What kind of a fan are you?

My dear hockey buddies. We all call ourselves a "hockey fan". We are kind of a HUGE family which is connected by one amazing thing - by the love for HOCKEY! And there are LOTS of different personalities, opinions, ideas, reasons for supporting this wonderful sport etc. So many kinds of the hockey fans. That's why I think it's almost impossible to sort them in any way. I've tried to pick some and give them my definitions though.



collector
Jerseys, hockey cards, tshirts, hats, pucks, posters, sticks and so on and so on. This kind of a fan has tons of these things. If you visit his/her place you will see walls covered with the pics of the players, with posters, flags and many other things. Everything matches with the team's (the fan cheers for) colors. This fan spends most of the time on the shop.nhl.com, eBay or any other e-shops with NHL products. These fans are usually very proud they have such a huge collections so if you ask them to show you their collections, they will be very happy to do so.

players-hunter
This fan is kind of obssesed by the players. No matter the team. Even the fact if the player is active or has already retired doesn't matter. This fan takes anyone who has ever played or plays in the NHL. Everytime there is a chance to meet the players you can be sure this fan will use it. These fans are at every "meet and greet", they visit practices of the teams, they attend every event which is related to the hockey in any way. They need to be there! They love collecting signed pics or jerseys, they love taking photos with the players and if they get to talk to them, they are the happiest in the world.

critic
Did the team lose the game? You can be sure that this fan will be the first to tell you. This fan thinks he/she knows the best. He/she believes that his/her opinion is always the right one. These fans would love to replace the coaches in the teams they root for. Everytime the player makes a mistake, this fan will be the biggest critic. They like to criticise anything the team does. Even though the team wins the game, this kind of a fan will always find something what was bad - too few shots on goal, too complicated passing, too many penalties, bad penalty killing, weak power plays, slow skating, bad puck handling etc.

stats-freak
Who is the top scorer of the Flyers? Which of the Ducks' players has the best +/-? Who took the most penalties? What is the GAA of Mike Smith? Wanna know that? Ask this fan and you can be sure he/she will tell you. This kind of a fan is crazy about the stats. He/she loves going through the lists of the best scorers, of the most successful goalies, the biggest hitters and so on. The highlight of the season for these fans is when the awards and trophies are given to the players.

history-lover
If you meet this fan and you ask him/her who made it to the playoffs from the 6th place in the Eastern Conference in 1991 you will hear the right answer. You can bet on that! These fans love the history of the NHL and they love talking about what happened in the past. They remember everything what influenced the development of the league, they will tell you when and where were the NHL teams established, they are very familiar with the history of each NHL draft, they can recall all the names of the #1 picks, they are simply walking encyclopedias.

game-viewer & game-attender
These fans are, I think, the most common. They watch every single game they are able to. These fans simply loves watching any hockey they can get. There are just a slight difference between "viewer" and "attender". The "viewer" prefers to stay at home and watch the games on TV. That gives him/her the opportunity to see more games, not just the game of the team he/she roots for. While the "attender" prefers the live games and obviously, he/she can see only that particular game. The "attenders" are usually the season-ticket holders and they have usually the best seats in the arena.

fight-seeker
This kind of a fan can't see the excitement in the game itself. He/she needs some fight during the game. These fans barely pay attention to what's going on on the ice. They sit in their seats, drink and eat and they kinda wake up only when there's a fight about to begin. When there are two guys getting and giving punches, that time these fans are usually the most loud in the arena. They go nuts. But if there is no fighting during the game, they leave the arena very disappointed.



So. Did you find yourself? I hope you did. And if not, let me know! :) I think that most of us are the mixture of two or more kinds of a hockey fan I've described. We all love watching hockey, I suppose. We all are happy when we buy a new jersey of our loved team. Most of us are interested in the history of NHL and we look at the stats from time to time. When there's a fight on the ice, some of us get excited. We all criticise our guys once in a while. And I believe that all of us are glad to meet a hockey player.