Every sport has their fans, and those fans act differently than each other. You'll never see a Tennis fan jump up and yell something idiotic to the 'other' player. You'll never see a bunch of guys half naked that spell 'Pittsburgh RulZ' standing in the crowd at a Marathon. My point is that every sport fan has a different way to express him or herself at a game. Sports enthusiasts boast of the 'home team advantage'. That advantage coming in small part from playing at home, on familiar ground. For the most part, however, it is the fans that help to drive their home team to victory. They cheer, they taunt, they stand, they wince, they boo. In all, they help give confidence to their team.
Unless you live in Philadelphia.
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are currently battling it out for their chance to get to the Stanley Cup playoffs. They have put 4 games into the record books, with the first two games in Pittsburgh, and the second two games in Philadelphia. The Flyers lost the first game, but won the second one. During the loosing game, the Philly fans were caught (by the TV cameras) :
- sleeping.
- sitting with their head in their hands.
- looking entirely bored.
- playing with their cell phones or other electrical devices.
- wearing shirts that read 'why not us'.
- talking quietly amongst themselves.
- leaving before the game was over.
This last point came to my attention as I noticed a great many empty seats as early as the middle of the 3rd period. Also, I can't imagine why anybody would think that 'why not us' would be a good slogan meant to inspire anybody to do greatness. Its as if they just expect to be given the Stanley Cup... after all, why shouldn't we just hand it over to the team that bothered to ask 'why NOT us?'.
No home team should put up with this. No home team should be thought of as a bore to watch, or endure. The team should be able to replace the fans with those who really want to be sitting there.
Of course, I wasn't there, but the cameras dont' lie. Even the commentators mentioned, many times throughout the game, how quiet the arena was.
So, Philadelphia, you missed your chance to spirit your team to a tie in the series, and I fear for you, that you will not have another game to redeem yourselves. You see, Pittsburgh is a different kind of city. They know how great the Penguins are. They appreciate the Penguins. They want to watch them play, and lastly, they actually want to see the Penguins get into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They want to see them play so badly, that they will sit in the grass outside the Melon Arena to watch them play. So, sadly, Tuesday night won't come back to you.
On that note, the best place I've even been to watch hockey, was in the Yost Arena, while watching the University of Michigan play in the NCAA playoffs about 6 years ago. I went to a couple of games, and I cannot even describe the energy that powered that team. No other game I've been to has ever been that electric, vocal, and excited to see their team win (or loose).