Why does everybody hate the Leafs?

Nithoniniel

Registered User
Sep 7, 2012
20,913
16,749
Skövde, Sweden
There's also a social phenomena at play on both sides, where they tend to focus in on the worst posts from the worst posters as a basis for said bias against the Leafs, and we in turn make a big deal out of these anti-Leafs posters.

We'd be much better off if we stopped giving so much attention to the dumbest of positions. If someone says Leafs are just lucky to get here, then good. No need to bother with that persons opinion any more. The poster doesn't deserve more attention than that.
 

Blanche Blanche

Torontoooooo
Dec 2, 2017
3,448
3,455
Toronto
Exposure.

This pretty much.

If you're in the Cali's its all about the LA, Anaheim, SJ hatred...
If you're in the east USA, NY, NJ , BOS, DET hatred...

For Toronto, it's just rest of Canada that has the hate for us.
Because 9/10 if you're in Canada... something relevant in your life is coming out of Toronto.

Whether you like it or not... Dat Trawna Hate is realll
 

pulfordfan

Registered User
Sep 28, 2017
234
257
Rjukan Norway
Really don't mind the hate, wear it like a badge of honour. All the comparisons with Matthews don't make sense, goal scores compared to a first line 2 way center that can score is what every team wants and needs.

2015 -- Alex Ovechkin, Washington, 53 goals
2014 -- Alex Ovechkin, Washington, 51 goals
2013 -- Alex Ovechkin, Washington, 32 goals
2012 -- Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay, 60 goals
2011 -- Corey Perry, Anaheim, 50 goals
2010 -- Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay, and Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh, 51 goals
2009 -- Alex Ovechkin, Washington, 56 goals
2008 -- Alex Ovechkin, Washington, 65 goals
2007 -- Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay, 52 goals
2006 -- Jonathan Cheechoo, San Jose, 56 goals
2005 -- Lockout; season cancelled
2004 -- Rick Nash, Columbus, Ilya Kovalchuk, Atlanta, and Jarome Iginla, Calgary, 41 goals
2003 -- Milan Hejduk, Colorado, 50 goals
2002 -- Jarome Iginla, Calgary, 52 goals
2001 -- Pavel Bure, Florida, 59 goals
2000 -- Pavel Bure, Florida, 58 goals
1999 -- Teemu Selanne, Anaheim, 47 goals

Not many cup winners on this list of Richard trophy winners


More cup winners on the Selke trophy.
 
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ACC1224

Super Elite, Passing ALL Tests since 2002
Aug 19, 2002
73,082
38,136
Leafs are like the pretty girl in school and the haters are the ones pulling her hair for attention.
They are envious and looking for attention otherwise they'd just be ignored do to their insignificance.
Freud would have a field day with some of these fellows.
 
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Mugzy97

#StandWitness
Mar 3, 2015
7,191
3,402
Halifax, NS
The Finnish following that came with Laine that try to continuously prove that their player deserved to be #1 pick and that he is better than ours is truly bizarre.

When I post on the main board with a Leafs logo in my avatar I always expect a hateful response, even when my post is completely innocent. The leaf is like a target. I posted about Laine's disgusting beard the other day and was personally attacked by multiple posters. It doesn't bother me, it just proves my point from this post.
 

Walshy7

Registered User
Sep 18, 2016
25,326
9,343
Toronto
I find the Colorado fan hate the weirdest, first of all why? not in the same conference and second of all I bet most leaf fans forget avalanche exist unless we are playing them.

The main boards is and always will be a sesspool, I don't go near it. I really don't care about the hate at all I spend 99% of my time in the leafs section. Funnily enough the fearest debate about leafs is here. Leaf fans here (at least quite a few) a the fairest when comparing their players and 2 or more posters debating a player is civilised but great to watch with well though out arguments on each side. Go to the main boards and see a debate and within 2 posts the other fan will bring out the classic "leafs always overrate their prospects/players", it just isn't true in the slightest. Maybe 1 poster went there and said "Marner will be a perrinial art ross winner" next thing you know "same old leaf fans overrating marner now, THEY think he is a perennial art ross player"
 

Walshy7

Registered User
Sep 18, 2016
25,326
9,343
Toronto
The Finnish following that came with Laine that try to continuously prove that their player deserved to be #1 pick and that he is better than ours is truly bizarre.

When I post on the main board with a Leafs logo in my avatar I always expect a hateful response, even when my post is completely innocent. The leaf is like a target. I posted about Laine's disgusting beard the other day and was personally attacked by multiple posters. It doesn't bother me, it just proves my point from this post.

Laine was the perfect storm, he was almost good enough to make you take him over Matthews (almost). There is, it turns out, a shit ton of finnish fans on here and then the leaf haters joined them and it was a deluge of weird arguments trying to prove Laine was better. My personal favorite was they were pissed off Laine was measured at the combine in the afternoon because he is taller in the morning. Now there is some truth to that but they were talking 2"+ in reality most people a less than an inch taller in the morning compared to the afternoon, and the 2nd issue is how many NHL games are played in the morning? none so it really doesn't matter how tall he is in the AM.
 

The Hanging Jowl

Registered User
Apr 2, 2017
10,310
11,419
Two reasons:

- The media constantly forcing Leafs news on the rest of the hockey world. Not to mention it wasn't that long ago Leafs games were broadcast in regions in Canada where they couldn't even tune into their own teams' games on some nights. That would bother me too.

- A subset of the Leafs fans that fit the narrative that we're all a bunch of delusional homers planning parades. Just looks at the main board after every Leaf win. Practically every time the Leafs win someone has to create a thread for the world to see about how great the Leafs are.

The fact of the matter is most teams have the exact same proportion of similar fans but they ignore that and of course the Leafs have a large following making the problem look worse than it is.
 

ottomaddox

Registered User
Oct 31, 2017
10,592
4,600
Toronto
Part of the hate has to do with contempt for major cities.

Many come here and are stressed out and overwhelmed.

Others come and see desparities like wealth and poverty (add mental illness and addiction to that). As well as beauty and abjection. Those disparities take getting used to, but people tend to turn that into hate.

Also human nature: it's easy to hate. It's difficult to treat people with respect and dignity.
 

4thline

Registered User
Jul 18, 2014
14,371
9,674
Waterloo
I find the Colorado fan hate the weirdest, first of all why? not in the same conference and second of all I bet most leaf fans forget avalanche exist unless we are playing them.

Demographics I'd guess.

The most ardent and irrational "haters" -trumping even Canadian rivals- are often Ontarians that are fans of other teams. Hipster effect, they're different and insightful for their selection of another team- and need to be right about it. There's a bunch of Edmonton fans from the TSN "Youth movement craze from 2010-2015, when they were continually projected as the next great team. A lot of hold overs from Detroit and Colorado when they were great through the late 90's, early 00's.
 
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Gary Nylund

Registered User
Oct 10, 2013
29,786
21,962
There's also a social phenomena at play on both sides, where they tend to focus in on the worst posts from the worst posters as a basis for said bias against the Leafs, and we in turn make a big deal out of these anti-Leafs posters.

We'd be much better off if we stopped giving so much attention to the dumbest of positions. If someone says Leafs are just lucky to get here, then good. No need to bother with that persons opinion any more. The poster doesn't deserve more attention than that.

This is so true and applies pretty much every topic that gets debated here. Not just on the main boards but here also.

The main boards is and always will be a sesspool, I don't go near it. I really don't care about the hate at all I spend 99% of my time in the leafs section.

Same here. I wander over there in moments of extreme boredom and sometimes it's amusing, sometimes it's not. I never get upset though and to be fair, there are many intelligent fans in other cities and is you have the patience to dredge through the garbage and keep your eyes open, there are interesting and pleasant conversations to be had.
 

Gary Nylund

Registered User
Oct 10, 2013
29,786
21,962
There is, it turns out, a **** ton of finnish fans on here and then the leaf haters joined them and it was a deluge of weird arguments trying to prove Laine was better. My personal favorite was they were pissed off Laine was measured at the combine in the afternoon because he is taller in the morning.

:laugh::laugh:

That's hilarious. I'd say it's worth wading through a ton on nonsense to find gems like that. Extreme nonsense can be extremely amusing!
 

Walshy7

Registered User
Sep 18, 2016
25,326
9,343
Toronto
:laugh::laugh:

That's hilarious. I'd say it's worth wading through a ton on nonsense to find gems like that. Extreme nonsense can be extremely amusing!

there was at least 3 pages of complaints about his height is really 6'6" instead of 6'3.75" (I think that was his combine measurement). So much nonsense was around at the time of the draft it did get quite funny. Finnish fans I think just really wanted a finnish #1 overall (cant blame them they are really patriotic) but when it was obvious the leafs were going to take Matthews (all along pretty much) they turned anti leaf (not all of them mind you). Then the rest of HF joined in and it became the leafs will be making a huge mistake if they don't take Laine
 

Marshy

Behind Enemy Lines
Oct 3, 2007
8,143
9,193
Ottawa
Being a Leafs fan requires a tough skin. You have to realize that many fans need to hate a franchise. It actually heightens enjoyment for them if there is a nemesis to despise. We get a huge piece of that hate pie. It is what it is. You just have to laugh it off.
 

wingman75

Registered User
Dec 3, 2008
5,586
5,518
The QC
Having moved to the Ottawa area over 15 years ago, there is some weird inferiority complex that people around here have towards Toronto. From what I understand it exists in Vancouver too.

So a simple answer is that some people hate anything from, to do with or associated with the city of Toronto. Like I said, its weird but most definitely real.
 
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Nizdizzle

Offseason Is The Worst Season
Jul 7, 2007
13,861
6,874
Windsor, Ontario
twitter.com
I remember last year when Laine got his concussion their fans said his PPG would have been this had he played all 82 games, he would have scored 40 goals and won the Calder instead. Today if Leafs fans try and say the same thing about Matthews stats this season if he was never hurt they act like why would we dare and say anything like that.
I mean, to be devil's advocate - lots of Leaf fans had the same stance last year with Laine. They would say he was injured so you can't say "he would have scored X amount of goals if was healthy". Basically the entire situation reversed and both sides want to use the argument the other side used the previous year.
 

Nizdizzle

Offseason Is The Worst Season
Jul 7, 2007
13,861
6,874
Windsor, Ontario
twitter.com
A major thing, at least on HF, is mob mentality. Its the "cool" thing to do is trash and harass Leaf fans. You can see it in the "like" train on all the posts by the usual offenders. Then it feeds into itself where if enough people say one thing, everyone else starts to believe it.

When we drafted Anton Stralman, a Leafs fan posted a quote from Stralman's coach in Sweden where the coach said Anton reminded him of Lidstrom. A few trolls starting linking to this post saying that Leaf fans thought Stralman=Lidstrom, and it spread around the boards quickly. For the next two years it was brought up in every Leaf debate as an example of how Leaf fans over value their players. That's the big issue with trying to get around the anti-Leaf sentiment on the main boards, its so hard to fight stupidity mixed with ignorance.
 

Mess

Global Moderator
Feb 27, 2002
86,912
11,862
Leafs Home Board
On this forum it's our fans that attract the hate.

Even when we were the laughing stock of the NHL our fans used to run to the main boards looking for praise.

Also people know it easy to bait many of our fans and love to do it for entertainment.

Spot on at least here on HFboards for sure..

Most of it is self inflicted brought on by the rabid fan base and love for selling their team to the masses.
 

bionic

Registered User
Sep 5, 2009
3,271
1,020
markham
Having moved to the Ottawa area over 15 years ago, there is some weird inferiority complex that people around here have towards Toronto. From what I understand it exists in Vancouver too.

So a simple answer is that some people hate anything from, to do with or associated with the city of Toronto. Like I said, its weird but most definitely real.
Yes agree, people across Canada don't just hate the Leafs, they hate Toronto the city. I've experienced it first hand in Vancouver, EDmonton, Montreal and ottawa. Is sad really.
 

TOGuy14

Registered User
Dec 30, 2010
12,061
3,571
Toronto
Not much different than the reason people hate the Yankees/Red Sox, Lakers/Celtics, Patriots/Cowboys

These are the biggest, most popular, most profitable, most discussed and biggest legacy franchises of their respective leagues.

There is an inherent hatred / jealousy of the biggest dogs in the game across all sports.
 

Borschevsky

Registered User
Aug 9, 2005
1,678
350
Simple. Over exposure. Just like it's easy to hate the Yankees or Red Sox if you follow baseball, it's easy to hate the Leafs.

The victim/persecution complex from this fan base doesn't help.
 

Stephen

Moderator
Feb 28, 2002
77,850
51,517
Same reason why people resent rich people: the Leafs have beautiful shirts, lots of money to throw around to do the things they want to, soak up all the attention and have a perceived sense of arrogance relative to real accomplishments.
 

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