The Leafs vs. Islanders playoff series last year was particularly nasty, brutish, and emotional. The fans in New York started booing the Canadian anthem after the Leafs’ Darcy Tucker took out Mike Peca with a devastating (but legal, IMHO) hip check. Sadly, Toronto fans reciprocated by booing the US anthem.
I might be misremembering this, but I seem to recall the Canadian anthem being booed in Montreal around the time of the last Quebec referendum. Unfortunately, I can’t find a cite so I apologize if I’m mistaken.
You’re missing the point. Some fans acted boorishly and pretty much everybody in the thread has taken pains to note that you can’t blame Canada for the actions of a few.
You then come bursting through the door and say “but Americans are jerks, too.”
jar, you know I like you bunches, but please trust the people who actually live here on this. It is so unbelievably simplistic to state that Montrealers don’t like Canada. Would you like some stats of Montreal as compared to, say Quebec City? Trois-Rivières?
Whatever. This is silly for me to be getting upset over. One Montrealer who loves being Canadian and who, while respecting the US, does get tired of slights sometimes checking in.
At the same time that Canadian soldiers died “by friendly fire” at the hands of careless American pilots…the Canadian Anthem was booed at NBA and NHL games.
I don’t think a fare share of sports fans have class.
The Toronto fans at both Raptors and Leafs games responded by cheering the American national anthem, after the Canadian anthem was booed 2-3 times in New York and once in Detroit.
I also remember hearing both national anthems sung particularly well that year by Michael Burgess one night, and The Bare Naked Ladies another.
Barbarian, we’ll just have to agree to disagree on the merits of the elegant game of shinny. Although, I must admit, the caliber of Olympic Hockey played last winter has kind of spoiled my taste for the current, watered down NHL version.
I stand corrected. I might have been thinking of the Vancouver fans during the Canucks vs. Red Wings series.
What I just sent my wife, who told me about the above incident:
“Regardless of whether you’re American or Canadian, whether it’s initiation or retaliation, dumbassery like that makes you look friggin’ childish and petty. Nothing else.”
Oh, hell, Detroit fans booed “O Canada” in the first game of the Pistons’ series agains the Raptors. That was BEFORE THE PLAYOFFS HAD EVEN STARTED. (I was at the first game of that series played in Toronto; not a soul booed “The Star-Spangled Banner.”) In 1985, Yankee fans booed “O Canada” during regular season games against the Blue Jays, with whom they were in a pennant race.
Forgive me if I’m not enormously busted up over this. It’s boorish and stupid to boo an anthem, they acted like jerks, c’est la vie. We’ve been listening to American fans in various cities boo our anthem for decades, and when we don’t hear it it’s often because U.S. networks like to cut to a commercial while it’s playing. (Yes, they really do that.)
We were at the Atlanta Thrashers vs. Ottawa Senators hockey game last night. Fans started booing when they announced the Canadian national anthem. (I wasn’t aware of the booing of the Star-Spangled Banner that happened at another game though.)
I don’t usually sing the anthems, but I stood up and sang both anthems extra-loud last night. At least one American there was going to be honoring the anthems of both countries.