As a kid in the 70s, the Habs, Leafs and Bruins were larger than life. My Dad had been a Leafs fan for years when I started watching with him, and the Bruins with Bobby Orr and the Habs with Guy LaFleur were the first teams/players I really noticed, and LaFleur quickly became my favorite player, which cemented me as a Habs fan during their Dynasty run, and as my Dad was a Leafs guy, they slotted into second place. I barely noticed my home team Canucks until I started collecting hockey cards in 78, and by the end of the 82 run I was a hopeless homer for life. I think because of Ballard's antics, the Leafs started to fall by the wayside for my Dad, and he picked up on the Canucks and the Oilers, which still seem to be equal favorites for him to this day. I was a big fan of the Triple Crown line, so the Kings were big for me for a few years. I started to lose the Habs around the same time, and I was done with them forever with the controversy around LaFleur's retirement. The Nordiques were one of the flashiest teams in the league, and they emerged as a strong #2 when I started cheering for them against Montreal. I stayed with them through their move to Denver, and I'd say the Avalanche has stayed #2 throughout my life, although I barely pay any attention to them any more because I don't have the mental bandwidth to follow more than one team anymore.
82ish-88ish was the peak of my hockey fandom: I was a card collector, Hockey News subscriber, and for a few years the cable we subscribed to in our town gave us TSN, BCTV Vancouver, CKY Winnipeg, CHCH Hamilton and ITV Edmonton, so, like today with Sportsnet, we could watch hockey every day, so during this time period I developed secondary interests in a number of teams, including the Jets, North Stars, Devils and Rangers. When the Wings drafted Yzerman, I started following them, and I became a bigger fan with their run under Demers, and they probably slid into the #3 spot until Yzerman retired. Even though Jari Kurri was one of my favorite players, and I resepcted Gretzky, I had this weird thing about hating the Oilers and wanting them to be beat, I think because, looking at it now, I always want to see the top guy get his ass handed to him, because I realize I have had this same attitude toward Crosby and McDavid, too. Because of this, I cheered for the Flames and Flyers against the Oilers, but lost interest in them by the late 80s. Most of the teams dropped off by the early 90s, but the Larionov/Makarov playoff run with the Sharks, and the 96 run by the Panthers, made these two teams secondary interests in the 90s.
After the 04-05 lockout, I really haven't followed any team other than the Canucks. There was a very low ebb in my Canucks fandom due to the Messier debacle, and by the late 90s until Pettersson joined the Canucks, I was only watching a handful of games a year in some years. I got hooked on reading the HoH board years ago because nostalgia for the 70s-90s hockey I grew up with was more interesting to me than actually watching the late DPE/Cap era product. I think the last few years have been the most exciting hockey since the mid 90s.
