We need...

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

This place has always been bipolar. Either the Wings will win the Cup for sure or they're the suckiest sucky sucks who've ever sucked.

That being said the bitching around here and reactionary behavior seems to have gotten worse since the Cup win. You'd think it would instill a bit of confidence in the team, but instead it seems to do the opposite.

Remember in 08 when the Wings went 4-10 in February? Fans of other teams were hoping the Wings wouldn't even make the playoffs. I'm amazed this place didn't implode, not that it was fun around here.

As a fan I understand wanting the Wings to win every game, but the season is long. Each play, or win or loss does not make or break a player's career or the team's Cup chances this season.

[Guest mindfly]

This place has always been bipolar. Either the Wings will win the Cup for sure or they're the suckiest sucky sucks who've ever sucked.

That being said the bitching around here and reactionary behavior seems to have gotten worse since the Cup win. You'd think it would instill a bit of confidence in the team, but instead it seems to do the opposite.

Remember in 08 when the Wings went 4-10 in February? Fans of other teams were hoping the Wings wouldn't even make the playoffs. I'm amazed this place didn't implode, not that it was fun around here.

As a fan I understand wanting the Wings to win every game, but the season is long. Each play, or win or loss does not make or break a player's career or the team's Cup chances this season.

And that wasn't due to all those injuries?

Stuart, Rafalski, Lidstrom and a few others were injured if i remember corectly...

Edited October 16, 2010 by mindfly

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

And that wasn't due to all those injuries?

Stuart, Rafalski, Lidstrom and a few others were injured if i remember corectly...

why the eyeroll there Eeyore?

Of course it was in large part due to the injuries, I wasn't claiming otherwise. But somehow, some way the team recovered and if memory serves did pretty well in the postseason. Like I said, the season is long.

Edited October 16, 2010 by haroldsnepsts

[Guest Crymson]

I agree that some people here are totally off the wall when it comes to the team ever losing a game. I imagine many forget that the only way fans can really support the team (aside from putting money into it) is by supporting it. Of course, what is said on an Internet forum is not likely to make a difference, but still...

Also, I'm amused at how many of those who have shown up to denigrate the OP happen to be amongst those who are most guilty of what he's referring to.

Edited October 16, 2010 by Crymson

[Guest Heaten]

The negativity on LGW makes me want to rip my hair out sometimes. Perfect example was after Red Wings had their first regulation loss of the season, non sense threads started popping up.

Holland, Babcock and Lidstrom didn't extend their contracts because Red Wings will be mediocre. As long as this team has the best ownership and management in the sport, Red Wings will always be on top.

And every year Red Wings start the season off slow. Zetterberg is always average till around Christmas, Lidstrom looks human till the 2nd half, the team plays uninterested hockey until the 2nd half. It seems to have been this way for awhile now... and I understand why. The regular season is really just the pre-season to the team. This is just their "practice" until the regular season starts (the playoffs). After excelling in the playoffs for 20 years, the regular season must feel blah to them. Even the fans at the Joe don't crank it up until April. I guess this is what happens when a team kicks ass for so long.

And I have no worries about the future. Red Wings employ the best hockey minds in the world and are starting to restock the cabinets with some interesting prospects. *** I love this teams!!!

Whether they win or lose, Red Wings will always be MY team!

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

What I've learned through stuff like this and how fans in general react to any of their teams adversities is that very few people will change their behaviors, either on the happy-go-cheerleader all the time extreme or the morons who will never seem to understand how a season or players ebb/flow at their job like haroldsnepts just illustrated. The mojo of a majority of people will never change so it's a lost cause trying to change both extremes point of view when it comes to bi-polarness, so now if I'm ever in this situation, I basically just mess with the people who are being beyond moronic and poke fun at them for my personal entertainment.

Edited October 16, 2010 by SouthernWingsFan

[Guest Heaten]

This place has always been bipolar. Either the Wings will win the Cup for sure or they're the suckiest sucky sucks who've ever sucked.

That being said the bitching around here and reactionary behavior seems to have gotten worse since the Cup win. You'd think it would instill a bit of confidence in the team, but instead it seems to do the opposite.

Remember in 08 when the Wings went 4-10 in February? Fans of other teams were hoping the Wings wouldn't even make the playoffs. I'm amazed this place didn't implode, not that it was fun around here.

As a fan I understand wanting the Wings to win every game, but the season is long. Each play, or win or loss does not make or break a player's career or the team's Cup chances this season.

This is true. I remember a lot of good posters on LGW in the early to mid 2000's. It seems most are gone and post someplace else and the negative nacy's have taken over. The forum use to have a good balance pre-lockout and had much, much more activity.

[Booster313 138]

To clarify, I don't question said negative posters "fandom". They take the time to be here and watch the games so they must be fans. And everyone is entitled to their opinion on this or any other topic.

I guess it does boil down to the sky is falling mentality. I see enough of that on the news everyday. There aren't a lot of things we can count on these days, I guess I have always considered the Wings something I can count on. For my entire hockey watching life they have been consistently competitive and entertaining.

[pucktividi 472]

To clarify, I don't question said negative posters "fandom". They take the time to be here and watch the games so they must be fans. And everyone is entitled to their opinion on this or any other topic.

I guess it does boil down to the sky is falling mentality. I see enough of that on the news everyday. There aren't a lot of things we can count on these days, I guess I have always considered the Wings something I can count on. For my entire hockey watching life they have been consistently competitive and entertaining.

Overall agree with your OP,but you were just too harsh with the word "BETTER" imho.Should be something like calmer,cooler fans,lol

The majority of us here are not players,coaches,GM's and other hockey related stuff so forgive us when we're overreacting after win or loss,no matter how stupid it can be it's just an indicator that we care about the team

Besides,we'll be better fans tonight when Homer deflects the game winner tonight through Bryzfuglins pads

LGRW!!!

[Booster313 138]

Overall agree with your OP,but you were just too harsh with the word "BETTER" imho.Should be something like calmer,cooler fans,lol

The majority of us here are not players,coaches,GM's and other hockey related stuff so forgive us when we're overreacting after win or loss,no matter how stupid it can be it's just an indicator that we care about the team

Besides,we'll be better fans tonight when Homer deflects the game winner tonight through Bryzfuglins pads

LGRW!!!

In a later post on the first page I admitted that the title was meant to be polarizing, not necessarily a reflection of the tone of the OP.

[Electrophile 3,554]

I wouldn't say we need better fans, we need the fans we do have to be less reactionary when there's no reason for it. We've played all of four games and already we have threads saying so-and-so needs to retire, so-and-so should be traded, is so-and-so slowing down, what should we do with so-and-so.....it's ridiculous. Aren't these the threads you expect to see after you get eliminated from the playoffs or at least during the off-season? Not when you haven't played enough games to fill out a whole hand full of fingers.

I think that's why a lot of quality posters don't come around here anymore and the ones that stay, don't post much. There's no room for rational, calm discussion about the team/individual players.

[Booster313 138]

I wouldn't say we need better fans, we need the fans we do have to be less reactionary when there's no reason for it. We've played all of four games and already we have threads saying so-and-so needs to retire, so-and-so should be traded, is so-and-so slowing down, what should we do with so-and-so.....it's ridiculous. Aren't these the threads you expect to see after you get eliminated from the playoffs or at least during the off-season? Not when you haven't played enough games to fill out a whole hand full of fingers.

I think that's why a lot of quality posters don't come around here anymore and the ones that stay, don't post much. There's no room for rational, calm discussion about the team/individual players.

LOL did you read my OP. Great minds..,

[Guest Hatethedrake!]

CORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRE! Don't worry. We'll be fine! Like the Hawks are dammit!

Edited October 16, 2010 by Hatethedrake!

[Guest Crymson]

What I've learned through stuff like this and how fans in general react to any of their teams adversities is that very few people will change their behaviors, either on the happy-go-cheerleader all the time extreme or the morons who will never seem to understand how a season or players ebb/flow at their job like haroldsnepts just illustrated.

I like to think that the behavior of the former makes much more sense than that of the latter.

This is true. I remember a lot of good posters on LGW in the early to mid 2000's. It seems most are gone and post someplace else and the negative nacy's have taken over. The forum use to have a good balance pre-lockout and had much, much more activity.

I think you'll agree that the negativity and nonsense posts have become much more commonplace since the '08 Cup win. That event attracted lots of fairweather fans to the board, many of whom seem to lack much knowledge of hockey, of the Red Wings, and of the NHL.

I wouldn't say we need better fans, we need the fans we do have to be less reactionary when there's no reason for it. We've played all of four games and already we have threads saying so-and-so needs to retire, so-and-so should be traded, is so-and-so slowing down, what should we do with so-and-so.....it's ridiculous. Aren't these the threads you expect to see after you get eliminated from the playoffs or at least during the off-season? Not when you haven't played enough games to fill out a whole hand full of fingers.

I think that's why a lot of quality posters don't come around here anymore and the ones that stay, don't post much. There's no room for rational, calm discussion about the team/individual players.

I can be caustic a lot of the time on here. I make a whole lot less posts and threads discussing hockey than I used to. This is because I get so bent out of shape about all the nonsense negativity and knee-jerk panicking that goes on around here. My behavior is, of course, my own responsibility, but I was much more liable to engage in and initiate intelligent and civil discussions when the majority of people were interested in participating in them as well; now, far from that, many show up to make insane and surreal posts that just ruin it all.

[55fan 5,133]

I've just learned that any thread started after a loss which involves certain key words is only worth my time if I am bored out of my skull.

[Guest Stolberg]

if only everyone was as perfect as nightfall

[dobbles 252]

I agree with you 100%. As a true fan of the Red Wings, I can tell you that there are parts of me that want to not come back to these forums. Mainly because of the attitude of some of the posters here. I regularly talk with Wings fans at lunch and have better conversations with them than I do with posters here. I guess a lot of it has to do with the fact that many internet posts can be brutal. People speak their minds, and with anonymity, truly nice people can turn into morons quickly.

I lay it out a lot like you do.

1. The management deserves our full support. If not for the consecutive postseason appearances, but for the tradition of winning that has been built.

2. The players deserve our full support. No player is going to be a top line player like Lidstrom for 20 years. Even he is not immune from the negativity, which surprises me. I guess all it took was one non-Norris trophy like season for the commoners to turn on our captain. Anyway, every player deserves to be supported. They all play their hearts out and to chew into them for their mistakes or belittle them is really dumb.

That isn't to say that conversation shouldn't happen. Sure, anyone can ask the question if "player A should be signed" or "player B didn't play well". What is just wrong are the attacks against players, management, and ownership from moronic fans. Case in point, look at the "need a goalie" post. Osgood has sucked the last 3 years? 2008 was one of his best seasons! Talk about uninformed and dumb just because of that fact.

A majority of posters in these forums are not true Wings fans. They are what I would call bandwagoners. The instant that the team falls on hard times, these posters will be joining up on the Sharks or Hawks forums and claiming that they are fans. Just watch. All it will take is one bad season to make it happen. I certainly hope that doesn't happen, but I suppose there is an advantage if it does happen. Look at the Tampa Bay Lightning. When they won the Stanley Cup, everyone was a Lightning fan. I have a friend who has been a season ticket holder to the Lightning since they started playing. At the start, it was the ticket to have in Tampa Bay, and the general hockey knowledge was pretty low. After the Stanley Cup run, he would describe it as one of the most uninformed hockey fanbase he had ever known. Fans would ride the players and be non-supportive if they weren't doing well. Today, its a great time to be a hockey fan in Tampa Bay because the team is playing well, Yzerman is in charge, and the base of fans is small but they are die hard fans who support the team. That, IMHO, is the best time to be a real fan of the team.

Ah well, I have said enough.

This is very true. Without the common idiots, it really is not entertaining to go to forums and read the posts.

you come off way more 'douchey' than any fan that thinks draper or osgood or anyone else should retire...

[IceMunkee 15]

Great post OP. The wings are far from finished. I agree on with points on both sides of the argument here. I agree that the Wings have only played 4 games thus far and two were fantastic, one rougher for some, and one terrible game. But the real debate surfacing from this topic is the "real fan" debate.

Doc you make some great points. Why do the doom and glooms get pinned as "stupid", "unfaithful", or even "fake"? Why is it that the "homer" fans are the ones doing the pinning? If any fan to me is under the light it would be the homer's. Saying the Wings are perfect and nothing should ever be said differently is just denial. Consider a wife that gets beat or a friend that has a friend with a drug problem but says nothing because neither wants to rock the boat. It is disaster waiting to happen. Any fan that comes on to forum and takes the time to write has got to be a fan. One poster said that the nastiness is not heard at work and the reason is because the are faceless on the Internet. I could not agree more. The two types of people you will talk to about the wings face to face are fans that watch the team and follow it and have intelligent conversations and the ones that listened to their local sports talk radio and the news and just simply regurgitating the venom of headline grabbers. The intelligent ones may be some that come on her and say Ozzy retire because they feel stupid saying it in person.

As far as the Wings and Brass deserving things from us. Doc hits it on the head. The Wings do not wake up at six in the morning after a west coast swing. They do not pay us to come watch our days at work. They don't send money to us when we struggle to pay the bills. The get our hard earned money on apparel, games, center ice packages, and our admiration. They earned those things but the don't deserve them. With out the Wings our life's will start with work in the morning and continue on as normal, we would just find something different to occupy or minds and wallets. Without us, though, the Wings learn what it is like to be normal. The get a 9-5 in ordinary jobs and have a Ford Focus instead of a Benz. If you ask me we deserve to have them play 100% and give us what we love. Skilled, hard-nosed hockey and the Lord Stanley.

No matter what, Go Wings! Keep supporting the Red and White because we are few.

[SweWings 45]

I agree with you 100%. As a true fan of the Red Wings, I can tell you that there are parts of me that want to not come back to these forums. Mainly because of the attitude of some of the posters here. I regularly talk with Wings fans at lunch and have better conversations with them than I do with posters here. I guess a lot of it has to do with the fact that many internet posts can be brutal. People speak their minds, and with anonymity, truly nice people can turn into morons quickly.

I lay it out a lot like you do.

1. The management deserves our full support. If not for the consecutive postseason appearances, but for the tradition of winning that has been built.

2. The players deserve our full support. No player is going to be a top line player like Lidstrom for 20 years. Even he is not immune from the negativity, which surprises me. I guess all it took was one non-Norris trophy like season for the commoners to turn on our captain. Anyway, every player deserves to be supported. They all play their hearts out and to chew into them for their mistakes or belittle them is really dumb.

That isn't to say that conversation shouldn't happen. Sure, anyone can ask the question if "player A should be signed" or "player B didn't play well". What is just wrong are the attacks against players, management, and ownership from moronic fans. Case in point, look at the "need a goalie" post. Osgood has sucked the last 3 years? 2008 was one of his best seasons! Talk about uninformed and dumb just because of that fact.

A majority of posters in these forums are not true Wings fans. They are what I would call bandwagoners. The instant that the team falls on hard times, these posters will be joining up on the Sharks or Hawks forums and claiming that they are fans. Just watch. All it will take is one bad season to make it happen. I certainly hope that doesn't happen, but I suppose there is an advantage if it does happen. Look at the Tampa Bay Lightning. When they won the Stanley Cup, everyone was a Lightning fan. I have a friend who has been a season ticket holder to the Lightning since they started playing. At the start, it was the ticket to have in Tampa Bay, and the general hockey knowledge was pretty low. After the Stanley Cup run, he would describe it as one of the most uninformed hockey fanbase he had ever known. Fans would ride the players and be non-supportive if they weren't doing well. Today, its a great time to be a hockey fan in Tampa Bay because the team is playing well, Yzerman is in charge, and the base of fans is small but they are die hard fans who support the team. That, IMHO, is the best time to be a real fan of the team.

Ah well, I have said enough.

This is very true. Without the common idiots, it really is not entertaining to go to forums and read the posts.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

Someone should start a thread titled "We Need Better Team"

[Guest Shoreline]

I agree with you 100%. As a true fan of the Red Wings, I can tell you that there are parts of me that want to not come back to these forums. Mainly because of the attitude of some of the posters here. I regularly talk with Wings fans at lunch and have better conversations with them than I do with posters here. I guess a lot of it has to do with the fact that many internet posts can be brutal. People speak their minds, and with anonymity, truly nice people can turn into morons quickly.

I lay it out a lot like you do.

1. The management deserves our full support. If not for the consecutive postseason appearances, but for the tradition of winning that has been built.

2. The players deserve our full support. No player is going to be a top line player like Lidstrom for 20 years. Even he is not immune from the negativity, which surprises me. I guess all it took was one non-Norris trophy like season for the commoners to turn on our captain. Anyway, every player deserves to be supported. They all play their hearts out and to chew into them for their mistakes or belittle them is really dumb.

That isn't to say that conversation shouldn't happen. Sure, anyone can ask the question if "player A should be signed" or "player B didn't play well". What is just wrong are the attacks against players, management, and ownership from moronic fans. Case in point, look at the "need a goalie" post. Osgood has sucked the last 3 years? 2008 was one of his best seasons! Talk about uninformed and dumb just because of that fact.

A majority of posters in these forums are not true Wings fans. They are what I would call bandwagoners. The instant that the team falls on hard times, these posters will be joining up on the Sharks or Hawks forums and claiming that they are fans. Just watch. All it will take is one bad season to make it happen. I certainly hope that doesn't happen, but I suppose there is an advantage if it does happen. Look at the Tampa Bay Lightning. When they won the Stanley Cup, everyone was a Lightning fan. I have a friend who has been a season ticket holder to the Lightning since they started playing. At the start, it was the ticket to have in Tampa Bay, and the general hockey knowledge was pretty low. After the Stanley Cup run, he would describe it as one of the most uninformed hockey fanbase he had ever known. Fans would ride the players and be non-supportive if they weren't doing well. Today, its a great time to be a hockey fan in Tampa Bay because the team is playing well, Yzerman is in charge, and the base of fans is small but they are die hard fans who support the team. That, IMHO, is the best time to be a real fan of the team.

Ah well, I have said enough.

This is very true. Without the common idiots, it really is not entertaining to go to forums and read the posts.

What you say is true, especially about bandwagoning, but it's not going to get a good reception since it's a rather inconvenient truth and aimed at a good part of the populace that won't receive it well. It wouldn't surprise me if Wings easily have the largest fan base in the world of any hockey team. Gotta expect with larger numbers, it means more stupid people, more twitchy neurotic bandwagon fans ready to call off the season after a few games, seem to confuse criticism and anger over one game for endless pessimism and negativity, and so on -- so much for cheering for your team and enjoying watching hockey. Rather than get pissed at most of the crap you read here that you'd never hear aloud at a sports bar without that person getting their ass chewed out, just mock and make fun of them. They likely won't like this idea either but oh well, who cares. Though I have to admit, last season I had more than enough of how much the Wings suck balls and won't make the playoffs, only to do that and better. It's likely why I kinda stick to other forum parts, because even arguments and debates and pointless spam there, it doesn't quite reach the stupidity of neurotic bandwagoners.

Edited October 17, 2010 by Shoreline

[Booster313 138]

Someone should start a thread titled "We Need Better Team"

Really???

Or do I detect sarcasm? In the NHL it doesn't get any better...unless you happen to live in Chicago, or Anaheim, or Pittsburgh, or Colorado in the late 90's

[titanium2 867]

Or how about...

We need more shoot.

Like Pavel says sometimes.

[Nightfall 871]

This board represents like 1% of wings fans, I wouldn't take anything anyone says on this board seriously anyways. most of the "fans" on here became fans in the late 90's, 2002, 2008, if you know what I mean. I just have a blast reading some of the comments on here by the people who think they know hockey but have never even laced up the skates.

I 100% agree with this. The best move I ever made was to actually play hockey. I started playing about 10 years ago and I have never given it up. Its the best sport out there and one I am glad I play. That being said, there are a lot of fans on this forum who criticize the goaltending or players who really don't know the game of hockey and how forgiving or unforgiving it can be.

[Nightfall 871]

if only everyone was as perfect as nightfall

you come off way more 'douchey' than any fan that thinks draper or osgood or anyone else should retire...

Hey, I call it like I see it. A true fan stands behind his/her team. A true fan discusses what is going on with the team and supports the management. A true fan doesn't throw the players on their team under a bus. A true fan doesn't bad mouth the management or players when they make a mistake. IMHO, we have a lot of fickle fairweather fans on this forum. We need more supportive fans instead of fans that are all "Debbie Downers" and looking to insult the team, players, or management. Thats my stance.