With today marking the end of August and the start of September in the offing, the agonizing wait for the beginning of a new hockey season shrinks smaller and smaller. With there now being more day since the end of the 2014-15 season than are remaining than those until 15-16 begins everything anew, and with that in mind we're starting the ramp up in earnest.
People have many reasons for loving the sport of hockey, and one of the deepest roots is the passions it stokes, and with passion comes strong emotions. We've decided to focus on one emotion in particular this week: HATE.
Studies have been done that show people can bond, make friends, and build attachments through shared negativity as much or even moreso than through shared positivity. It can be as simple as coworkers commiserating over their boss, internet commenters raging against management, or sports fans uniting in their dislike of an individual player or team. What we hate brings us together.
So for Hate Week everyone on staff will share their top five most despised opponents of the Anaheim Ducks. We encourage you to share stories in the comments sections about the hated ones, be they memories of actions on ice that made you rage, experiences with individual fans of the team, whatever helps fuel your fire of disdain. At the end of it all we'll tally up where the staff, and everyone on the site stands to figure out which teams earn the deepest depths of Ducks fan ire.
No one likes us, we don't care. We don't like you either, and this week we're going to let you know why.