at some point now is better than April. But if he still sucks in April… we’re in trouble.

Ducks Net Was Wrapped in Saran Right?
Like in anything luck plays a part. We just didn’t have it tonight. There were so many shots that should have gone in and just completely did not. Daniel’s fan on the final shot with a second left – that was the perfectly unlucky end to the perfectly luckless night. It happens. It’s not the end of the world. We’ll bounce back from this.

Top Shelf! TOP Freaking SHELF!

McWhatsHisFace, the Ducks goalie, spent the entire game on his knees. And if you watch him in every game he plays that's what he does. he goes down - always down on his knees/pads. He lives on his knees. If he was a girl in high school he'd have been very popular. If the Canucks had taken more top shelf shots the score would have been very different.

Hamhuis
I didn’t see it happen. I just saw him lying there seemingly unconscious and I started screaming like I was auditioning for a horror movie. I only saw it at home on replay. Getzlaf was interviewed and gave his best innocent eyes. His coach acted like it was no big deal. But yeah. It’s a BIG fucking deal. Getzlaf left his feet. And yes, Hamhuis turned away but that means that Getzlaf also hit him from behind – and Hamhuis no longer had the puck. The hit needs to be reviewed. I think Getzlaf should be suspended a game or at least fined. It was a dirty hit. Unintentional or not the damage was done and Getzlaf should pay. End of story.

Luongo’s Own a Magic Eight Ball & He’s Not Afraid to Use It
We lost. Luongo wasn’t in net which means his streak – not having lost in regulation since Dec. 5 – is still intact. This can only mean Lu has a Magic Eight Ball and he knows how to use it. When it says “It is not to be” Luongo “gets the flu”. I believe it.

Victoria’s 3 Stars of the Game
1 – Kesler for his 32nd goal in the dying seconds.
2- Burrows for getting us in the game.
3 – Bieksa for that lovely, frustration-filled after-the-whistle-hit. God he’s pretty when he’s angry.

The Sami Salo Cloud

The Canucks just wrapped up a 5-game road trip with 3 losses and 2 of them were shutouts. Sole ownership of the number 1 spot in the league is gone for the moment. And if we’re being honest, Luongo let in some weak ones in the 4-3 loss to the Avs.

So is the streak over? Are we sliding into a slump? No and no.

As of today the Canucks are tied with the Flyers in points but sit #2 in the league standings. And that Avalanche loss was in OT which means Bobby Lu has not lost in regulation since December 5, 2010. He’s also improved in shootouts and has stopped the two penalty shots he’s faced this season. All that is happening here is that a white-hot team is currently only red-hot.

But that doesn’t mean we Canucks fans have nothing to worry about.

There is a dark, ominous cloud that hangs over the Vancouver franchise and its name is Sami Salo.

If Sami “Made of Glass” Salo steps on the ice for a game the Canucks are in salary cap hell. Keeping the Fin means gambling with the emotional and physical dynamics of a winning team. It also means betting on a guy who can’t seem to sneeze without pulling his groin or tie a skate without breaking a finger.

In a perfect world, Salo would waive his No Trade Clause and we’d dump him on someone else. When Salo is healthy he is great so someone could get a solid game or two out of him, I’m sure. But you can’t trade a player who is not on the active roster and to get him on that roster we have to make salary room. It’s a really nasty dilemma.

It seems like the only option is to mess with the roster of a team that San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan recently called “Complete”.

If we have no other option, who goes?

Juice
For the last couple of years no matter the situation, if a trade seemed necessary every Vancouverite, journalist, analyst screamed “Bieksa!” I’m beginning to think it’s because it’s just such a fun name to say. And honestly, I don’t know a girl who wouldn't want to be screaming his name (but maybe not for trade reasons).

Now though, Bieksa has adequately pulled himself out of a point/performance slump and his name seems to be off the trade table. This is a good thing because I would also argue that he’s a solid member of the emotional core of the team and probably contributes off-ice in ways we are unaware of no matter his plus/minus. And on behalf of the female fan contingent I must also point out he is currently the best-looking Canuck. Every team needs a hottie for female fan morale purposes.

Romtorsson
Haven’t heard of him? That’s because I Bennifered the names of Rome, Torres and Samuelsson – one or more of them may have to be dumped in order to get one old, under-conditioned, injury-prone defensemen back on the bench.

Now there are arguments that Torres is under performing, Samuelsson is past his prime and Rome sucks. But we need to remember that while Torres might be slumping right now, the man has made it to a Stanley Cup final so he knows what’s required. If he lets Kesler and the Sedins perform now and he picks it up in March, when the twins have repeatedly fallen asleep, I’m okay with that.

Samuelsson is definitely under performing at the moment, however last year Samuelsson didn’t heat up until the latter part of the year and he was stronger in the playoffs than Kesler and Burrows combined.

Rome. Well, my only argument for Rome is that he is able to stay healthy longer than Salo. Why trade someone who stays relatively healthy for someone who completely does not?

The Expensive Hip Check
Ballard is really not living up to his hype or his paycheck. Yeah, the hip checks are entertaining but not that entertaining. Then again, Ballard, like Rome, is currently healthy and likely to stay that way longer than Salo. And for a team that hollered about being plagued with injuries when they went down yet again to the Hawks in the playoffs…. They might live to regret trading him.

Last Year’s Whipping Boy
I can’t believe I’m saying this but trading Alberts would be a bad idea. The defensemen, who was the well-deserved butt of fan jokes everywhere last year, has really picked up his game. He’s hitting, he’s grinding and he’s generally – finally – making more positive plays than negative. Yes, he still skates as fast as geriatric, bloated Big Bird, but as Mason Raymond’s performance lately has shown, speed isn’t everything.

And then there was “E”
Ehrhoff could be seen as a logical trade on paper because his contract is up next year and the Canucks will likely not have the financial means to hold onto him. But that’s exactly why we should keep him. Because he’s brilliant and worth way more than we’re paying. And he’s been a key, integral part of the core players that have worked hard over the last couple of years and gotten the Canucks where they are right now.

It feels like a lose-lose situation. If Salo doesn’t sneeze and rupture his last good ball, or hang a picture in his house and put a nail through his hand, we’re pretty much up the salary cap creek without a paddle.

The team that got us to the top of the league may not be the team that enters the playoff race. And that worries me much more than a 2-2-1 road trip.

Winter Classic was a Wash

I appreciate the idea of the Winter Classic. On paper it’s a beautiful concept. 2 National Hockey League teams bringing the game back to its simplest form. A wholesome tribute to the roots of the sport. So why do I feel ripped off, cheapened and frustrated after watching it?

After a long sleepless night these are the top three reasons I could come up with.

I’m Just a Hockey Commissioner Standing in Front of a Country Asking It to Love Us
Gary Bettman and the NHL make it glaringly clear that they don’t care about the roots of the sport. They aren’t trying to display the beauty of hockey in its simplest form. What they are trying to do is make America watch more hockey. The Winter Classic isn’t for the fans. It’s for the non-fans. Because Gary Bettman wants Hockey to be America’s Game, not Canada’s because Americans mean more money. This is why you will never see a Canadian team in the Classic – Canadians already watch hockey and NBC isn’t going to buy the rights to a Canadian dust up.

I fully understand that money needs to be made to keep the league going but I also think that good authentic hockey is enjoyable and viewable and can make the NHL that money, no matter which teams are playing. The Commissioner of the National Hockey League clearly doesn’t have that kind of faith in hockey. He obviously believes that the only way to attract new American fans is to highlight “American” teams and sensationalize and dramatize the crap out of it with slick advertising and an HBO documentary. (Have to give him props on the HBO thing because 24/7 is amazing. He, inadvertently I’m sure, made true hockey fans very happy with that).

Maybe what Bettman and the NHL spin doctors should be working on is educating Americans to the fact that just because a team is based in the USA doesn’t mean the players on that team are American.

When Canada won Men's Hockey Gold I had an American friend from California say “Yeah well you did it with our players. Most of your team is from San Jose and Doughty is from LA.” Clearly the NHL should teach future US fans that you can watch a Canadian team and still find an American to root for.

Is it impossible to think that if Bettman let a Classic between the Vancouver Canucks and the Montreal Canadians happen that NBC wouldn’t be able to twist out some American Dream story about Ryan Kesler or Brian Gionta? By the way the Canadiens have more Americans (6) on their roster than the Washington Capitals (5) and only 1 less than the Penguins (7).

Yes, Ovie and Crosby are a rivalry and I get making them a Winter Classic once, but the Pens have been in this New Year’s Day game twice. And a Canadian team has never been in it.

A Winter Classic between Montreal and Boston could beautifully highlight the history of the NHL, the roots of the game, and bring the emotion and conviction of a true, honest, lifelong rivalry into the homes of Americans.

Never Dumb It Down For Your Audience, Even If they Voted For Bush - Twice
I have American relatives and American friends and I know that there’s a pretty large amount of US citizens that are not as dumb as a puck. After watching NBC’s coverage of the Classic, I am insulted for them. Well, to be completely honest, I only watched about 7 minutes of the NBC broadcast. I changed the channel from NBC to CBC right after the NBC announcer said “Sidney Crosby… from Nova Scotia. You’ll notice a C on his jersey. That means Captain.”

Even if I could let that go – which I really, really can’t – the constant tweets about the craptastic camera angles NBC was showing would have had me switch feeds. The Top Tweet when you click on the WinterClassic hashtag is this from HockeyBacon: “I’ll admit the Winter Classic is great for hockey because it attracts the non-fan. For instance, the guy who is directing the NBC cameras.”

I mean seriously, did NBC want to air this or did they lose a bet? Cuz they clearly dialed it in.

Americans are a sports-loving nation. They understand what a penalty is, a team Captain, a goalie and they know the guys in black and white are called referees. Hockey is unique in a lot of ways but the basics of the game isn’t much different than lots of other sports. Give them some credit. They didn’t need a colorful circle around the puck and they don’t need blimp-views with ant-sized players.

America Wants You to Hug It Out, Bitch
By hyping it to no end and making the Winter Classic into this dramatic, sensationalized monstrosity the new, and the old and stupid, fans of hockey believed that this was more than just a regular season NHL game. But it wasn’t. It’s not the playoffs or the Stanley Cup Final. It’s just a game that happened to be played in a different location than the usual arena. It still counts in the season’s standings.

I bring this up because people were losing their minds on the Penguins for not shaking hands at the end of the game. But NO ONE shakes hands at the end of a regular season game. If you’ve read my blog it’s fairly clear I am a Sidney Crosby fan. But even if the Pens had won I wouldn’t expect anyone to shake hands.

Repeat after me folks “It’s a regular season game”

If it was exhibition, or All-Star or Playoffs shake hands, high five, hug it out, whatevs. But the Penguins just lost 2 points at home, affecting their standing and ultimately possibly their playoff ranking. If Ovechkin and his Capitals had shook hands with every team that beat them – or even one team that beat them – during their 8-game losing streak then you’d have a case. But you don’t.

Repeat after me, “It’s a regular season game.”

And for all those incredibly mature grown men out there who spent last night calling him Cindy Crosby and screaming that “He” didn’t shakes hands, media outlets around the world – even Washington – acknowledge that NEITHER team attempted to shake hands. Crosby doesn’t control the universe, you just think he does.

The teams that played the 2011 Winter Classic were the first to have a true, strong established rivalry and the game ended in a very tense state. If there had been a bench brawl I wouldn’t have been surprised. No one wants to shake hands after that. If you're that traumatized by it, see a therapist.

In the end the only thing I’ll miss about the Winter Classic is the HBO 24/7 Road to the Winter Classic show. The rest of it from- the hype, the game, the handshake and most definitely the ice - was a wash.

Bandwagoner? Realist? Delusional? What fan are you?

This could be a blog that applies to many different NHL teams – maybe other sports as well. But it is most definitely a topic that hits hard in the city of Vancouver because the true fans of the Canucks are very big on labelling and critising Bandwagon fans. My problem is that I don't think the majority of them actually understand what a bandwagoner is.

Bandwagoners sprout up during the spring when Canucks, more often than not, screech into the playoffs in some sort of dramatic fashion. They either slide in ass backwards by the skin of their teeth or they conquer everything in their path. Either way all of a sudden every car in Vancouver has a Canucks flag waving from its window. Every pedestrian is wearing a team jerseys and every dog is in a Canucks shirt (or is that just my dog?!)

I love the Canucks. I watch every game I am able to. Last year I spent roughly $1700 on tickets to games. I bought pay per view games. I tweet games (concretefluff), all Canucks news and write this blog. But when we re-signed the Twins my tweet was: “Canucks re-signed the Sedin twins. I hope they also bought stock in Red Bull to keep them awake during the playoffs.”

Some “fans” labeled me a bandwagoner.

When I tweeted recently that I was skipping the Phoenix-Vancouver game because I was going to a movie and would rather be disappointed by Bruce Willis than Roberto Luongo, I was again labeled a bandwagoner.

Guess what, that’s not Bandwagonning, that’s called REALISM.

I grew up in Montreal. Raised a Habs fan. Bandwagoners do not exist there. In Montreal there are only 2 types of fans - Canadiens fans and Habs fans. End of story.

A lot of bloggers and tweeters were really ticked off when Montreal Fans at the Bell center booed Carey Price the first couple of games this season. But that's what realistic fans do! If Habs fans are pissed at the team, or one or all of its members, they let the world know. But they never ever jump ship. (Even when we say we will, like I did when they traded Halak. I didn’t. But I did boo Price and I’ll do it again when he completely melts down in the spring).

Bandwagoners don’t even get on the ship until they can see the destination from the portside window. You never hear a hockey word come out of their mouths until the snow melts and the Cherry blossoms bloom. They try to participate in playoff conversations by saying stuff like “Number fourteen scored a sweet hat trick last night.” Number 14?! FYI his name is BURROWS, he was born in Pincourt, Quebec and spends the off-season in Kirkland and his wife's name is Nancy - got it, Bandwagoner?

Just because a fan can fully and freely admit that the Sedins fall asleep in the playoffs, Kesler is the Queen of near missed shots and Bieksa spends a great deal of the season coasting on his good looks and sparkling personality does NOT make them a bandwagoner. A bandwagoner wouldn’t know any of that.

I soldier through the season – the whole season – with the team. Celebrating their wins and commiserating their loses. But I’m a realist. As much as I want, pray, wish and dream of the Vancouver Canucks winning the Stanley Cup, I can also understand that it’s probably not going to happen with Alain Vigneault at the helm.

The fans who plan the parade route after 2 consecutive wins in October, who swear every August that “This is our year” and are shocked, truly shocked and devastated, every April when we inevitably shit the bed, those may be true fans as well but they are also delusional fans. Not Shockingly they're the first ones to point their foam fingers and label people who don't drink their team coloured Kool-Aid "bandwagoners".

In the end, I honestly don’t care what you call me. I am what I am. I’ll be there when the Vancouver Canucks finally win the Stanley Cup and I’ll be there every single time they fail miserably too.