I guess Virtue's "personal reasons" meant another job

From Buzzing the Net:

Terry Virtue was not adrift for too long — the former Tri-City Americans associate coach is going to try to shore up the Owen Sound Attack's defensive group.

Virtue has come aboard as an assistant coach with Attack. It works on a couple levels. Virtue received much of the credit for the Ams' being one of the stingiest outfits in the Western Hockey League. The Attack missed the playoffs in the Ontario Hockey League's cutthroat Western Conference, finishing ninth thanks in part to allowing 272 goals. Only last-place Sarnia was more generous in the West.

Virtue, 40, also has roots in the region.

The Attack actually had more points (62) than two playoff teams in the East last season and that was despite eventual Colorado Avalanche first-round pick Joey Hishon missing almost half the season (he posted 40 points in 36 games).

There is some upside for the Attack, who play in the smallest market in the OHL by a factor of two; Hishon and Buffalo Sabres draft choice Steven Shipley, Toronto Maple Leafs second-round pick Jesse Blacker on defence, and 19-year-old goalie Scott Stajcer, a New York Rangers prospect, comprise a decent nucleus.

Adding a coach such as Virtue, who has a track record of getting a team to be greater than the sum of its parts in its own zone, would certainly help with ekeing out a few more wins up by Georgian Bay.  (BTN)

From the Owen Sound Attack press release:

The Owen Sound Attack of the Ontario Hockey League is pleased to announce that they have signed Terry Virtue as an Assistant Coach for the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 seasons.

Virtue, who currently resides in Wheeling, West Virginia has most recently served as an Associate Coach of the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League handling the defensive operations and special teams. While there in 2008/2009, “Virch” oversaw three defenseman who collected 30+ points and finished 6^th in the league in goals against. Under Virtue, the Tri-City Americans were an impressive +193 as a team and held a +86 goal differential.

“Terry’s qualifications as an Assistant/Associate coach in the Western Hockey League are very impressive,” stated Attack General Manager Dale DeGray. “His qualities not only as a coach, but as a former player will reflect very positively on our staff and the guys in the dressing room. Everybody I have spoke to has said the same thing about Terry, ‘he has a competitive side that doesn’t quit’ and that is what we are looking for him to instill in our players.”

The former player was apart of 19 different teams over an 18 year span, tallying over 2800 Penalty Minutes. Virtue will be re-locating his wife Lori and son Braeden to Tara, ON. where he currently has family ties. “This organization has many qualities that appeal to me,” said Virtue. The 40 year old former defenseman went on to say that, “the team has an impressive crop of returning players and there is no reason we should not be competing for an OHL Championship this season.”

The Attack wishes to welcome Terry and his family to the organization.(OSA)

Virtue resigns

I'm sure you all heard this already, but I was on top of a mountain up in Banff.  From Drinnan:

Terry Virtue has resigned as the Tri-City Americans’ associate coach. According to a news release from the Americans, Virtue resigned “due to personal reasons.” . . . Virtue (Tri-City, Victoria, Portland, 1988-91) played 16 seasons of pro hockey before joining the Americans’ coaching staff for the 2007-08 season. . . . General manager Bob Tory said: “We have targeted our candidate to fill Terry’s position and we expect to make an announcement early next week.”  (Taking Note)

The immediate assumption is that he's joining Don Nachbaur in Spokane (do they have an assistant position open?) and/or Hiller wants his own guy and kept Virtue on for the transition year.  I guess we'll see when we see where "Virch" ends up.  I guarantee he'll be missed.  Here's to best of luck in whatever adventures are in his future.*

*unless he really goes to Spokane, then only 2nd best of luck :)

Patrick Holland at Calgary Flames Development Camp

How lucky am I that I just happen to be in Calgary with the boy while Flames development camp is going on?  Very.  Team Hamazz headed downtown to the Saddledome today to take in some drills.  Seating was only in the 200 level, so kinda far away, but my camera rules, so here's some pics of Patrick:

We saw some pretty routine drills (I guess, I haven't been to many any practices before).  Then the coaches brought out a dasher board thing, about 3, 4 feet long, put it in front of the goalie (would make being a goalie much easier) then guys shot puck off dasher, guy then got rebound, shot it over dasher to go up high on the goalie.  It was cool.  Here's Wazz's video of it, complete with my analysis that "I've never seen it before so it's unusual".

At the other end of the rink, they set up two nets along the goal line, below the faceoff circles, then 4 defensemen, 8 forwards, and the 2 goalies scrimmaging.  Mini-scrimmage.  I don't know what exactly it was, except fascinating.  Here's video Wazz got of Patrick doing this scrimmage thing, it seems like he's not doing much because play was in front of the other goalie.

What's in a name? Hockey Team Identity Project

The Wazz half of Team Hamazz has his latest installment of the Hockey Team Identity Project up, this time looking at the Reading Royals.  And how lucky is he, we've been sending out emails to teams for info, he got to talk to the Royals GM!  I'm still awaiting replies :(

I went to a particularly interesting case in terms of marketing and branding. For the Reading Royals, they prove that building the brand is something that is much more efficient than aligning with the parent team.

To start it off, the Royals are the reincarnation of the Columbus Chill, who voluntarily suspended operations to make way for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Check out the rest of the story by clicking here on the magic link.

Shinny going to Traverse City with Rangers

New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today the preliminary roster for the 2010 Traverse City Tournament in Traverse City, Michigan.

The annual prospect tournament is scheduled to begin on Sept. 11, when the Rangers’ prospects face-off against the Columbus Blue Jackets’ prospects. This marks the fifth consecutive year that a team of Rangers prospects will be going to Traverse City for the eight-team tournament.  (NY Rangers)

You can find the full roster by clicking the Rangers link.

What's in a name? The Hockey Team Identity Project: Wheeling Nailers

I may be on extended vacation (and dressing up like a goalie)

but there is still work to be done around here.  The Hockey Team Identity Project that Scotty Wazz and I are working on must continue, this time I'm gonna take a look at the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL, and there's even tie-ins to the WHL.

Like many teams (it seems), the name "Nailers" was chosen as part of a contest when the team moved to Wheeling, West Virginia.  But let's rewind a little bit.  

The team began in 1981 as the Carolina Thunderbirds out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  At the time they were part of the now-defunct Atlantic Coast Hockey League.  Well, not exactly defunct, but in 1988 joined with the All-American Hockey League to form the East Coast Hockey League.  The Thunderbirds were the first team to win the ECHL Championship that inaugural season, then changed their name to the Winston-Salem Thunderbirds the following (1989-1990) season.

The Thunderbirds moved to Wheeling, West Virginia in 1992.  Apparently then there was a copyright dispute with the Seattle Thunderbirds.  This seems quite strange to me, the Wheeling Thunderbirds' logo was nothing like Seattle's, and teams share names all the time--Rangers, Bruins, Wolves, Chiefs, and Americans just to name a few--so I don't know what the dispute was.  Here's the Wheeling T-Birds logo:

The naming contest was held for the start of the 1996-97 season.  The winner of the contest was a Mr. C. J. Wickham from Ohio, who selected the name "Nailers" to honor the town's long history of nail production.

Nail manufacturing began in Wheeling in 1834 with 14 machines.  In 1847 the first mill designed exclusively for nail production opened with 40 machines.  In addition, "Wheeling manufacturers were the pioneers in introducing soft steel as a material for making nails. Today iron nails are almost entirely superseded by steel."  (The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, Sept. 14, 1886)

The Wheeling-LaBelle Nail Company is the nation's largest producer of cut nails to this day.  Getting back to the team, their logo incorporates the cut nails:

It seems the use of red is a carryover from the Thunderbird days, when the red bird was used.  The Nailer's also have a really awesome alternate logo:

Again, really honoring the manufacturing history of the city.

The Wheeling Nailers are currently the ECHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins, with several notable alumni include:

• David Aebischer (G)
• Daniel Carcillo (LW)
• Dany Sabourin (G)
• Tomas Vokoun (G)
• Peter Laviolette (coach)
• and our own Terry Virtue!!

Come on people, let's come together and make this happen

From ECHL.com:

Chicago Expansion Team Selects
Four Finalists For Potential Name

July 22, 2010

Hoffman Estates, IL – Ten thousand votes and over a thousand name submissions later, the list of potential names for Chicagoland’s newest ECHL hockey team has been narrowed down to four:

Chicago Blizzard
Hoffman Estates Hammers
Chicago Knights
Chicago Express

And the final round of voting has begun on www.NameYourHockeyTeam.com. The contest will run until August 6, 2010. 

You know what you must do my friends, go to the link and vote for the Hammers.

Hockey Team Identity Project

The boy got his next installment done and posted, this time focusing on the Grand Rapids Griffins:

This time, we're looking at the Grand Rapids Griffins and how they were able to blend in the theme of a parent club without compromising the original identity.

The Griffins' owners were awarded an expansion franchise by the IHL in fall of 1995. The team then went with a "Name-the-Team" contest, which drew thousands of entries.

You can check out the rest if you click on this magic linky-thingy.  I should have my next HTIP piece done next week sometime, waiting for some teams to get back to me for some awesomely amazing fact checking.  Besides, I'm in Calgary with the boy for a while so who knows how much writing will get done, let's be honest.

What's in a name? The Hockey Team Identity Project

Let me restate how upset I am that the Amarillo Gorillas is defunct.  I would love to know the how and why behind that team name and mascot.  *sigh*.  Why don't these teams check with me before they fold?

Moving on, next segment of this Team Identification Project, the Regina Pats.  Before I start, let me just say that this is probably the last WHL team I'll look at, the other team names aren't that interesting to me and the boy is working on a couple of WHL teams also.  Granted, it might be interesting to find out why the Giants chose that for a name, since my Vancouver peeps inform me that there is not, in fact, any giants in Vancouver.

I selected to look at the Pats because of the history of not just the name, but the whole organization.  Thankfully, the Pats have a great history section on their website, which is where I began this quest.

The Regina Pats Hockey Club is the oldest major junior hockey franchise in existence, first stepping on the ice in 1917.

A top-level junior hockey team began play in Regina in 1917, and went by the name "Patricias" until 1923 when it was shortened to "Pats". The hockey club won the Memorial Cup for junior hockey supremacy in 1925 under the guidance of the legendary Al Ritchie; the Pats captured the Memorial Cup again in 1930 and 1974. (Regina Pats)

As for the name, it comes from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry battalion.  The regiment was founded in August of 1914, as World War I was underway, Captain Andrew Hamilton Gault was willing to provide $100,000 to finance and equip a battalion for overseas service.  The rest of the cost of building the regiment was financed by the Canadian Department of Militia and Defence.  The existence of the Regiment was approved by the Governor-General, His Royal Highness, the Duke of Connaught. 

Lieutenant Colonel Francis D. Farquhar was the Duke's military secretary suggested the new Regiment be named after the Duke's youngest daughter, Princess Patricia of Connaught.  The request was sent to the Princess and she gave her permission.

When the junior hockey team was introduced in 1917, they chose to honor the Infantry battalion by selecting the same name.  In fact, the modern Regina Pats still have the Regiment's insignia as their shoulder patch.

The PPCLI insignia, couldn't find a decent photo of the Pats' shoulder patch, but it's similar to this.

Regina has adopted a bulldog as their mascot, named Reg, short for Regina.  The bulldog was selected because during the Great War in France, the PPCLI adopted a bulldog as their mascot.  The Pats hockey organization has been developing "Reg" as one of their logos and for advertising.  Reg even appeared on the Pats' jerseys, their "Red Friday" jerseys, apparently a 3rd jersey.  The "Red Fridays" are to commemorate Red Friday and to support Canadian troops. With the adoption last season of the RBK jerseys, teams were not allowed a 3rd jersey, but hopefully they'll make a return and we may see "Reg" at some point.

Random statistic, the first Regina Pats game was against the Regina Victorias who had a player named Crapper. Awesome. Patricias won that game 5-2.

Regina Pats at Toronto, May 1924

There is lots of Pats' history to dig through and I found some stuff on reginapatshistory.com, though it's not as easy to navigate that site as hoped.  But it does seem chock full of great info, if you take the time to dig through it.   The author has clearly spent a lot of time compiling a lot of interesting stuff.

Shots from the Point--lazy summer edition

The Edmonton Oilers have inked former American Shawn Belle to a one-year deal.  Poor kid is a suitcase, hopefully he can stick with the Oilers organization.  From Edmonton's press release:

Belle, 25, spent last season with the Hamilton Bulldogs in the American Hockey League where he played in 70 games collecting 19 points (3G, 16A) and 69 penalty minutes. He also played in two games for the Montreal Canadiens but was held pointless.

Shawn Belle (photo: Getty Images)

The 6’1”, 220lbs rearguard was originally drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the 1st round, 30th overall, in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. Belle has also seen stops in Dallas and Minnesota. In 11 career NHL games the Edmonton, Alberta native has one assist.

Belle has appeared in 311 AHL games where he has scored 13 goals and 46 assists for 59 points. He played his junior with the Regina Pats and Tri-City Americans in the WHL from 2000-2005.  (Edmonton Oilers)

Looks like the Americans are losing a valuable member of the organization, Gregg Drinnan reports Terry Bangen is leaving the Ams to move back to Kamloops:

Terry Bangen is coming back to Kamloops.

The Daily News learned Tuesday that Bangen, the assistant general manager and director of player personnel for the WHL’s Tri-City Americans, is retiring and will be relocating, along with his wife, Margaret, to Kamloops.

A source told The Daily News that the Americans are expected to make Bangen’s retirement official some time this week.
Bangen joined the Blazers as an assistant coach in 1989 and was on the coaching staff for five seasons, winning three Memorial Cup titles while he was here.

Bangen first joined the Americans in 1998 as an assistant coach under former Blazers head coach Don Hay. Bangen spent two seasons there before moving to Hockey Canada, where he was from 2000-05.

For the last five seasons, Bangen has worked alongside Americans general manager Bob Tory. Bangen will continue to help Tory as a special advisor and consultant.  (Taking Note)

Drinnan says Tory is on the lookout for a replacement.  Wonder if he'd hire me???

Macek at Red Wings development camp

“I was a little sore from the first day, but I guess you’ve got to battle through that,” he said. “That’s the difference between juniors and pros, just the everyday, everyday.”

Read the rest here, and there's a couple pictures of our boy too :)

Vancouver Canucks sign former American Tyler Weiman

YaY Tyler!!

from Nucks Misconduct:

It's a 1-year 2-way deal for the free agent. 26 year-old Weiman is just shy of 6 feet tall. He was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in Round 5 in 2002. He has only played 16:00 in the NHL and sat on the bench as a backup to Peter Budaj and Craig Anderson during brief stints. He was a member of the WHL Tri-City Americans when drafted.


The Canucks must be impressed with Weiman's past 2 seasons with the Lake Erie Monsters (Colorado's AHL affiliate.) He had a 42-38-5 record with 11 shutouts, a 2.47 GAA and .914 save percentage in 87 games played. His 8 shutouts during the 2008-09 season were an AHL-high.

If he plays in the NHL he will earn the basement $500,000 salary, and will earn $105,000 as the probable starter (possibly splitting the role with Eddie Lack) for the Manitoba Moose, who are sorely going to miss Cory Schneider.

What's in a name? The Hockey Team Identity Project

The boy's first piece of this project looks at the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL.

Like was put forth by The Girl in her look at the Tri-City Americans yesterday, the key for this project is to get more inside the name of some of the unique team names. If anything, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers encompass that in that they have a very unique name and identity. In fact, so much so; many people think the location of the team is Bridgeport Sound, much like Owen Sound of the OHL. However, the city of Bridgeport is it's own entity, yet the name does have to do with a sound.

For this, I went to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and got a great response from the Sound Tigers' Marketing Assistant, Mr. Tom Morris. The insight he provide from the team's name and how the color palette today came about.

To find out the origin of the name, click here to get the scoop from Wazz.

What's in a name? The Hockey Team Identity Project

Sometime in the middle of winter, the boy and I discussed a joint project.  I don't remember how it came about, probably me screaming "what kind of name is Amarillo Gorillas*?!?!1"  So we got to talking about the uniqueness of team names and how it would be an interesting off-season project to find the origin of some of the more unique team names that exist, not just in the WHL, but the Central Hockey League, United States Hockey League, International Hockey League (all 5 US teams, huh?),  and any other random leagues that exist in North America.  We will NOT be looking at the NHL, you can find the origins of the 30 NHL teams here.

This plan was supposed to go into action a while ago, but here we are, early July, and finally thinking about getting down to business.  We're both highly motivated people, you see.

Obviously, on this blog, I have to start with the Americans.  Bear with me, it's not anything terribly unique or unusual, there are several other teams named the Americans in North America--Rochester Americans (AHL) who go by the annoying nickname "Amerks".  Don't know why, but that IRKS me...heh.  There's also the Allen Americans (CHL), who have a bitchin' logo:

I like it!

The  Rochester Americans have been in existence since 1956, to my knowledge the first to use the name "Americans".  One of the more famous Amerks alumni being none other than Don Cherry himself.

So how did our lovely team get the name Americans?  The name came to be when the team moved to Tri-Cities in 1988, but that was not the beginning of this organization.

The team began as one of the original Canadian Major Junior Hockey League in 1966 as the Calgary Buffaloes.  The following season, the name was changed to the Calgary Centennials, probably because of the Alberta Junior Hockey League team already named the Calgary Buffaloes. 

In their eleven seasons in Calgary, the Centennials won three Western Division titles, only reaching the WCHL finals once, losing to Regina in 1974.

The team was sold in 1977 and moved to Billings, Montana where they became the Billings Bighorns.  Their roster included none other than Don Nachbaur.  The Bighorns reached 1st in the Central Division and their only playoff success was the first year in Billings when they lost in the final.  The team stayed in Billings through the 1981-1982 season, when they were moved to Nanaimo, British Columbia.

from gameworn.com, Bighorns' jerseys were based on the Washington Capitals jerseys at the time

Known as the Nanaimo Islanders (Nanaimo is on Vancouver Island), they were only there for one season.  With a record of 20-51-1, they ended up 5th place in the regular season and did not make the playoffs that 1982-1983 season. 

from sportslogos.net.  I like how the island is on the logo, as well as "WHL"

From Nanaimo, the team moved once again, this time to New Westminster, BC where they were the Bruins.  Rather, they were the 2nd coming of the New Westminster Bruins (NWB).  The first NWB had moved from Estevan, Saskatchewan to New Westminster in 1971 and stayed until they moved and became the Kamloops Blazers (Junior Oilers was first name) in 1981.  The 2nd NWB did not, in their 5 season, enjoy a lot of success, 2 of those seasons not even making the playoffs.

In 1988, our organization as we know it, came to the Tri-Cities.  Since the team was moving back to the US, the choice for the name "Americans" was decided by a contest through the Tri-City Herald.  For the first 2 seasons, the Americans stuck with the gold and black color scheme, but had that bad-ass "A" formed from 3 stripes and stars--representing the three cities, Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland.

For the 1992-93 season, when the team was bought by Ron Toigo, he didn't like that the team name was Americans and yet none of the memorabilia was very, well, American.  So the colors were changed to the red, white, and blue you would associate with a team named the Americans, they also had an ornate logo:

An eagle landing on a hockey stick, again with three stars and three stripes representing the cities.  For the 1993-94 season through until the 2002-03 season, the Americans sported a sleeker logo, though harder to identify the use of three--hint, it's the white stripes:

This is the logo I first saw on my players when I moved to the area so I have a touch of a soft spot for it, though not much.  The 2003-04 season brought yet another logo, the high-sticking eagle:

I like this guy, the three accents coming off the back of the eagle's head, and he looks serious.  I like it.  

When there was a danger of losing the team, thankfully the current ownership group stepped up to keep the team here.  Former Americans Stu Barnes and Olaf Kolzig are part of that ownership group.  With the support the team had, fans showed up.  It helped having a winning team on the ice with a great leader behind the bench.  With the high sticking eagle, the shoulder patch was a great logo which is now the primary logo:

Not gonna lie, this one is my favorite.  It has the 3 stars, 3 red stripes--totally sleek and sexy.  The colors are deeper, more sophisticated (as far as hockey jerseys can go).  More than that, I find that it reminds me of the old World War II Army Air Corps logo:

Ass-pat to Wikipedia, Sportslogos.net, Hockeydb.com, and of course Craig West for some details.  I'm sure he'll fill me in if I've screwed anything up, for which I throw out a pre-emptive ass-pat! :)
 
*Amarillo Gorillas sadly don't exist anymore. 

CANOE -- SLAM! Sports - Hockey - Women: Charity hockey match for Mandi

Charity hockey match for Mandi

By QMI Agency

Winnipeg hockey players are rallying together to try and help Mandi Schwartz win her battle with leukemia.

Schwartz, a 22-year-old from Wilcox, Sask. who has been playing hockey for Yale University, has acute myeloid leukemia and her only hope to survive is to find a 10-point match in the very near future.

With that in mind, a 3-on-3 charity hockey tournament — billed as Match4Mandi — begins Tuesday and is being held at The RINK Training Centre.

Part of the goal is to help raise funds and awareness, but in a perfect world, there is a hope one of the people attending the event might actually be the donor.

“It is important to me because as players and people we have the opportunity to raise awareness and organize an event like this one with one goal in mind, to ultimately help save lives,” said Manitoba Moose forward Kevin Clark, who was the driving force behind the event. “Mandi is such a driven individual and her courage has inspired everyone to work together to help save her life because she won’t stop fighting until she beats it.

“It is amazing to see the hockey community across North America come together for one individual in order to help save Mandi’s life and create awareness for others who are in need of a stem-cell transplant.”

At the conclusion of the two-day 3-on-3 tournament on Wednesday, a group of local pros will go head-to-head in a celebrity game.

Among those suiting up in the contest are Eric Fehr of the Washington Capitals, Travis Zajac of the New Jersey Devils, Darren Helm of the Detroit Red Wings, Dustin Boyd of the Montreal Canadiens and Andrew Murray of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

For those who don’t participate in the tournament, tickets for the celebrity game will be $12. Aside from the hockey game, there will be raffle prizes and silent auction items up for grabs.

For more information, call 204-489-7465 or roberta@therink.ca.

Ass-pat to Puck Daddy for posting the original link

shhhh it's a secret

My dear friends have a young daughter (she's 9) who has a crush on Drew Owsley.  It's precious.  She draws pictures for Drew and unbeknownst to her, her mother captures the photographic evidence.  I asked if I could share the latest artwork, enjoy:

note the accuracy in the drawing of the goalie pads, scoreboard.  Also included is his "pet owl".  I edited out her name, but she's given herself the #29 since Drew is #30.

Kids are precious.  Little girls with crushes on goalies are awesome.

Back to Russia With Glove

from Drinnan:

G Alexander Pechurski (Tri-City 2009-10) has returned to Metallurg Magnitogorsk (Russia KHL). He had a 2.71 GAA and a .912 SP in 27 games for the Tri-City Americans last season. He also played in one game with Pittsburgh (1.67 GAA, .923 SP), one game with Metallurg (6.00 GA, .571 SP), and five games with Stalnie Lisi Magnitogorsk (Russia MHL, the Russian national junior league; 2.81 GAA, .917 SP). . . . Metallurg GM Valery Postnikov told the Russian website Sovsport.ru: “We loaned Alexander to the (Pittsburgh) Penguins and now the loan is over. Pechurski has a long-term contract with Metallurg. Maybe he wants to go back to North America but it’s not about his desire, it’s about our needs.” . . . Pechurski was quoted in the website Championat.ru after his one game with the Penguins in Vancouver last season: “After this season I will go to Magnitogorsk, where I have one more year left on my contract. But my dream is to play in the NHL.”

So that answers that.  

Best of luck in the future, Alex.  I know I've not been the most welcoming fan around here, but I do wish him the best in all his endeavors, hopefully we'll see him in the NHL sooner rather than later.

A whole week!

How 'bout that?  It took a whole week since this Nachbaur-to-Spokane thing broke before some asshat had to bring up some shit about how would Don feel about Letts running his goalie?   

LET IT GO.  LET IT FRIGGIN' GO.

No wonder there's Chiefs fans who hate Ams fans.  And yes, it goes both ways.  But holy crap people.  Get over it.

Each season that goes by I'm convinced more and more that the true rivalry between the Ams and the Chiefs is really a fan rivalry, not a team or player rivalry.  Certainly not to the extent of the fans.  And I guess that's ok, we're fans of our team, but man I get annoyed at this rivalry.  Just let 'em play hockey, cheer for your team and respectful of each other and each others' team.  

Ugh.

Oh and Happy Canada Day!  :)