Having guests in your home arena is a little different than having guests in your house. In both cases, you want them to come in, have some food and drinks, and when it’s time to leave, you hope they get home safely.
The difference is, when they’re at your arena, you want them to leave thoroughly and deeply disappointed.
If you felt an especially warm and fuzzy glow while watching the stream of black and yellow flow down the steps and out of Amalie Arena during and after the Lightning’s 7-1 win over Pittsburgh last Saturday, what you were experiencing is known as “Schadenfreude”…
Schadenfreude (noun) ˈSHädənˌfroidə
pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.
If you think this means you’re not as good a person as you might have thought you were, well, you’re kind of right. That’s okay though; it means you’re a good fan, and in this context, that’s far more important. It’s all right that those people left unsatisfied. And it’s all right to sit and bask in the glow that comes from it, with a slightly smug smile on your face. To the victor goes the spoils and this is one of the spoil-iest spoils there are. After all, you’re not actually hurting anyone and it could end differently next time. Ultimately it all balances out.
It makes me wonder, whose fans are you happiest to see exiting Amalie Arena en mass, frowning and fussing? This is (slightly) different than asking what is the Lightning’s most intense rivalry, which results in an inherently antagonistic relationship between fan bases.
No, this is about those visiting fans who are unjustifiably obnoxious and annoying regardless of what’s happening on the ice and in the standings. Probably without much effort, you can name at least one team’s fans who you’d love to see have their holiday travel to the Gulf Coast completely ruined, not by bad weather or a lousy hotel or under-cooked seafood, but by nothing other than a whoopin’ at the hands of our hometown heroes, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Because let’s face it, those people are just… ugh.
Let us know who that is by voting in the poll and if you feel like expounding on why, feel free to leave a comment (be mean, but be polite)! I’ve listed all the teams in the Atlantic Division, a handful of usual suspects from the Metropolitan and the Chicago Blackhawks, which may or may not indicate how I’m going to vote.
This is 100% subjective so there are no wrong answers.
Whose fans are you most happy to see trudge miserably out of Amalie Arena after a Lightning win over their team?
| Boston Bruins | 43 |
| Buffalo Sabres | 0 |
| Detroit Red Wings | 19 |
| Florida Panthers | 1 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 21 |
| Ottawa Senators | 0 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 9 |
| New York Rangers | 8 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 14 |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 41 |
| Some other team from the Metropolitan Division | 2 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 30 |
| Some other team from the Western Conference | 1 |
