WHAT RIVALRY? 

"Tweet, tweet, twa tweet tweet, Rangers suck!" - Dumbest fans in the NHL

First thing you should know is that I'm a New York Rangers fan from New Jersey. Why am I NOT a Devils fan? Because I started to follow the NHL prior to 1982 when that franchise was still in Colorado. Had I come into it later, things may be different...but they're not.

As with my previous Chive/Chivesters entry, it's not the Devils I have a problem with but their rabid, insecure and assinine fan base.

The word "insecure" here is the key to their assinine behavior and hatred toward the Rangers. But I'll explain this a little later. So why the hatred? It can't be the historical record since they have a favorable success rate when compared to the Blueshirts. The Rangers fans don't see them as anything more than divisional rivals since our historic and nastiest on-ice combativeness is with the Islanders. So what's the deal with that chant?

First, a word on that chant and then onto the "insecure" bit. That chant is far from original. It's lifted from a chant that resonates from the blue seats of Madison Square Garden in any game, regardless of opponent. After the "shave and a haircut" whislting, the reply is then "Potvin sucks!" A highly reviled goalie from the NY Islanders who retired in 2004. He didn't suck as a goalie, but moreso as a human being. It's been over a decade and, admittedly, it's time to move on. The Blue Seaters are savvier than that, but the chant persists.

The Devils arena, the Rock, will likewise resonate with their derisive version of this chant regardless of opponent. But it also rings out regardless of the respective standings of the team. I heard this chant firsthand attending a game featuring the Devils and the Kings at the Prudential Center (which is a gorgeous facility) due to obtaining free tickets and desiring to see Johnathan Quick play in goal live. At this point the Rangers were in sole position of first place in the Eastern Conference with two games in hand on every other team. The Devils were only still in playoff contention from a numerical, God needs to intervene personally, perspective. Yet the chant persisted and became more vehement as the fans dressed in red realized that they were going to lose again.

This made me wonder that if the Rangers did indeed suck, where did that leave their beloved Devils on the scale of suckiness? That thought was mirrored on the way out of the arena by an older Devils fan who looked at me and stated, "We don't have the brightest fans."

But the chant aside, why do Devils fans care so much about the inherent suckiness of anything and everything the Rangers do? It befuddles me that they would lower their sights enough to care as their hockey team has been much more successful since the Devils came into existence. Yes, the Devils had some growing pains and initially deserved to be called a "Mickey Mouse organization" by Wayne Gretzky, but they built a dynasty that saw 3 Stanley Cups, 5 Eastern Conference championships and 6 Divisional championships in an 18 year span. That's pretty fucking impressive and makes the Rangers' 4 Stanley Cups, 6 Eastern Conference championships and 7 Divisional championships over a EIGHTY-EIGHT YEAR span seem ineffectual at best. So their fan base giving a rat's ass about what the Rangers are doing seems unbalanced and deserving of psychological examination.

That's where "insecurity" comes into play. Some of their fans became hockey fans when the Devils won their first Stanley Cup...bandwagon fans who stuck around through their successes. We have yet to see if they bail through lean years as the Devils tend to have very few of those. But a good chunk latched onto a new professional sports franchise based in New Jersey and named after one of the few folk legends entirely belonging to the Garden State. What wasn't to like? Well, there was one thing: a popular hockey team that already had an active fan base in a good portion of northern New Jersey, where the Devils play their home games. I firmly believe that had their home arena been more near Camden than Newark, that chant would finish with "Flyers suck!" Rangers fans would joyfully join in with that truism.

So the fact that Devils fans hate the Rangers is, in my observations, based more on the fact that they had to try to forge some sort of team pride in an environment dominated by an Original Six team's fan base...the classic little brother syndrome. I'm sure there were some Rangers' fans that didn't help by playing the big brother role (being a douchebag to little brother) too well, but I find more Devils fans being asshats to Rangers fans than the other way around. We're too busy paying attention to a recently resurgent Islander team and licking our chops over a potential play-off tilt featuring two teams that once saw ejections from a pregame skate brawl. Now THAT'S a nasty rivalry.

Yes, we're having the better season, but Crazy Uncle Lou has a pocketful of draft picks. The Devils will be back. In the meantime, honor your team by rooting for them and honoring their success rather than rooting against another team and inaccurately portraying said team's current level suckiness. That's directed to ALL sports fans. Trust me, if the Rangers go back to sucking, we, the Rangers fans, will let them know about it.