Quacked Up

It finally hit me.
I had the epiphany.
The thing that really, really bothers me about the Ducks.
It's the fans.
Not all of them, mind you. I know plenty of people who are fans of the team who are with them through thick and thin. Through the bad times and the good.
But when we're this deep into the playoffs, and they're winning that everyone in Orange County starts wearing orange and black, and proclaiming their love for the area's hockey team.
(And I really don't care about the non-goal that Detroit had go against it in Game 3. Those are the breaks. They tend to even out throughout the season. This just happened in a playoff game in front of the national media.)
The bandwagon is rolling along, and getting crowded. Full of people who didn't watch a single game this season, who are once again crowing about their Ducks.
Sure, every team in every sport has its share of frontrunners. But it seems to be a bigger problem in hockey than in other sports. So much so, the Yahoo Sports Puck Daddy blog dedicated a whole segment to weeding out the newbies from the long-time fans.
OK, so I'm just a bitter Kings fan who's stuck watching his cross-town rival make a run at their *shudder* second Stanley Cup (and mark my word, whoever wins this series will win the West and play for the Cup). And I take plenty of ribbing from my fellow hockey fans, who love to point out that any hockey still being played in Southern California is better than none. It's a valid point, but A) I don't have to like it; and B) It won't help a darn thing.
Face it. If you were a Dodgers fan in 2002, you had a heckuva time enjoying the World Series, seeing the Angels supplant you as the better-run team in SoCal, play against your hated rival, the San Francisco Giants. What would happen to Lakers fans if the Clippers went to the finals (besides hell freezing over and pigs flying, I mean)? I feel the same way about the Ducks. It's not fun.
And more Ducks games will mean more publicity for the sport in the local papers? Sure, they'll have coverage. But I can guarantee that there are people in management cursing about it, because it's taking space away from other local sports and it's going to eat up their budgets the longer they play.
Things aren't the same as they were two years ago, when papers were able to sell a special section full of ads to allow for more coverage (and got the Cup to make an appearance at my office). And when there's not enough reporters left to actually write any of the stories ...
So, real Ducks fans (and you know who you are), enjoy the ride. And I hope that real soon I'll be complaining about the bandwagon fans that are making it hard for me to enjoy a Kings game.