Thanks for showing some class, Edmonton...

**Goofball** · 05-18-2006, 15:06

So some of you may have seen in the news that during Friday night's Oilers/Sharks game in San Jose, the idiot fans in San Jose decided it would be a good idea to boo and jeer the Canadian national anthem before the game.

Nice.

When the teams returned to play the final game in Edmonton last night, I was worried (hockey fans being hockey fans) that the Edmonton fans would decide that turnabout was fair play. But there was no booing during the Star Spangled Banner. What did the Edmonton fans do when the opening notes rang out?

They started cheering.

And continued cheering all the way through the song.

Well done Edmonton; thanks for taking the high road.

**drone** · 05-18-2006, 15:31

Unfortunately, that's not the first time the Canadian anthem has been boo'ed at a hockey game in the US. It was nice to see the Oilers fans do the right thing (and winning the series was a nice reward as well).

There are 14 Canadians on the San Jose roster:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/teams/roster?team=san
Almost half the team. I wonder if their fans even had a clue.

**Don Corleone** · 05-18-2006, 15:45

Hey, nobody ever accused American sports fans of having an over-abundance of high-mindedness. Canadians certainly shouldn't take it personally.

There's a particularly intense baseball rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Now mind you, these are two cities that are about 200 miles away (very close in American terms). Most people outside the Northeast cannot distinguish between a Bostonian and New Yorker. But, because they play in the same division, there is something of a blood feud there.

While up for a conference in Boston, I took a couple of coworkers to a Red Sox game several years back. Now, this was on a Thursday night, and they were actually playing the Kansas City Royals (this becomes relevant later in the story). This was April of 2002, roughly 6 months after 9/11. As we were walking into the game, hawkers are selling "Yankees Suck" t-shirts all over the streets (the Yankees were arriving on Friday for a 3 game series). My coworkers were surprised that a team that wasn't playing that night was actually occupying the majority of attention from the fans, more than the Red Sox themselves at that point.

During the traditional '7th inning stretch', which happened shortly after 9, the announcer came on to ask for a minute of silence at 9:11 exactly, in honor of the fallen. Well, the crowd made it about 12 seconds, before from Left field, we heard the drunken wail "The Yankees suck", soon joined by a (granted small) chorus. People were horrified! We all broke into "My Country, T'is of Thee" to drown it out. It was very embarrassing, especially with 3 southerners who had no idea what was going on in tow.

The moral is, nothing against Canadians, we just don't always show a lot of class at sporting events.

**drone** · 05-18-2006, 16:16

This classic comes to mind...

Originally Posted by Slap Shot

[Referee skates over to Steve Carlson during the playing of the National Anthem]
Peterboro Referee: Got my eye on the three of you. You pull one thing, you're out of this game. I run a clean game here. I have any trouble here, I'll suspend ya.
Steve Hanson: I'm listening to the ******* song.

**Devastatin Dave** · 05-18-2006, 16:42

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hoc...em_apology_ap/

Good for Edmonton. Maybe this there will be less booing on BOTH sides now.

**Hurin_Rules** · 05-18-2006, 18:52

You should note the context of that episode you mention, where Montreal fans booed the US anthem.

Earlier, NY Islanders fans had booed the Canadian anthem and burned a Canadian flag, apparently in response to some hits in a previous game (and with Toronto, not Montreal).

After the Montreal fans booed the US anthem, the Montreal Canadiens management issued a formal apology and asked Jean Beliveau, one of the Canadiens' greatest retired players, to address the fans. He appealed for calm and asked them not to boo, but to cheer the US anthem. The next game, the Montreal fans cheered the US anthem.

BHCWarman88 · 05-19-2006, 17:21

Originally Posted by Goofball

So some of you may have seen in the news that during Friday night's Oilers/Sharks game in San Jose, the idiot fans in San Jose decided it would be a good idea to boo and jeer the Canadian national anthem before the game.

Nice.

When the teams returned to play the final game in Edmonton last night, I was worried (hockey fans being hockey fans) that the Edmonton fans would decide that turnabout was fair play. But there was no booing during the Star Spangled Banner. What did the Edmonton fans do when the opening notes rang out?

They started cheering.

And continued cheering all the way through the song.

Well done Edmonton; thanks for taking the high road.

that only makes us looks bad..

**Fragony** · 05-20-2006, 19:49

Originally Posted by Goofball

So some of you may have seen in the news that during Friday night's Oilers/Sharks game in San Jose, the idiot fans in San Jose decided it would be a good idea to boo and jeer the Canadian national anthem before the game.

Nice.

Dear god and that upsets you? Don't ever come to Europe mia muca