Okay, I'm a snob. That's fine.

I love minor league hockey. There, I said it.

I think it’s a completely different kind of fun than going to an NHL game and I absolutely love it. I think that there’s just a lot of genuine excitement. People are happy to be there. Most of these minor league teams aren’t posting sellouts every night so it’s not like being at the game is some cool and trendy thing to do. It’s not as common to find the “suits” that are only there to impress some potential customer. And even if you do find some suits there, they’re mixed into the crowd because minor league hockey games are not exclusive like some NHL lower bowl seats are.

At the same time, this lack of exclusivity brings with it many of my pet peeves. I’m a hockey snob. I will readily admit that right now. I like watching good, quality games with good, quality people that I can discuss it with. I will not date a guy that knows less about hockey than me. (My new standard is that I will not date a guy that likes a team that I loathe unless he can articulate a fair argument to defend them. I’ve learned my lesson, Blackhawks guy!) All of my non-hockey friends know that it would benefit them to know some background about the game at hand before attending with me and this works out just fine.

Then there are the other people at the rink…

Tonight I discovered what my biggest pet peeve about minor league hockey is. My biggest pet peeve is when people in the crowd start chanting “DEFENSE!” when their team is on the penalty kill. This isn’t basketball. I can’t even explain how upset this makes me. The argument of a person who is pro-yelling this is logical – the team is shorthanded; they should concentrate on defense. But there are two guys out there who are defense men and there’s another guy out there whose entire job ALL GAME is to defend the goal. I just feel like it’s completely unnecessary to remind the team to play DEFENSE. Would you ever yell “OFFENSE!” while someone was coming down on a breakaway? No. Because that would be ridiculous.

Am I crazy here? Am I just that much of a snob that I can’t understand this? Obviously, it’s a small thing and I would much rather be sitting in a crowd of people yelling at inappropriate things at inappropriate times than not yelling at all. But by the third period tonight, I was resisting the urge to stab the creepy guy wearing a trench coat who was seated to my right that was insisting on DEFENSE! in the neutral zone and even sometimes in the offensive zone.

Also, just to point out, the team had let in 7 goals. Your defense chants weren't helping at all. Rubbing salt in the wound, my drunk trench coat wearing friend.