I tend to avoid main board GDTs (or series threads, as the case may be) precisely because the people populating them tend to be the sort who talk smack. I don't have much time for fans who are so invested in their team that it becomes an extension of their own personality, and I have even less time to hear them brag about it.
That being said, if you come into these threads, that's what you should expect. Fans of teams crowing about this or that. Yeah, there's some level-headed stuff here and there, but the vast majority is going to be posts from people who are neck deep in bias and ready to strut. I don't care who you root for, you've got lots of posters on "your side" ready to do just this. Hell, even I do it sometimes, and I honestly find smack talk dumb (I also find whiskey delicious, and sometimes it makes dumb stuff sound awesome).
Before I came to HFBoards I liked/disliked teams based on events transpiring on the ice. Since I've joined, I find I tend to dislike teams whose fans tend to overpopulate d***-measuring threads. Right now, there are at least 3 teams who I don't mind at all, but wish dearly to lose solely because of what some of their fans are like on these forums.
My point is this: these types of threads are more often than not a cesspool of fans taking the opportunity to crow. If you don't have the stomach for that (as I seldom do) then don't come into these types of threads. Yes, ideally, HFBoards is all about hockey fans getting together and discussing the finer points of the game while leaving the heavy bias to the dark confines of their team boards, but that's not gonna happen and however much it did happen back in the day is probably overstated by self-confessed drunks like myself drowning in nostalgia.
The refs haven't handed Colorado this series. MacKinnon isn't suddenly the best player in the league. Mike Smith has been lights out, even if he is by far the most annoying goalie in the NHL. The series is 3-1 Colorado, and they have the stats advantage, as well, but Calgary had them on the ropes in two of the games the Avs won. Calgary and Denver are both beneficiaries of the Rockies. I don't think many us from either town are really into rodeos.
Let's not be friends. Let's be rivals.