Sunday, August 3, 2008

The Habs and the Habs Not!

So The Dark Ranger is vacationing in Habs country throughout the week, staying in a lovely resort on the lake at Mont Tremblant. Subtly, I wear dark vintage clothing with New York Rangers logos carefully printed designs to remind these loyal French Canadiens that it is possible to worship another team. I regret to admit that I am somewhat jealous at the vast Quebec province of hockey followers with this team; now, the Blueshirts have always had/have a strong, loyal and important following - but we are smoked by these hockey fans in how far they are willing to go for their beloved hockey Habs. The fans wears the logos, the fans are everywhere and the province is practically governed by the NHL game of hockey.

Even the nickname "Habs" for the Montreal Canadiens was created to differentiate themselves from the other "secondary" Canadian hockey teams. Why couldn't they simply be called The Canadiens? Well, Habs is derived from "The Habitats du Quebec", that's why! We are French. Not Canadien! Retarded and cliche'.

A side story while here......I spoke with this one French-Canadian Hab lover, kids face painted with the logo, himself wearing the jersey in 75 degree weather on a random day, actually found it insulting that I would wear a blue shirt with a NYR in the middle of Habs country. True story. Why couldn't we all just get along and enjoy that we're both hockey fans and we like to dress our kids up in hockey gear?

Like ex-Ranger Sean Avery, The Dark Ranger is not a fan of the French-Canadien hockey fans as they choose to fit the negative French stereotype. Boo, boo Dark-fella you may say!!?

I personally feel that Habs fans have their heads so far up their French-Canadian arses; in love with their own team. They haven't seen a Cup since 1992 and they carry their French ancestry elitism throughout the entire league. If only non-Hab fans actually listened to them it might mean something to the outsiders. These Montreal hockey lovers hold dear to their hockey superiority like they hold onto their culture and everything else. When their team loses playoff games, these Habs fans destroy their own arena. When they play a non-Canadian team, their commentators remark on how Americans don't care about hockey followed by the redundant speech of how they've won more Cups than anyone else in the history of the NHL. Culture snobs and this level of hockey nationalism (or provincialism in Canada for that matter) creates prejudice in the NHL and life in general. These English-Hooligan-Mirroring Habs destroy their own cars & break into local businesses when they lose. The City of Montreal had to double security throughout the entire season last year in order to deter the fans from creating havoc. One might say this is a minor group of fans that is not representative of the fan base as a whole, and I accept that -- but it is shameful that the authorities, the majority of fans allows this mentality. 'Idiot behavior.' 'Idiot Habs.'

Now come on....did the Quebecios really think St. Hubert could ever truly go head-to-head with Swiss Chalet? HA! Ignorance. (I am obviously spending too much time in Canada these days, especially coming from an American hockey blogger making Province jokes).

I admit to my hockey racism.. I don't like Habs. Note I also don't like Leafs, Flyers and Devils too. I am and will always be a New York Ranger fan, and will celebrate and be critical of my team winning or not -- and I will NOT always love them, kind of like family. So if you are the Montreal Canadiens playing at home and you lose a game, head to the hills up in Mont Tremblant because a little resort on a lake might put things into perspective.

Word.

TDR

10 comments:

  1. Well you've gone there Dark -- down the road of generalizations. Not your finest. I still like French Fries still though. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the judgement dj. I am relaxing and some dude tells me not to wear my Rangers t-shirt. How do you then feel? You'd feel the same.

    There is blatant fan extremism up here -- sorry, just don't like 'em.

    tdr

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's a damn shame Ranger Tees don't come with fight straps...
    - J

    ReplyDelete
  4. ZHERDEV IS LEADING YOUR POLL WHO WILL BE TALKED ABOUT??????? WOW...YOU GUYS ARE IN TROUBLE THIS SEASON.

    ReplyDelete
  5. More importantly.. do they hate the Avs. I have always wanted to visit Montréal. How is it?

    ReplyDelete
  6. J - Ranger Tees with fight straps were coming, but he was traded to Dallas.

    anonymous - you may be right. there is 'hope' in the air (or as Sather would say "hope in the heir")

    jibble - lol re: Avs...not sure what kind of team you guys are assembling over there...been reading your sarcastic posts on the re-building process - rather than Renney coaching the Avs, perhaps Glen Sather could do you some good!!? Montreal is beautiful. It's the people that suck. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Darn right, growing up near Toronto surrounded by Habs (it's Les Habitants, with the 'n' by the way, this simple act by mself in correcting you I hope means that they will not come and burn me out of my house at 3:00 a.m., you however may want to get a surveillance system!)and Leafs fans was bad, but fun in the way that belonging to a club with almost no other members is, aah, the exclusivity. Leafs fans were idiots, but Habs fans at least could realistically point out their club's superiority.

    Who cares, I always hated Habs fans and continue to indulge in this hatred to this day because it makes me feel good. Kind of like the way I hate the Yankees. To hear some sportcasters intone so gravely and reverently about the Yankees, I feel like telling them where to put it. They're like bandwagoneers for life, kind of like Habs fans. And I love to see them both lose.

    By the way, Montreal is a very cool town.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I hate the Habs!
    I know I am critical of the Rangers lack of scoring wingers and their hesitation in bringing back Shanny but the Habs suck. They weren't even picked by their own newspapers to make the playoffs. Better hope that Tanguay doesn't get stage fright and the PP stays great. Streit leaving puts big pressure on Markov and Hamirlik.
    I am betting that the Habs will battle for the 6-8 playoffs spot.

    BlueNationLeafs. (or Laughs this coming season)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Bluenationleafs, sorry for the remark about Leafs fans being idiots. LOL, I'm pretty sure I was called that many time as a Rangers fan growing up. It's fun 'hating' other teams, even though it is basically the same experience.

    cheers

    ReplyDelete
  10. There's an episode of FANS’ MOST WANTED: NY Rangers on MSG tonight at 8. They let fans vote on who they think are the Rangers all-time starting 6 and its got videos of this dream team's best plays, fights, and a bunch of other stuff. Should be pretty good. All info here: http://www.msg.com/fmwrangers/

    ReplyDelete

This site/blog is not affiliated with the New York Rangers or The National Hockey League in any manner whatsoever. Some photos on this site are used w/out permission but are hosted on the blogger server, therefore not interfering with the profit or bandwidth of the original owner. If you are the owner of a specific image that we have used in our blog , please email me at amv613@hotmail.com to have it removed - we will gladly remove it immediately.

If you have a hockey blog/website and would like to place a link on our site, please contact me & we can do a link exchange (the best way to get more traffic to our blogs).

Any offer of 'tickets at cost' is exactly that -- I have season tickets and will sell them for what I paid --- so no mark-ups.

The Dark Ranger is a not-for-profit site, not officially, but we derive no income at all from anything on this site; in fact, DARK at his own expense enjoys the freedom of having no sponsors and speaking his f*cking mind.