The word fan comes from a shortened version of fanatic. If you’re a fan of your favorite hockey team, it just means that you are a devoted follower. But if you’ve ever been to a hockey game or any other live sporting event, you’ll know that there are some very different types of fans out there. These are some of the different fans that you’ll spot at every hockey game you go to. Which one are you?
The Fan By Association
Before we get to the real die hard fans, we should take a moment to recognize the sacrifice that the fan by association makes. These are the people that don’t really have that much interest in hockey at all, but maybe their girlfriend or husband does, or maybe all of their friends are going to catch a game and they don’t have anything else to do. They might not have a clue what’s going on in the game and they probably aren’t that interested, but they buy a ticket anyway because the people around them are enjoying it and they want to come along for the ride. The fan by association gets a bad reputation sometimes, and people wonder why they’re there if they don’t even follow the sport, but we should cut them some slack because they’re just there to support their friends and family in their love of hockey, and there’s something really great about that.
The Angry Fan
The angry fan is a cornerstone of the game and we’ve probably all been guilty of being this person in the past. We get passionate about sports and that’s great, but the angry fan can take it a bit far. They’re the one that is constantly standing up, shouting and swearing at the players, the ref, and often anybody around them that complains about their behaviour. They just think they’re being passionate, but you can do that without annoying everybody around you, especially when there are kids present. If you think that you might be guilty of being the angry fan, you should consider toning it down a bit next time and following basic hockey game etiquette.
The Face Painter
The face painter is the kind of fan that doesn’t want there to be any confusion about which team they are supporting, so they will cover themselves in merch and paint their face, or maybe even their entire body so there is no doubt who they’re putting their support behind. If you are a face painter, good on you. It brings a bit of fun to the game and it’s the right kind of passion. You can, of course, be a combination of the angry fan and the face painter, and that isn’t great. But if you are a face painter that shows your passion in a positive way, you really lift the spirits of everybody else in the crowd and make live sporting events that little bit more special.
The Pessimist
The face painter can be found chanting and singing in support of their team, while the pessimist will be sitting there, praying and hoping for a win. They’re the kind of fan that always says, it would be great if we won but it’s never going to happen. They will bring up games from years gone by as evidence that your dreams of victory will always fall apart and if you ever try to counter them with examples of wins, they will just tell you that it was a one off. They spend so long preparing themselves for a loss, but it still doesn’t help. They will always be so disappointed, and maybe a little smug because they were the one that was saying you would lose from the start. If you’re a pessimistic fan, try to lighten up a bit because you’re really bringing the mood down. We all want our team to win, but at the end of the day, we’re here to enjoy the game, and that’s a lot harder to do if you’re sitting there with your pessimistic attitude.
The Superstitious Fan
We all know one of these people, and you might even be one yourself. The superstitious fan is the kind of person that wears the same gross jersey all season without washing it because they are convinced that they will jinx their team if they don’t. They blame any loss on some outside factor or something that they did, and next season, they will desperately try to avoid anything that they think is going to jinx their team. You can try arguing with the superstitious fan but it’s never going to work. They will always be adamant that whatever they’re doing, or not doing, is having a huge impact on the game and if they don’t follow their rituals, the whole season will be a disaster. The best thing you can do is just go along with them, and if you are a superstitious fan yourself, don’t let your obsessing over the rituals ruin your enjoyment of the game too much.
The Number Cruncher
The number cruncher is the kind of fan that always thinks that they can work out the result of a game before it’s happened. They are not content to just enjoy the tension of the game, they want to crunch all of the numbers and spend days poring over all of the stats to work out every single play of the game. They will go to NHL museums to learn about all of the previous seasons, and they will look at every single piece of data available about every player in the game, so they can work out exactly what is going to happen. But even the most detailed number cruncher is never going to predict the future, and you never know how the players are going to perform on the day. If you’re a number cruncher, you could be missing out on the fun of the game, so maybe just let things happen as they happen instead of trying to predict everything.
At any hockey game you go to, you’ll see all of these different kinds of fans. Which kind are you?
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