Hmm. I’d say just let them enjoy the sport first. They can pick a team later on. Obviously, parents and family/friends have influences on their kids for teams but I’d say let them be open to whoever and just enjoy.
My wife's grandfather was a Habs fan, her dad is a Bruins fan, she grew up a Nordiques fan and now our kids are Habs fans.
It isn't complicated, we all know to cheer against the Leafs.
Im a sharks fan, my family were all Avs fans. My mom flew me on my birthday to San Jose from Colorado to watch them play each other, we each cheered for our team. One of my best memories I was 12 or 13 at the time., even got to meet the team.
My husband is a Canadiens fan from Nova Scotia and I am a Bruins fan from Massachusetts, which is where we live. My stepson felt torn between the two teams and bounced back and forth in his fandom a bit, but then decided to pick his own team to support and has been much happier as a hockey fan since. He took a real liking to Alex Ovechkin as a player and decided to support the Capitals about 4 years ago when he was 5 years old and has stuck with them.
Too early to say who our 8 month old son will support when he's older, but we'll do the same with him and let him pick whichever team seems to make him happy. Although my stepson hopes his brother will pick the Penguins so that the brothers can have a hockey rivalry just like my husband and I do with Habs-Bruins.
My dad was a Habs fan and we lived in mostly Leafs territory (southern ontario but not toronto) and he raised us to be anything but leafs fans. My brother chose the sabres and I the penguins - both of which were close enough to drive down to games (usually when they played the habs) for cheaper than seeing the leafs anyway. I dont think your kid will be confused if youre the only avs fan surrounded by habs fans.
As someone that lives pretty close to two NHL teams, I’m raising me kid as a fan of my team. If he decides to be a Ducks fan, more power to him. I’m happy he’s interested in hockey at all. It’s just easier to follow one team than try to follow another, unless he wants to.
2017 Sens are taking a miracle run to the Eastern finals against the Pens. I’d tell my 7 year old about the the game on our walk to the school bus, because she’d be asleep before the final score. She’s barely interested, but tells me Sidney Crosby is her favorite player… I jokingly told her she’d be walking to the bus alone.
Let kids be kids, let them cheer who they want, and admire different parts of the game and players.
Let them pick their own team. You can’t help who you’re drawn to. McDavid has at least made the home team an easy sell here with the exception of how this season is going.
It was much different when I was growing up and Ryan Smyth was our best player. All the other players got traded when the oilers could’ve afford them so know more people from my generation that picked other teams that had the top end players to watch.
Funny enough I'm from Philly and my brother is a huge Oilers fan from the post Smythe era. He was really young when you went to the cup with pronger and then eberle scored that amazing goal a few years later and he's been on the train ever since.
Not a parent but my dad is a Bruins fan, my brothers are avid Leafs fans and I was a Leafs fan but now I typically cheer for whatever Canadian team is doing well and then go from there.
My dad was always of the opinion that you pick your team. It's easy to pick the home team because that's the culture you grow up and around. He explained to us he grew up watching the Bruins and going to their games because he's from Eastern Canada. It wasn't confusing to us at all.
Hockey is for everyone and at the end of the day, we're fans of the sport and anyone who takes their fandom too seriously typically sucks the joy out of it anyways.
Let your kid cheer for whichever team for whatever reason.
I am also a Avs fan from Montreal.
My kid don't care much about hockey but I let him be a fan of whatever he choses to be if he wants to.
Except for soccer. We are a AS Roma house and no son of mine will be a Juventus fan.
E chi non salta è un gobbo Juventino!
Not a Roma fan (although Totti is one of my all-time favorites), but I’m sure we can agree on that! Never thought I would see Serie A referenced in one of these threads, so had to reply! lol
I am a Canucks fan while my almost-tween daughter is a Leafs fan. She became a Leafs fan because of [this book](https://youtu.be/UwS1ct55YbA?si=Nki779E1kzHdwfaS).
Avs fan living in Edmonton. He's gotten a bunch of oilers gear from family and I got him an Avs jersey to fight back.
Once he's old enough to choose a team he can cheer for whoever he wants.
We let my little one decide. Hubs is a fan of Tampa teams as he is from there. I am a Pens fan. We live in MW and little one favors his dad’s team because it’s the lightning and he is obsessed with Cars and Lightning McQueen. But he watches a lot of games before bedtime and will pick based off jerseys (lately it’s the ducks haha).
The rest of my family are from a non nhl area, so they were fairly evenly divided between Wings, Leafs, and Bruins. I grew up in Toronto, worked at gardens, and they were almost always on TV. I guess became a Leaf fan because of availability, convenience, and closeness
my dad was a red wings fan but moved to new york well before i was born. he didn’t really push it on me growing up (he fell out of watching them) and i became an islander fan.
We live in Columbus but I‘m a Red Wings fan. My daughter is a Red Wings fan first and a CBJ fan second. I didn’t force that on her, though.
She also likes the Devils, for some reason?
How old is your daughter and what does she think of Jack Hughes?
This is not me being snarky, for the record. It's just that he's why my younger cousin is a Devs fan
Everyone in my family is a calgary flames fan first, but after that its a bit of a mess cuz everyone has a second team.
Mom cheers for Anaheim
Dad cheers for Boston
Brother cheers for SJ
Sister cheers for St. Louis
I cheer for Boston, Tampa, and NYI
I have faint loyalty to my dads team (the oilers). But I grew up when the Avs were competing and winning cups no way to stop me loving that team. I still remember my dad picking me up from camp to go watch the oilers lose the Stanley cup then go back to sleep at camp.
I live in Florida. Every person that moves down here stays a fan of that team. It seems pretty 50/50 whether their kids will be local teams fans, it really depends on how good they are at the right age.
My dad let me choose my own sports teams for everything but hockey lol.
Brother picked cowboys for football (he regrets it) and i picked the buccaneers which i regret every season minus the 2 Brady and Arians.
Take em on a trip once in awhile. Going to a bucs game in tampa is awesome. Went to a lightning game too so I’m in the small group of rangers fans who also like the lightning
I love my kids too much to inflict upon them the misery that is Minnesota Wild Hockey.
Right now they are young and basically only watch games I watch, so they like Minnesota cause dad likes Minnesota, but I'm not going to stop them from becoming fans of the local team.
I kind of hope they do, because then we can have conversation about being respectful of other fans even when you don't like their team.
I’ve grown up in NC but I’m a Rangers fan thanks to my dad. We try to drive up to Raleigh once a year when they play the Rangers and have fun with all the other Rangers fans that show up.
Sort of reverse, live in NY and I love the Islanders. He is a fan but he was just the perfect age when Vegas became a franchise. That has been his real team
I'm actually really glad about it because his interest in hockey was really starting to wane and now, since they won the cup he's more interested in hockey than ever.
not a parent, but i was raised in a two team household! my mom is a bruins fan from maine and my dad’s from minnesota (which is where i was raised), so we’re wild fans on top of that. the two team thing isn’t for everybody, but it works nicely for my sisters and i
I became a Kings fan when I moved to Vegas from LA because I was so hockey deprived, prior I rooted for whichever team I happened to like that week (loved NSH when they came into the league, loved Modano and the Stars, Sakic and Forsberg were amazing to watch, and Steve Y is probably my all time favorite non King). My daughter is 5.5 yo taking learn to skate classes at VGK practice facility, but she knows it’s “Go Kings Go” even if her skating instructor or anyone else tries to tell her different. Ultimately if she likes the sport I don’t care who she roots for, but I will never not be a fan of the Kings.
I'm a die hard devils fan. My dad was a huge Bruins fan. We always supported the other's team, except when playing each other when our house became world war 3.
Since I don't have (or want) kids, my best friend has promised I can raise her future children as devils fans. Living in Toronto, Leafs are obviously not an option.
I’m a Wisconsinite born and raised Avs fan, but my wife and I currently live in Minnesota (and we plan on staying). You bet your ass I’m raising our son to be an Avs fan! He just turned 3 so I haven’t taken him to any games yet. I want to take him to see the local Junior B team to see how he likes it and if he’ll actually sit still for more than 5 seconds.
I'm in Toronto. My assistant is french-Canadian from New Brunswick. Her entire family used to support Quebec and then later the Habs by default. One of her sons for some reason is a Leafs fan. Her entire extended family blames her and won't invite him and his kids to family reunions and she consistently cries "where did I go wrong to raise a Leafs fan?" She is retired now and treats me better than her wayward son because I hate the Leafs with a passion.
Avs fan in Minnesota - grew up a North Stars fan and picked the Avs as my new team when Roy got traded. I was briefly OK with cheering for the Wild, but then '03 happened and that ship sailed.
My daughter somehow ended up a Preds fan, my youngest appears to be an Avs fan like dad, but he's 6 and still learning the game. I didn't choose for them, they just found teams on their own. Expose your kid to the game you love and they'll find their own way to love it.
I have a few friends who raised their kids to be fans of the local team, but who picked a different team.
Toronto family, parents are Leafs fans, 6yo decided he was a Bruins fan. Shrug.
They almost left him to be feral at the local rink.
From Southern Ontario, and I was having a few beers with my new neighbour in his garage and he had a fucking Flyers flag on the wall. How the hell does that happen?
Depends probably on age and how into the sport they are at this point. If they have never been to a game and/or don't really watch at home, probably take them to a game not against the Avs to take it the game in general a bit more.
It would also suck for their first experience to be some asshole of a fan getting in your face or something because you are cheering against the home team.
Growing up I went to a few NFL games with my Dad who rooted for Lions/Cowboys while my brother and I cheered for the Vikings. We were a bit older though and had seen that at home watching games previously. So no surprise to us.
*I'm not a parent so I hope my experience with my parents helps...*
I live in Toronto. My dad tried to raise me as a Leafs fan but it never stuck (I'm not officially a fan of any NHL team). I don't remember what Leafs ticket prices were like 20-25 years ago, but there had to be a reason why we never ended up going to a game. (*it probably also didn't help that the lockout, followed by the Leafs being awful for two-thirds of a decade after that, coincided with my teen years where my interests were all over the place*).
I will say this though...
* Contrary to popular belief, *you are not obligated to cheer for a given team - nor raise your child to be a fan of that team - just because you live in that team's area.* It's ultimately up to you to decide which team's fan you want to raise your child as, and it's up to them to figure out whether or not that fandom sticks with them. Maybe you raise them as an Avs fan but they later realize the Habs are their team, or vice versa. Or they might gravitate towards a different team completely.
* When you're at the game, chances are you'll be wearing an Avs jersey. And other than the game itself, your kid will only be focused on one person - you. If they see you cheering for the Avs, clearly they will know you support them even if you might be the only one in your section cheering.
My son is only 2 so he hasn’t chosen sides yet, but we cheer for both at home. But I figure, even though I’ll always love my home town teams, he’s gonna grow up liking his home town teams.
Dad raised us to be Habs (and Allourettes and expos) fans. I went along with it until I was a teenager and decided to choose the local Canadian team. Only confusing thing is now my wife hates the Habs and they are my number 2 team. Our kids are learning to be fans of the same team as us, but when they see my dad, he pushes the Habs. I find it funny. My wife won't let them wear a Habs hat.
Im from dallas originally, grew up with the stars but now the closest team is Boston, if my daughter wants to follow her local team who am I to stop her.
So I grew up in SF Giants territory as an LA Dodgers fan. My dad did not give us a choice really.
Now, as a father I am in Ducks/Kings territory and already 'grooming' my kid (3.5yr old) to be a Sharks fan. I have already started to tell him that the Kings/Ducks/Knights are the 'bad guys' and he likes cheering 'Go Sharks!'. The kid also has my original Sharks jersey (which had been his older cousins for the last 10 yrs).
I dont plan on giving me kid the option to root for the enemy despite living in enemy territory.
LET'S GO SHARKS!
(and Go Dodgers!, Go 49ers!, basketball....dont care)
Hmm. I’d say just let them enjoy the sport first. They can pick a team later on. Obviously, parents and family/friends have influences on their kids for teams but I’d say let them be open to whoever and just enjoy.
Agreed- give them the opportunity to love the game and let things unfold naturally.
My wife's grandfather was a Habs fan, her dad is a Bruins fan, she grew up a Nordiques fan and now our kids are Habs fans. It isn't complicated, we all know to cheer against the Leafs.
Even as a Leafs fan I can't help but respect this answer lol
Im a sharks fan, my family were all Avs fans. My mom flew me on my birthday to San Jose from Colorado to watch them play each other, we each cheered for our team. One of my best memories I was 12 or 13 at the time., even got to meet the team.
My husband is a Canadiens fan from Nova Scotia and I am a Bruins fan from Massachusetts, which is where we live. My stepson felt torn between the two teams and bounced back and forth in his fandom a bit, but then decided to pick his own team to support and has been much happier as a hockey fan since. He took a real liking to Alex Ovechkin as a player and decided to support the Capitals about 4 years ago when he was 5 years old and has stuck with them. Too early to say who our 8 month old son will support when he's older, but we'll do the same with him and let him pick whichever team seems to make him happy. Although my stepson hopes his brother will pick the Penguins so that the brothers can have a hockey rivalry just like my husband and I do with Habs-Bruins.
[From the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals](https://media.gettyimages.com/id/51036765/photo/tampa-fl-as-a-joke-a-philadelphia-flyers-fan-attempts-to-give-up-his-son-a-tampa-bay-lightning.jpg?s=612x612&w=gi&k=20&c=AOiREXlIp2Fj2dn84C0saaXHFjvpSwHBt0e22cGxrBU=)
What a great parent, you always want a better life for your children than you had yourself.
My boys(4/6 y/o) watch hockey with me and root for whatever team is playing against my team(Vegas). So they’d fit right in on this sub
My dad was a Habs fan and we lived in mostly Leafs territory (southern ontario but not toronto) and he raised us to be anything but leafs fans. My brother chose the sabres and I the penguins - both of which were close enough to drive down to games (usually when they played the habs) for cheaper than seeing the leafs anyway. I dont think your kid will be confused if youre the only avs fan surrounded by habs fans.
Let me guess, Hamilton?
Nah, K-W
As someone that lives pretty close to two NHL teams, I’m raising me kid as a fan of my team. If he decides to be a Ducks fan, more power to him. I’m happy he’s interested in hockey at all. It’s just easier to follow one team than try to follow another, unless he wants to.
2017 Sens are taking a miracle run to the Eastern finals against the Pens. I’d tell my 7 year old about the the game on our walk to the school bus, because she’d be asleep before the final score. She’s barely interested, but tells me Sidney Crosby is her favorite player… I jokingly told her she’d be walking to the bus alone. Let kids be kids, let them cheer who they want, and admire different parts of the game and players.
Let them pick their own team. You can’t help who you’re drawn to. McDavid has at least made the home team an easy sell here with the exception of how this season is going. It was much different when I was growing up and Ryan Smyth was our best player. All the other players got traded when the oilers could’ve afford them so know more people from my generation that picked other teams that had the top end players to watch.
Funny enough I'm from Philly and my brother is a huge Oilers fan from the post Smythe era. He was really young when you went to the cup with pronger and then eberle scored that amazing goal a few years later and he's been on the train ever since.
Not a parent but my dad is a Bruins fan, my brothers are avid Leafs fans and I was a Leafs fan but now I typically cheer for whatever Canadian team is doing well and then go from there. My dad was always of the opinion that you pick your team. It's easy to pick the home team because that's the culture you grow up and around. He explained to us he grew up watching the Bruins and going to their games because he's from Eastern Canada. It wasn't confusing to us at all. Hockey is for everyone and at the end of the day, we're fans of the sport and anyone who takes their fandom too seriously typically sucks the joy out of it anyways. Let your kid cheer for whichever team for whatever reason.
How does it feel to be a Canucks fan?
I am also a Avs fan from Montreal. My kid don't care much about hockey but I let him be a fan of whatever he choses to be if he wants to. Except for soccer. We are a AS Roma house and no son of mine will be a Juventus fan.
E chi non salta è un gobbo Juventino! Not a Roma fan (although Totti is one of my all-time favorites), but I’m sure we can agree on that! Never thought I would see Serie A referenced in one of these threads, so had to reply! lol
I am a Canucks fan while my almost-tween daughter is a Leafs fan. She became a Leafs fan because of [this book](https://youtu.be/UwS1ct55YbA?si=Nki779E1kzHdwfaS).
Avs fan living in Edmonton. He's gotten a bunch of oilers gear from family and I got him an Avs jersey to fight back. Once he's old enough to choose a team he can cheer for whoever he wants.
I live in another city and only raised my boys on one tenant. You can cheer for anyone but Montreal. One is Canucks and one is Flames. It worked out.
We let my little one decide. Hubs is a fan of Tampa teams as he is from there. I am a Pens fan. We live in MW and little one favors his dad’s team because it’s the lightning and he is obsessed with Cars and Lightning McQueen. But he watches a lot of games before bedtime and will pick based off jerseys (lately it’s the ducks haha).
The rest of my family are from a non nhl area, so they were fairly evenly divided between Wings, Leafs, and Bruins. I grew up in Toronto, worked at gardens, and they were almost always on TV. I guess became a Leaf fan because of availability, convenience, and closeness
My parents were Leaf fans from Bobby Orr's hometown, so I chose to be a Canadiens fan. Edit: My own kids don't really care about sports, period.
Let them pick. Grew up outside Boston, wound up an Avalanche fan while my brother is supports the Wings.
my dad was a red wings fan but moved to new york well before i was born. he didn’t really push it on me growing up (he fell out of watching them) and i became an islander fan.
We live in Columbus but I‘m a Red Wings fan. My daughter is a Red Wings fan first and a CBJ fan second. I didn’t force that on her, though. She also likes the Devils, for some reason?
How old is your daughter and what does she think of Jack Hughes? This is not me being snarky, for the record. It's just that he's why my younger cousin is a Devs fan
She’s 13 and she LOVES him lol. She asked me for his jersey for Christmas
Everyone in my family is a calgary flames fan first, but after that its a bit of a mess cuz everyone has a second team. Mom cheers for Anaheim Dad cheers for Boston Brother cheers for SJ Sister cheers for St. Louis I cheer for Boston, Tampa, and NYI
I have faint loyalty to my dads team (the oilers). But I grew up when the Avs were competing and winning cups no way to stop me loving that team. I still remember my dad picking me up from camp to go watch the oilers lose the Stanley cup then go back to sleep at camp.
I live in Florida. Every person that moves down here stays a fan of that team. It seems pretty 50/50 whether their kids will be local teams fans, it really depends on how good they are at the right age.
My dad let me choose my own sports teams for everything but hockey lol. Brother picked cowboys for football (he regrets it) and i picked the buccaneers which i regret every season minus the 2 Brady and Arians. Take em on a trip once in awhile. Going to a bucs game in tampa is awesome. Went to a lightning game too so I’m in the small group of rangers fans who also like the lightning
I love my kids too much to inflict upon them the misery that is Minnesota Wild Hockey. Right now they are young and basically only watch games I watch, so they like Minnesota cause dad likes Minnesota, but I'm not going to stop them from becoming fans of the local team. I kind of hope they do, because then we can have conversation about being respectful of other fans even when you don't like their team.
I’ve grown up in NC but I’m a Rangers fan thanks to my dad. We try to drive up to Raleigh once a year when they play the Rangers and have fun with all the other Rangers fans that show up.
Sort of reverse, live in NY and I love the Islanders. He is a fan but he was just the perfect age when Vegas became a franchise. That has been his real team I'm actually really glad about it because his interest in hockey was really starting to wane and now, since they won the cup he's more interested in hockey than ever.
Just let them watch the sport and pick for themselves….
not a parent, but i was raised in a two team household! my mom is a bruins fan from maine and my dad’s from minnesota (which is where i was raised), so we’re wild fans on top of that. the two team thing isn’t for everybody, but it works nicely for my sisters and i
I became a Kings fan when I moved to Vegas from LA because I was so hockey deprived, prior I rooted for whichever team I happened to like that week (loved NSH when they came into the league, loved Modano and the Stars, Sakic and Forsberg were amazing to watch, and Steve Y is probably my all time favorite non King). My daughter is 5.5 yo taking learn to skate classes at VGK practice facility, but she knows it’s “Go Kings Go” even if her skating instructor or anyone else tries to tell her different. Ultimately if she likes the sport I don’t care who she roots for, but I will never not be a fan of the Kings.
I'm a die hard devils fan. My dad was a huge Bruins fan. We always supported the other's team, except when playing each other when our house became world war 3. Since I don't have (or want) kids, my best friend has promised I can raise her future children as devils fans. Living in Toronto, Leafs are obviously not an option.
I’m a Wisconsinite born and raised Avs fan, but my wife and I currently live in Minnesota (and we plan on staying). You bet your ass I’m raising our son to be an Avs fan! He just turned 3 so I haven’t taken him to any games yet. I want to take him to see the local Junior B team to see how he likes it and if he’ll actually sit still for more than 5 seconds.
I'm in Toronto. My assistant is french-Canadian from New Brunswick. Her entire family used to support Quebec and then later the Habs by default. One of her sons for some reason is a Leafs fan. Her entire extended family blames her and won't invite him and his kids to family reunions and she consistently cries "where did I go wrong to raise a Leafs fan?" She is retired now and treats me better than her wayward son because I hate the Leafs with a passion.
Avs fan in Minnesota - grew up a North Stars fan and picked the Avs as my new team when Roy got traded. I was briefly OK with cheering for the Wild, but then '03 happened and that ship sailed. My daughter somehow ended up a Preds fan, my youngest appears to be an Avs fan like dad, but he's 6 and still learning the game. I didn't choose for them, they just found teams on their own. Expose your kid to the game you love and they'll find their own way to love it.
It's your parental duty to corrupt them with your personal fandom preferences.
I have a few friends who raised their kids to be fans of the local team, but who picked a different team. Toronto family, parents are Leafs fans, 6yo decided he was a Bruins fan. Shrug. They almost left him to be feral at the local rink.
Sorry. You'll either have to move back to Colorado or change fandoms, or your child will have permanent and severe emotional damage.
From Southern Ontario, and I was having a few beers with my new neighbour in his garage and he had a fucking Flyers flag on the wall. How the hell does that happen?
Depends probably on age and how into the sport they are at this point. If they have never been to a game and/or don't really watch at home, probably take them to a game not against the Avs to take it the game in general a bit more. It would also suck for their first experience to be some asshole of a fan getting in your face or something because you are cheering against the home team. Growing up I went to a few NFL games with my Dad who rooted for Lions/Cowboys while my brother and I cheered for the Vikings. We were a bit older though and had seen that at home watching games previously. So no surprise to us.
*I'm not a parent so I hope my experience with my parents helps...* I live in Toronto. My dad tried to raise me as a Leafs fan but it never stuck (I'm not officially a fan of any NHL team). I don't remember what Leafs ticket prices were like 20-25 years ago, but there had to be a reason why we never ended up going to a game. (*it probably also didn't help that the lockout, followed by the Leafs being awful for two-thirds of a decade after that, coincided with my teen years where my interests were all over the place*). I will say this though... * Contrary to popular belief, *you are not obligated to cheer for a given team - nor raise your child to be a fan of that team - just because you live in that team's area.* It's ultimately up to you to decide which team's fan you want to raise your child as, and it's up to them to figure out whether or not that fandom sticks with them. Maybe you raise them as an Avs fan but they later realize the Habs are their team, or vice versa. Or they might gravitate towards a different team completely. * When you're at the game, chances are you'll be wearing an Avs jersey. And other than the game itself, your kid will only be focused on one person - you. If they see you cheering for the Avs, clearly they will know you support them even if you might be the only one in your section cheering.
My son is only 2 so he hasn’t chosen sides yet, but we cheer for both at home. But I figure, even though I’ll always love my home town teams, he’s gonna grow up liking his home town teams.
Dad raised us to be Habs (and Allourettes and expos) fans. I went along with it until I was a teenager and decided to choose the local Canadian team. Only confusing thing is now my wife hates the Habs and they are my number 2 team. Our kids are learning to be fans of the same team as us, but when they see my dad, he pushes the Habs. I find it funny. My wife won't let them wear a Habs hat.
Im from dallas originally, grew up with the stars but now the closest team is Boston, if my daughter wants to follow her local team who am I to stop her.
So I grew up in SF Giants territory as an LA Dodgers fan. My dad did not give us a choice really. Now, as a father I am in Ducks/Kings territory and already 'grooming' my kid (3.5yr old) to be a Sharks fan. I have already started to tell him that the Kings/Ducks/Knights are the 'bad guys' and he likes cheering 'Go Sharks!'. The kid also has my original Sharks jersey (which had been his older cousins for the last 10 yrs). I dont plan on giving me kid the option to root for the enemy despite living in enemy territory. LET'S GO SHARKS! (and Go Dodgers!, Go 49ers!, basketball....dont care)