Why does everybody hate the Leafs?

[Menzinger]

TWS and BruinsLVGA almost only troll Leaf fans as far as I can tell.

Those two are particularly bad.

And there are threads in the Polls section in particular that I don’t think contain a single non-trollish comment.

 

[Tak7]

That have more to do with media than anything else. When the only sports station-TSN and Sportsnet in the Country are based in Toronto, they will tend to report more in Toronto.

Lets haters be haters.

TSN and Sportsnet locations have nothing to do with it - if Montreal or Ottawa were the teams that drew the most attention nationwide, then those teams would get more attention on the national networks.

It's all ratings. Their homepages function in the same way

 

[Tak7]

Ray Ferraro-Vancouver resident and never played for the Leafs.

Ray, a regular on TSN Overdrive, who regularly is the first (and only) person on that show to criticize the Leafs when it's needed, as well.

He lit Andersen up the day after Andersen criticized the powerplay for giving up too many shorthanded goals

 

[Pookie]

And we have the best inter fan base diplomacy

Indeed. And our road warriors are responsible for the only sold out dates in small markets (eg Winnipeg, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal).

 

[Pookie]

I can’t believe the stuff that people get away with on the mainboards.

There’s some stuff here too

But maybe we should pack the RV and take a group over to the main boards for some discourse.

 

[PromisedLand]

OP everybody hates the Awesomeness that they themselves can never achieve.

Leafs are deliciously Awesome!

Do the math

 

[LeafFever]

TSN and Sportsnet locations have nothing to do with it - if Montreal or Ottawa were the teams that drew the most attention nationwide, then those teams would get more attention on the national networks.

It's all ratings. Their homepages function in the same way

Exactly. Ottawa gets crap ratings. People forget Rogers paid 12.5 BILLION for the rights. They need to get that investment back.

 

[DANTHEMAN1967]

OP everybody hates the Awesomeness that they themselves can never achieve.

Leafs are deliciously Awesome!

Do the math

Led by Awesome Matthews!

 

[tmlms13]

Why do people hate the New York Yankees, New England Patriots, whatever team LeBron plays for, Duke CBB, Ohio State CFB etc etc?

 

[Tak7]

Exactly. Ottawa gets crap ratings. People forget Rogers paid 12.5 BILLION for the rights. They need to get that investment back.

Exactly.

I was in Vancouver end of Feb, and some of their afternoon sports radio shows were spending more time talking about other Canadian teams, including Toronto, than they were their own, because that's what sells.

 

[diceman934]

This. What do you see on CBC on Saturday nights? Not the Habs. Not Ottawa. It is always the damn Leafs, even though they play at the same time as others. When you listen to HC@N what do you hear about most of the times? The fricking Leafs. Even when Ottawa and the Habs were hot last year and playing a few hours drive from Toronto, it was still the Leafs. Even when the Leafs sucked balls it was all about them. Canada's team, eh?

I used to like the Leafs, and in 93 I was hoping for a MTL-TOR finals. But now this exposure just annoys me so I ignore them.

Yeah trolling us is a thing....now go away

 

[Ryan Michaels]

A lot of good posts in this thread I'm happy to browse through it as prior to this reading the main boards felt a bit like Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

I for one do read the main boards and sometimes comment there, I like knowing what league wide discussion topics are going on and I almost never even click on a Leaf related thread but sadly that does very little in the way of avoiding the mass trolling that is allowed for reasons I still can't place. I want to see what Barkov's doing oh its a Matthews bash thread in disguise, Pastarnak well lets take Nylander down a peg its ridiculous. Even Sean Coutirier is apparently a better offensive player than Matthews.

As for Matthews/Laine the idea that trolling is equal on both sides is ridiculous. Why would we the fans of the guy who went number one ever have started the comparison with the guy who went number 2? This has always been about them. And as some have pointed out when Matthews was having a vastly superior start to the season the discussion was nowhere near as hateful or as prominent as it is now. In fact I think almost our entire fanbase thought this discussion we never wanted finally reached its end when Matthews won the Calder. Laine is a terrific player but its naive to think he can be compared to Matthews considering the nuances of their situations.

And then there are Oilers fans. As some have pointed out its a small contingent of Leaf fans who have ever claimed Matthews is better than McDavid and most of the time they take shots at us for the (apparently) hilarious notion that Matthews deserves the "generational" tag. They use this arbitrary term and move the goal posts "I'm pretty sure there can only be one generational player per generation"...really? Never heard of Crosby, Ovie, and Malkin co-existing? Also what do they want us to call him? Compare his rookie season to other superstars Stamkos, Tavares, Eichel, and Matthews season is leagues better than there's. Obviously this year could have been terrific for Matthews but injuries have held him back(now he's apparently injury plagued and done much to the delight of others...hmm sounds infraction worthy doesn't it?). The bottom line on the generational tag is that we use it from a place of positivety and excitement over our generational player we're not putting down McDavid, 99 percent of us aren't even saying Matthews is better, while Oiler fans use it from a place of insecurity and hate to suggest even mentioning one of the most elite young players to come along in the last decade shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence as their boy.

TL/DR: Yes the main board is a cesspool.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Lets not pretend like we don't have more than our fair share of posters who like to make things harder on all of us by borderline trolling the main boards all the time. I have a hard time imagining it isn't like that to a big extent outside the board as well. We have a lot of fans, so we probably have more "idiots" than most other fan bases just by sheer number of fans alone. All the media coverage doesn't help that either.

At least on HF, this is a big, if not biggest reason IMO. I'm a Canes fan first, but Leafs are my 2nd team and I watch them a lot. Started following them more a few years ago because I played on a team with some guys that were Leafs fans, so started paying more attention to them and watching them more. I like a lot of their players, starting back when they drafted Rielly. It makes it hard on HF though because of sheer number of fans like you mention above. Every fan base has fans like that, but the Leafs fan base is so big, that it magnifies it a bunch.

Most Canes fans I know down here, even if they came here from up north (like I did) and are big hockey fans don't really have an axe to grind with the Leafs. Rangers, Bruins, Sabres, Pens get a lot more hate. The Fans down here I know that are on HF are a different story though. They hate the Leafs.

Outside of HF, it's just exposure and size. Much like the Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, etc.. as well as some built in geographical / rivalry hate (MTL, Bos, OTT, BUFF).

 

[Gary Nylund]

TWS and BruinsLVGA almost only troll Leaf fans as far as I can tell.

Hahaha that guy's too funny. My impression is that he does know a thing or two about the game but when he's wrong and has absolutely no leg to stand on there's zero chance of him doing anything but continuing to insist that he's right. In that regard he reminds me of someone on these boards, probably best to not mention any names. One of the most arrogant posters around these parts for sure.

My favourite was a discussion a while back re. the 1987 Canada Cup. I said that like many others, I thought that was the best hockey ever played. He insisted that that simply was not possible, the hockey played in the Canada Cup in any year couldn't possibly have been as high quality as Olympic hockey. Then at one point he admitted he hasn't even seen the games. Didn't stop him from insisting he couldn't possibly be wrong though.

Thinking back on it I still get a chuckle out of that one.

 

[PinkFly]

Jealousy.

Also while we have some intelligent posters (like myself), some are just obnoxious.

 

[Spirit of 67]

The team has been the laughing stock of the NHL for a decade recently, I get that. But as soon as things start getting better, everybody just brings out rabid hate. I don’t think even MTL or OTT fans hate Toronto as much as some other fans do. Just look at the main board on these forums. Matthews is never given enough credit, McDavid is on a whole other level than him, and the Leafs in general are just lucky and taking advantage of teams having bad seasons. All Leafs prospects are overrated.

Even the damn NHL has no respect for this city or franchise which they’ve shown simply by giving it **** all for it’s centennial year.

All fans are the same. Most don't realize it.

 

[Spirit of 67]

For the most part...

1) Largest fanbase, unfortunately this comes with a ****load of obnoxious morons.
2) Media. They focus on the Leafs because we are where their bread is buttered and fans elsewhere in Canada just can't wrap their head around it.

The haters on this site take it to a new level tho. I've seen ****head Edmonton and Winnipeg fans all gleeful over Matthews being injured. Pathetic losers.

People have to realize that, if there were no obstructions, about a quarter (maybe a bit more) of the population can see the CN Tower from their homes. That doesn't even take into account the rest of the nation and the Leafs fans there.

 

[ULF_55]

There are a great number of arrogant fans of many teams.

I can't say I find much difference between the groups of fans, but there is a great deal of difference between individual fans.

All teams have cringe worthy fans, but you really have to laugh about it. Never grow old!

 

[Mess]

Threads like these
Does Boston even stand a chance against Toronto in the playoffs?

is what goes a long way to create self inflicted anger from other teams via arrogance.

As Tim McGraw sings " Always be humble and kind" is the way to earn respect.

 

[ULF_55]

Threads like these
Does Boston even stand a chance against Toronto in the playoffs?

is what goes a long way to create self inflicted anger from other teams via arrogance.

As Tim McGraw sings " Always be humble and kind" is the way to earn respect.

Way back when we were young a professional race drive (don't remember name but I don't remember names from yesterday let alone 50 years ago) gave a speech at our school and I always remember one thing he said, "When you lose say little, and when you win say nothing."

Mind you that was back when being humble wasn't considered a crime.

 

[Tak7]

Threads like these
Does Boston even stand a chance against Toronto in the playoffs?

is what goes a long way to create self inflicted anger from other teams via arrogance.

As Tim McGraw sings " Always be humble and kind" is the way to earn respect.

Yep.

If I was an Islanders fan, I'd hate the "Tavares to Toronto makes too much sense" thread or whatever it's called too.

We are an easy group of fans to hate. I'm a huge Leaf fan, and somtimes I get annoyed at how our fans behave.

 

[Marshy]

Threads like these
Does Boston even stand a chance against Toronto in the playoffs?

is what goes a long way to create self inflicted anger from other teams via arrogance.

As Tim McGraw sings " Always be humble and kind" is the way to earn respect.

Nah..he's a self-proclaimed intelligent fan and in no way obnoxious.

 

[JadedLeaf]

At least on HF, this is a big, if not biggest reason IMO. I'm a Canes fan first, but Leafs are my 2nd team and I watch them a lot. Started following them more a few years ago because I played on a team with some guys that were Leafs fans, so started paying more attention to them and watching them more. I like a lot of their players, starting back when they drafted Rielly. It makes it hard on HF though because of sheer number of fans like you mention above. Every fan base has fans like that, but the Leafs fan base is so big, that it magnifies it a bunch.

Most Canes fans I know down here, even if they came here from up north (like I did) and are big hockey fans don't really have an axe to grind with the Leafs. Rangers, Bruins, Sabres, Pens get a lot more hate. The Fans down here I know that are on HF are a different story though. They hate the Leafs.

Outside of HF, it's just exposure and size. Much like the Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, etc.. as well as some built in geographical / rivalry hate (MTL, Bos, OTT, BUFF).

People tend to remember the negative posts a lot better than positive ones I've noticed. It's like that in real life away from these boards as well. We could have 15 people in the main boards making great posts than one nob-gobbler posts something stupid and derails the thread completely.

Edit: Perfect example of that just above when someone creates a thread like "Does boston even stand a chance against Toronto?" I have to think these people are doing things like that on purpose for the most part. They can't be THAT oblivious or lack that much social awareness can they?

 

[BlueForever75]

1) Cause we have the most passionate fan base, a fan base that has stuck with their team through the ups and downs.

2) Cause its easy to hate the richest team team in the league (Cowboys -NFL, Yankees - MLB, Leafs - NHL)

3) Cause we are Canada's team!!!

4) and not least we are the best and Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary are peeing the bed!!!!

LOL

 

[JadedLeaf]

1) Cause we have the most passionate fan base, a fan base that has stuck with their team through the ups and downs.

2) Cause its easy to hate the richest team team in the league (Cowboys -NFL, Yankees - MLB, Leafs - NHL)

3) Cause we are Canada's team!!!

4) and not least we are the best and Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary are peeing the bed!!!!

LOL

Yeah no, it's posts like these that don't help at all. We have zero reason to be pompous and arrogant giving the last 50 years of this franchise. Having a decent season followed by a good season doesn't erase that.