When a sports team makes a meteoric rise up the standings from one year to the next, it can bring out a collection of fans that are never looked at fondly. That collection of fans are known as bandwagon fans. You can identify these fans by the fresh new hat they suddenly picked up two days before the playoffs or if they ask when halftime is at the hockey game. The closer you get to the Pepsi Center lately, the better you can hear the thunderous clacking of hoofs from the horses that are towing the ever-growing Colorado Avalanche bandwagon. Men are dusting off their Forsberg jerseys, women are learning how to pronounce Landeskog, and children are asking for burgundy and blue facepaint. Hardcore Avalanche fans often look down their disfigured Adam Foote noses at these badwagoners but for this playoff run, lets cut them some slack.
The Avs have been a rudderless team for the past three years, which is also why they have been able to gather some of the finest young forwards in the game today. These dark days drove many casual fans away from the Pepsi Center seats which left the diehard fans to sulk inside the half empty arena, dreaming of brighter days. Thanks to a collection of young studs on the ice and old fan favorites in suits, the hockey forecast is much sunnier in Denver today. Where it might be easy to hipcheck any of the bandwagon fans you'll see over the next month or so it would be wise to offer them a helping hand. If old school fans of the Avalanche want more local radio coverage, more sold out games, and more hardcore fans, they need the casual fans to return and the vehicle those casual fans take is usually in the form of a bandwagon.
Old school hockey fans can be a confused bunch. They moan and groan about the lack of respect hockey gets on SportsCenter and with the national media but they seem to take that frustration out on anyone that doesn't know what hybrid icing is. This playoff season, let's focus all of our vitriol towards the a-holes on the ice and in the seats that are wearing Minnesota Wild jerseys and high five the guy next to you in the Avs jersey, no matter if he knows Varlomov's first name or not.
The Avs have been a rudderless team for the past three years, which is also why they have been able to gather some of the finest young forwards in the game today. These dark days drove many casual fans away from the Pepsi Center seats which left the diehard fans to sulk inside the half empty arena, dreaming of brighter days. Thanks to a collection of young studs on the ice and old fan favorites in suits, the hockey forecast is much sunnier in Denver today. Where it might be easy to hipcheck any of the bandwagon fans you'll see over the next month or so it would be wise to offer them a helping hand. If old school fans of the Avalanche want more local radio coverage, more sold out games, and more hardcore fans, they need the casual fans to return and the vehicle those casual fans take is usually in the form of a bandwagon.
Old school hockey fans can be a confused bunch. They moan and groan about the lack of respect hockey gets on SportsCenter and with the national media but they seem to take that frustration out on anyone that doesn't know what hybrid icing is. This playoff season, let's focus all of our vitriol towards the a-holes on the ice and in the seats that are wearing Minnesota Wild jerseys and high five the guy next to you in the Avs jersey, no matter if he knows Varlomov's first name or not.