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SDavis35

Why do you cheer for the Red Wings?

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Because I grew up on Yzerman, Shanahan, Fedorov and Lidstrom. I love hockey, live in Michigan, and I take pride in being loyal. I also love the puck possession style of hockey, which they used to excel at. I'm pretty flaky on losing interest in things, but this is one of the few that has stuck with me, so I figure I'm a lifer.

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It was 1993 when I decided to become a wings fan, I was 5 years old, and my dad was a leafs fan, so it created the perfect household rivalry, my uncle soon after bought me my first wings jersey, which i promptly covered in pizza grease at the red wings games lol. I always loved the dedication we had to winning while being very classy about it, I could never be a sharks fan, or a nucks fan, or a canadien fan for this exact reason. I support my wings through thick and thin, I've seen 4 cups, not something most people can say!

LETS GO WINGS!!!

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- Its a class act organization that's run right, starting with the ownership down to the players.

- Its an original 6 team with a rich history and has had some of the greatest players of all time.

- When they're at their best, their style of play is mesmerizing. The passing, the skating, the whole flow of the team was just incredible to watch at times.

- I don't live in Detroit and I wear Red Wings gear ALL the time (the logo is even tattooed on my arm) and I'm known as that "Red Wings fan" (like their's only one or something). I like being known for that. Its a good feeling.

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I was born a Wings fan. My dad named me after Steve Yzerman. I grew up on the couch with my old man watching Yzerman and Probert, then the 91 draft made us a power house and I loved all the guys we've got over the years. Lids, Vladdy, McCarty, Fedorov, Shanny, Hull and Robitaille for the 02 Cup... This organization in my lifetime at least has always tabled an amazing product and I've always liked most of, if not all of the players on our teams. This year there's a few I'm not a fan of, as well Ulf Samuelsson coming to the Wings I hated, but the general product has always kept me a huge fan. Being born a Wings fan, I only became a bigger fan watching all the guys mentioned above, and then the Grind Line, the Russian 5, the rivalry with the Avs, Dats and Z have been my favorite players since Yzerman retired hence "Z Winged Dangler" which is basically a mash together of Dats and Z.

Even the last few years where this team has been losing guys, needing to create a new identity, kind of like the misfit in school that no one wanted to play with, trade with, help out at all...I still like the different things that Holland has done aside from just getting rejected in trades. Look at the guys we drafted in the past few years. We have some guys in our system that are in all likelyhood going to be superstars for years in the NHL.

The Wings for me are the first and last part of my day. I wake up, get to work 15 minutes early and drink my coffee while I check LGW and TSN for Wings news, and at lunch, and when I get home every day. No matter how good, or how bad they're doing I'll continue to follow them and they'll always be my favorite team.

And I love puck possession.

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I'm a firm believer in rooting for the home team. My dad passed it down to me along with my love for the Red Wings. The first game I ever watched was game 4 of the 1995 and I thought it to be the most boring thing I'd ever seen.

But by the next year I was watching games right along side my Dad, hating the Avalanche and cheering away. It's been what brings us together ever since. He had some health issues and we spent time in Pittsburgh during the 09 season as a result, the playoffs got us through, and we reveled at being the Detroit fans in enemy territory when the Finals started. Fortunately, when we came back to Michigan the Wings were up 2-0, but I'm getting off topic.

We'd watch the Lions but grew tired of the antics of football, and over the past few years we've been much more into baseball; but hockey was what really brought us together.

I had tickets to go to this year's Winter Classic with my Dad, but the lock out ruined that. I'll be living somewhere else when the next one rolls around, and I don't know if I'll ever not hold at least a slight grudge against the NHL for that lost memory.

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When I was 13 I had a crush on a boy that liked the Red Wings so I said I liked them too. Haha

Then I started learning more about them and found out Stevie Y was born here and that they had made the playoffs every year since I'd been born etc. Then I'd watch them and everything they did just looked better than the other team and I'd find players I liked and see interviews with other teams and there was so much respect for them. Just ended up loving them.

My Bruins, Oilers, and Van fan brothers were less than pleased.

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I became a fan of the team for the dumbest reason ever probably. I grew up in Nova Scotia where most people are either Toronto, Montreal or Boston fans. My dad is a Montreal fan, but he isn't really big into sports in general, so I didn't really have an influence there (not sure why I'm so big into sports and my dad not). I began playing hockey at a young age in the 80s and loved the Oilers and Mark Messier, can't remember why, but mostly likely picked it up from friends of mine and they were the powerhouse team at the time.

When I got a bit older, I started collecting hockey cards, like a lot of people at the time. One of the cards I had was a 1990-91 Fedorov RC. It was worth a lot compared to most of the cards in that collection, so I figured, if he plays well, the card will be worth more money and I started cheering for him and the Wings at the same time (back in 1990 I guess). I was only big into collecting cards for 2-3 years, but that's what got me into cheering for the Wings over 20 years ago.

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When the North Stars left for Dallas I had to find another team to cheer for. It was between Detroit, Winnipeg and Chicago. I chose the Wings cuz they were so fun to watch offensively. In April of 1997 the town I live in flooded and I lost everything. Watching the Wings in the playoffs and eventually winning the cup that year helped me through that nightmare.

Past 10 years I get Center Ice and watch almost every Wings game.

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I was living in Dallas when the stars moved there(I was 5) and that got me into hockey, though I didn't understand much about it, I moved back to Wyoming when the avs moved to Denver so I started to watch those games. One day I decided that 'my team' was going to be whoever the avs were playing and it just so happened to be the wings and he rest is history.

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In 1992 I came across the pond to study chemistry at the University of Toledo. I had a passing intrest in hockey already, so I started following the Wings, who everyone at that time still called the "Dead-things". Luckily they had a bunch of great young players, were exciting to watch, and my first game at JLA was a 5-1 defeat of the Canucks - some rookie by the name of Dallas Drake had 2 goals and an assist ;)

I came back home, suffered through the NJ and Colorado defeats, then watched them win in '97 on a Sunday afternoon at my girlfiends parents house in Australia. Came back to England again, watched them win in the middle of the night in '98 in my bedroom with the sound turned right down :D

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Like most people outside of Michigan, Stevie Y was a big reason. Truth be told as well, I was a front runner as a kid and started liking them around 96 when I got my first jersey. Been a fan ever since.

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Like most Canadian Wings fans it was because of Yzerman. I have been following the team since the late 80's and even more closely since sat tv and internet has allowed me too.

Being a sports fan to me is about the passion. If the Wings are playing like s*** or the manager or coach is doing something I don't agree with I will complain about it. Does this make me a bad fan I ask the OP? Hell no it doesn't....It makes me a better one. We put in hours our of our lives watching this team, buying their items. I WILL voice my opinion.

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I unintentionally caught a playoffs game against the Blues in 1989 on channel 50. The Wings won and moved on to face the Oilers. Two games later, Yzerman returned from his awful knee injury and no one on Detroit skated like her did. I was sold.

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Growing up in Eastern PA, my dad tried to raise me a Philly fan. It worked for the Phillies and, for my early years, the Flyers. Don't give a flying **** about basketball, and will only watch football if no hockey is on. Fast forward to 1983. We travelled to Farmington Hills to visit family who was living there at the time over the Christmas break. My 12th birthday was Dec. 20th, and they knew my dad and I loved hockey. The Wings game on 12/23 was my present. Due to the less than stellar record of the team back then, we had nice seats. A rookie named Steve Yzerman scored his first hat trick against the Toronto Make-Beliefs (or Maple Laffs, take your pick). I thought his name was the coolest sounding, and it started with a Yz, which reminded me of Rush (who I was and still am a huge fan of), and seeing the Wings uniforms live made me realize how awesome they are compared to any other jersey. I was hooked.

Dad made lots of "dead things" comments to rib me, and I only got to see games if hey played the Flyers for years. In college I was also able to get the Pittsburgh feeds when they played the Pens and espn2 had several Wings games. I was also very active on the Red Wings listserv out of MSU that Dave Vergolini used to run. When the Blue Band came out for the PSU-UM game quite a few folks on the listserv stopped by the practice field we were using to say hello to the trumpet player in the Yzerman jersey.

When I graduated in 1995 and moved to my current town, I was actually able to pick up the WJR radio feeds depending on the weather. Once Time Warner cable started carrying Center Ice, I was a happy man. A big reason why I'm such a diehard fan of the Wings is that, as others have said, the organization, from the top down, has been, since the Ilitch family bought it, has been a class act. Yzerman and Lidstrom are two of the classiest players and leaders the sport has known, or ever will know.

I've taken more than my share of harassment living in enemy territory over the years, but rock the jerseys proudly. Games 3 and 4 of the 1998 Cup Finals were the best live games I've seen, and seeing Konstantinov on the ice for that cup was a beautiful moment (and I was glad I wore my Fedorov jersey for game 3 so I had the Konstantinov jersey on for it). Now that the Pens and Sens AHL teams are on both sides of me within an hour, I wish they'd play the Griffins so I could see our prospects live.

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