brillig has the night of after working so hard last week. Join me as I go back to my first love: hockey.
Attending hockey games is always an interesting experience. Hockey fans are loud, boisterous people who love to chant during games at virtually any moment. The sport lends itself well to chanting since oftentimes the time between whistles can extend to upwards of 3-4 minutes. The only sports with more continuous action are soccer and I guess car racing if you consider that action. (I don't) As a group, we are a small step down from the crowds of European soccer games.
First a warning, some of these chants are somewhat offensive and crude. While not at all politically correct, it does go with the territory of sports. While sporting events are billed as family entertainment, they rarely fit the bill in the stands.
Follow me below to hear some of the chants I have heard around the league.
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Before I talk about spontaneous chants that spring up at games, I want to start with the most important chanting at hockey games: the goal song. Every time has a song they play when they score a goal. This occurs at all levels of hockey from the junior leagues through the minors and up to the NHL level. Most teams have their own song and almost all of them lend themselves to some sort of chant and/or rhythmic clapping.
Goal songs are super important and fans are always debating potential new ones. While I don't know the full history of goals songs, they have been a part of hockey since at least the 70's and I am sure much longer. One of the most popular goal songs at one time was "Rock & Roll Part 2" by Gary Glitter. The regular "Hey's" in the songs were perfect for that use. After Glitter was arrested for pedophilia, most teams dropped the song. Occasionally a team or two will use it, but it's rare today.
Most teams use a portion of a recorded song as their goal song. Along with "R&RP2" (still used by a couple teams), other popular choices are "Brass Bonanza", "Chelsea Dagger" and "Crowd Chant." Some teams alter the words to songs to fit their team; while others make up their own song. And of course, all song a preceded by the goal horn which is also tailored for each team. The Islanders have used a foghorn-style sound for many years. If you are interested, you can hear each team's current goal horn and song along with the one for the now-defunct Hartford Whalers here.
Along with goal songs, each team's fans have a standard chant that includes the team's name in it. In the US, most if not all start with Let's Go and then the team name. Some use the whole name like Bruins or Islanders or Stars. Some abbreviated the name to one syllable such as Pens for the Penguins or Caps for the Capitals. The Lightning swap in Bolts for Lightning in their chant. North of the border, Canadian hockey fans are heard shouting Go __ Go. All use a one syllable version of their team's name if isn't already. The only exception is the Montréal Canadiens whose fans use an abbreviation of their French nickname Habs in their chant.
Now let's get a little more specific in the world of fan chants.
One such chant that is heard is some buildings is sing-songing the opposing goalies last name. This usually comes out after a goal is scored and especially after a bad goal. In the playoffs, some fans will do it throughout the game in an attempt to get into the goalie's head. Anyone who is a Simpsons fan would recognize this chant from the episode where Mr. Burns adds ringers to the company's baseball team. Lisa and Bart can be heard in the stands chanting "Darr-yl, Darr-yl" at Darryl Strawberry something that was done to him quite regularly while he was a player.
Up in Montréal, the Habs there also spontanaously break out into a chant of "ole, ole, ole." Here's an example:
Other teams' fans will sometimes mock them when playing the Habs by doing it themselves when the Canadiens are losing on the road. We Islanders' fans came up with a pretty inventive version of this chant while Doug Weight was playing for us a few years ago. Anytime he scored a goal, we would chant his name in tune with the ole, ole. ole chant.
In NJ, while the opposing team is on the power play, Devils' fans will respond to someone blowing a horn with the chant of "Kill, Kill . . ." when the opposing team is in the Devils defensive zone. (comes from the term killing a penalty)
Islanders fans have a couple of chants that specifically geared to our most hated rival, the New York Rangers. Both of these chants are aided by the game ops. Both of these chants use familiar songs that have been altered to fit the purpose: mocking the Rangers. One uses "The Chicken Dance". This has not been done for the last couple season and was almost always done during Ranger/Islander games:
Just in case anyone cannot hear it, the claps are accompanied by shouting "The Rangers Suck!"
The other chant is played by the organist. During a stoppage in play at a random interval during the game, the organist will play, "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands." We Islanders fans will say, "If you know the Rangers suck, clap your hands." A full verse of the song is always played and then is followed by the familiar "doot, doot, doot-doot-doot" for Let's Go Is-lan-ders. This particular chant is done at pretty much every game not just for Ranger games.
During the Islanders/Capitals first round series this year, some good-natured chanting went back and forth between the two fanbases. During game one, which was played in Washington, the Islanders announcers made numerous comments about how quiet and library-like the atmosphere was at the Verizon Center. Those comments continued in game 2 with the announcers noting it finally got loud when the Capitals scored a couple of goals but still felt it was not up to snuff for a playoff hockey game.
Following game 2, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin said in an interview the Coliseum could not be louder than the Verizon Center. During game three and four, which took place at the Nassau Coliseum, we Islanders fans spent the night chanting, "Can You Hear Us?" anytime Ovechkin was on the ice. Kyle Okposo, one of the Islandres top players gave a wonderful snarky response to a question about the atmosphere after game 3 by saying he thought the Coliseum was just a "little bit louder." The Capitals fan decided to respond in game 5 with chants of "We Are Louder!" At game 6 back on Long Island, we continued to chant can you hear us, but also added, "We Can't Hear You." to our arsenal.
Some chants are directed at specific players. Let's take a look at some of those. Again I want to warn you some of these are way over the line, but realize you are dealing with drunk people in a pack mentality. That combo does lend itself well to decorum. I am presenting these only as to give you a full and truthful view of what happens at a hockey game.
In Winnipeg, Jets fans like to serenade the opposing teams' top player with boos whenever they have the puck on their stick.
Sydney Crosby is regularly bombarded with shouts of Princess Crosby especially in Philadelphia.
During the NHL playoffs this year, Winnipeg Jets' fans were heard shouting Katy Perry at Corey Perry, one of the Anaheim Ducks' top players.
New York Rangers fans have been performing a chant directed one of the New York Islanders' all-time best players, Denis Potvin for almost 40 years that beyond stale. Stemming from what Rangers fans, but almost no one else does, think was a dirty hit on Rangers forward Ulf Nilsson. The chant is a rhythmic whistle followed by the shout of "Potvin Sucks." It will occur multiple times a game at MSG no matter who the Rangers are playing. Potvin retired from hockey in 1988.
However, not all player specific chants are negative. Teams that have players with ooo sounds in their names will hear chants of that sound like booing after they do something good. For example: Roberto Luongo (Panthers) and Milan Lucic (Bruins) will hear Louuuuu and Mats Zuccarello (Rangers) will hear Zuuu.
I will leave you with one final story from a group of Islanders fan called the Blue and Orange Army. They are a group of young adults and teens who have come up with a number of chants for different Islanders players they'll sing throughout the games. One popular one is for Josh Bailey. Using the DJ Ortiz version of "Hey Hey Baby":
I Said, Heeeeeeeeey Josh Bailey!
OOOOO! AHHHH!
What do you Know!
You Scored A Goal!
You can find more of their songs/chants including videos on their website.
Now you have a little taste of what goes on in some arenas around the NHL in terms of atmosphere. I encourage you to take in a game next season. You will never know what you might hear out the mouths of fans.
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From Steven Payne:
In last night's fine Top Comments diary by BeninSC, navajo cracked me up with clever nod to the It Gets Better campaign.
From JG in MD:
This comment by steeprain is a painful, brilliant diatribe on what the police are doing to the mentally ill and how we react.
From your humble and depressed diarist:
Because this is a diary filled with lots of snark and nastiness, I felt I should pull one comment from Brainwrap's diary on a SC man who hated and still hates the ACA so much, he now cannot get insurance because he cut off his nose to spite his face. The diary is filled with an enormous number of good comments, but I particularly like this one from Satya1 which brings back a meme from the 2010 election cycle.
The Picture Quilt is still out of commission. Instead imagine 30 pictures of people raising the Stanley Cup.