What a bunch of ridiculous B/S.  Absolute, utter nonsense.  Cheer your team, raz the opponent, and their fans, all in good fun.  Despicablly poor form.

Posted by Jeff OKWingnut from Quest for 12 on 04/18/08 at 01:06 PM ET

Despicable!  I’m all for supporting your team and having a good time razzing opposing players and fans (yeah, even when it gets a little personal), but there is a line that exists WAY before beating and kicking opposing fans.  This is ridiculous, embarrassing as a hockey fan, and becoming more and more prevalent with fans of all sports.  People need to figure out how to support their teams without crap like this.
I don’t care if the guy was wearing Montreal colors in Boston and enjoying the fact his team won.  Even if he was being a jerk about it (there is no indication he was) this isn’t the bloods and crips.  Sure, you need to be respectful if you’re not rooting for the home team, but anyone’s celebration really isn’t going to change whether your team won or lost.
I’d vote to ban these a$$holes for life.  If I’m not mistaken, this is the second publicized incident like this during this year’s playoffs.  There is no place for this sh*t.

Posted by arcane_caf from NoVa - Outside D.C. on 04/18/08 at 01:07 PM ET

This is unacceptable.  Hockey games seem to be some blue-collar fans’ excuses to get drunk and make a complete *#$%@& out of themselves.  They take out their own frustrations by sending forth slurs and insults at opposing fans.  The problem isn’t just in Boston, sadly it’s pervasive just about everywhere hockey has established roots.

I’ve watched as some “fans” in New York, cut from a very similar cloth apparently, curse at small children donning the colors of the visiting team and scream at old women visiting from Canada for not finding their seats quickly enough to suit the beer-swilling masses. 

This incident obviously went so far beyond even the aforementioned displays of misbehaving that I have trouble describing it.  This type of behavior is sickening and I’m not sure what fixes it either. 

A policy of zero tolerance toward these violent acts has to be taken up.  Never let these degenerates watch another hockey game inside the Garden.  Let them sit on their couch and watch the games from home where maybe they won’t get fall-down drunk or forget the old schoolyard rule about “keeping their hands to themselves.”  Though I’m not so sure the lesson would resonate within the empty confines of their heads regardless of the punishment. 

Hockey should be something that brings happiness to the hearts of its fans, not broken noses, open gashes or hospital visits.  Are we so diluted as to think we are some type of sixth man, fully within our rights to engage enemy faithful in fistfights?  Do we expect to be broken up by linesmen and escorted back to the penalty box?  Does reality not click back in when instead we’re escorted by a parole office to our latest hearing?

My rant here is making less and less sense, but get with it.  Look yourself in the mirror, and if you resemble in any way the type of people who do these sorts of things, do us a favor, wash off your facepaint, take off your jersey and just stay home.  The game has enough already tarnishing its name.

Posted by mehumphries on 04/18/08 at 02:31 PM ET

It isn’t just hockey - it’s all sports.

And although it isn’t always drunken fans, part of the problem is the money brought in from alcohol concessions at arenas and stadia - not to mention (in football) the pre-game drinking at tailgates before the game even starts.  That’s (excessive alcohol consumption) a much wider societal problem, though.

At least these incidents are still rare.  That’s a positive.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 04/18/08 at 02:46 PM ET

This is horrible.  I go to school in Boston and go to many Bruins games, often in the road team’s jersey.  I guess I know not to do that in the playoffs now, especially not alone… I’ve had plenty of obscenities yelled at me, but luckily no physical action.  At the home-opener in 2006, the B’s played the Flames, and I decided to wear my old Flames Gilmour jersey.  The B’s ended up wining 3-2, and boy did they let me have it.  The B’s fans are so horrible to the Canadian teams, but I don’t think they realize that a huge portion of their team is in fact Canadian.  (In the case of the incident above, I guess they don’t like their own Patrice Bergeron!)  So, people would yell things like “Go back to Canada!”  I just laughed it off, as I am from South Carolina and go to school in Boston…haha.  I also had on my BU hat with my Flames jersey, which they did not appreciate. My experiences have been less bad while wearing opposing American team jerseys, but the people are still jerks.  This won’t stop me though….

Posted by NHLJeff from Pens fan in Chicago, IL on 04/18/08 at 03:27 PM ET

It’s wrong, without a doubt.  However, no one wants to comment on the behavior of the Habs fans. Watching what has been going on in Boston, I said to a friend: “A Canadian is going to get beaten down before the series is over.”  The Habs fans have been throwing beer, shoving Bruins fans, taunting in Boston bars, and cursing kids in french (thinking no one else understands the language).....  Yeah, the beating was wrong, but the Habs fans took it 95% of the way.  They have been acting like the kid that holds his hand an inch in front of someones face and chants “I’m not touching you.  I’m not touching you.”  Again, kicking someone when they are down is wrong.  However, it’s not likely that he didn’t taunt the Bruins fans that did this thing.

Posted by Sean on 04/18/08 at 07:24 PM ET

As a Habs fan in Boston. Sean you have a hell of a nerve blaming the Habs fan for this one. I am so glad Boston has not won a cup since 1972. Their fans do not deserve one. They are low-life drunken losers. I live in this city and I hope the Bruins never lay a finger on the cup again.

Posted by John Clougherty from Boston on 04/18/08 at 10:29 PM ET

I’ll tell you this much. Remembering this story is about the only thing (not quite, but almost) that kept me from punching a couple of obnoxious, foul-mouthed, infantile (yes, you knew it was coming) drunk Flyers fans right in the face today. I’m from Detroit, so my fanaticism for the Caps is somewhat tempered, but unless and until they meet the Wings in the finals (thank you for 1998) I root for them.
So these jackasses sitting in the middle of a stadium that (unlike ‘98) was FULL of Caps fans decided it was a smart thing to start telling everyone around them to “f*ck off” and “f*ck you”. It’s a little depressing to have all of the terrible stories about Philly fans confirmed every time I encounter them.
Anyway, thanks for posting this. It made me think twice about shutting them up. Thank God the Caps scored first and pretty much carried the play, because they finally shut up when the Caps went up 2 – 0.  Oh, and the worst of the Flyer bunch ended up spilling his own beer all over his crotch.  Instant Karma’s a bitch!
While I’m talking Caps, Ted Leonsis is a damn fine owner.  He’s got a different style than the Ilitches, but he’s right up there in terms of caring about his team and trying his best to get the right hockey people in his organization.

Posted by arcane_caf from NoVa - Outside D.C. on 04/19/08 at 08:01 PM ET

Glad go read you held back arcane…  It is best to just avoid any type of confrontation with idiots like that.

Good decision.

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 04/19/08 at 08:28 PM ET