Right from the onset of the season, many Flames fans probably (wrongly) believed that their team was indeed better than it actually was. You cant blame them for that ... all fan bases are rather optimistic to begin any given season. Before the season started, most analysts and "experts" had pegged the Canucks finishing 1st in the West and being a cup contender, while the same "experts" picked the Flames to miss the post season cut again. This undoubtedly served as fuel for the rivalry and the already existing animosity for our team before the first game was played. Over the course of the season, they slowly watched the gap in the standings between our Canucks and their Flames keep growing and growing. Soon, probably before the midway point of the regular season, the jealousy had set in.
Like many, many teams over the years (Leafs, Hurricanes, Devils, and Flames this season) their team, the Flames, put together a really solid stretch run toward one of the final playoff spots and almost made it in. This created the illusion that they were a better team than they actually are. The most fickle Flames fans saw this and believed it. They began to think they could beat anyone. Now, I am no psychologist but I am pretty sure that this only increased the amount of jealous, hateful feelings toward the Canucks because the general consensus at CP was "they aren't that good."
Fast forward to the playoffs and our matchup with Chicago. The lapse that went from a 3-0 series lead to a Game 7 overtime only proved out the theory that we were beatable. Throw a couple bad games from Luongo in with a couple invisible twins for a few games and we were seemingly very, very mortal.
Advance to the finals and it was truly out of control by then. It wasn't just CP, but I really felt like half of the country wanted us to lose.
As for the Flames fan base in general ... I don't consider the idiots at Cal Puke to be a good representation of what they (the majority of the fans) stand for. That would be unfairly judging the fanbase as a whole. In my mind, it would be like basing our entire fan base on what happened downtown after the loss. Its just not right.
I have many friends who are Flames fans and a couple that seem like they would fit in over there at CP just nicely but most are level headed. Same goes for the Oiler fans I am surrounded in daily. Ugh...
I don't expect them to like our team, but the BS that gets spewed over there is out of control. Why can't I just stay away?
