As a transplanted fan, it's become a necessity for me to journey to opposing team's buildings in order to see my favorite team play. It's an odd feeling the first time, but after 3 years I've become rather used to it and I've begun to notice some interesting traits in opposing fans. In the past week I've had the fortune of attending NHL games in both the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. as well as the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina to see my beloved Buffalo Sabres take the ice. The differences between the two arenas and fan bases are rather interesting from my perspective.

Now, it's only fair to mention that I live right outside of Raleigh and have been to multiple games since moving here, so I've seen a whole lot more of the Hurricanes "faithful" as compared to those in D.C. The Verizon Center was an interesting place, located right downtown, so you're essentially forced to take the Metro in to the game, and there is a stop conveniently located right below the arena. The arena itself was fairly nice, but I'm one of those people that believe sports venues should be for sports and not try to be anything more than that. This building obviously was not geared for people like me. With full bars, restaurants, and some attempt at art on the walls, it was definitely more focused on aesthetics than what I'm used to. I suppose some of those modern amenities might be required to attract people to games in a city with so much to do.

As for the game itself, as usual, a great number of Buffalo fans made themselves present and were vocal as is always the case. Capitals fans represented themselves nicely as well however, getting loud and staying loud at key times throughout a back and forth game. The game was an exciting one, eventually heading to overtime tied at 4 each. The Sabres would end up pulling out the win in the extra period as Jason Pominville scored the game winner. It made for a Happy Birthday for myself and was a good start to a fun weekend in the nation's capital. Despite the thousands of Sabres fans in attendance and the fact that the Capitals had lost, there was almost no negative interaction between the fans that I noticed. If only this could be the case everywhere. After all, it is just a game, and regardless of your fanhood, there is no need to get ugly with others based on the result of a sporting event.

Now Carolina Hurricanes games on the other hand, that's a very different story. Again, my opinion is surely a bit slanted since I've witnessed this for 6 games over the course of 3 years, but so called "Caniacs" have proven themselves to me as aggravating to say the least. Now of course, this doesn't apply to the entire fan base, there are plenty of very good, cordial fans, and some that could be even called die hards. This seems to be the exception more than the rule to me however. The story of this so called rivalry goes back to a time shortly before I moved to the area. The 2006 Stanley Cup playoffs saw the Sabres face the Canes in the Eastern Conference Finals, a season which most Sabres fans finally thought was their year to win the Cup. Due to that fact, an extra large contingency of Buffalo fans made the trip down to Raleigh for one of the games in that series. Hurricanes fans will tell you that the Sabres fans were some of the most obnoxious, trouble causing folks on the face of the planet, while Buffalo fans of course say they were just being their usual passionate selves, something Carolina fans were not accustomed to. Again, I wasn't there, so I can't fairly assess what happened, but I'm sure it's a bit of both.

At any rate, Sabres fans had gained a reputation as the "worst" in the league in the area and have been hated ever since. I think beyond the alleged incidents during the playoffs in '06, it's more about the fact that every single time the Sabres play in Raleigh, there are several thousand Sabres fans in attendance, and we are in fact, a very vocal group. Folks in Buffalo have little to do beyond follow their sports teams with a feverish passion, which is clear when you look at the general lack of success both the Sabres and Bills have had, but their continued ability to sell out games on a regular basis. This area happens to be home to a great many Western New York transplants such as myself, and collectively, we rarely pass up an opportunity to see our favorite teams in person. Simply put, Hurricanes fans don't know what to do when 5 or 6 thousand Buffalo fans show up on their home turf and tend to make more noise than they do. This results in an obvious vitriol towards the Sabres faithful at every turn.

The larger problem is that the "Caniacs" in general are still rather clueless when it comes to hockey. Again, I'll reiterate that I'm not talking about every single fan, but certainly the majority of them. Granted, a certain amount of "homerism" is quite expected at any sporting event, but I've never seen anything close to the level of what goes on at the RBC Center on a regular basis. Despite their team being in this state for 11 seasons now, Hurricanes fans still don't seem to have a grasp for the rulebook. Any call against their team is obviously incorrect and somehow every hit made by the opposition deserves a penalty. Sure, I disagree with the officials from time to time, but I also have they ability to understand the game and realize when my team did something illegal, or when the other team made a nice clean hit on somebody. At the game I attended last night, I heard such gems as "stop using your hands, this isn't volleyball" when anybody that has watched the sport in the least would realize that short of closing your hand over a loose puck or purposefully passing the puck to a teammate via your hand is rather legal.

Just over midway through the game, the penalties were Buffalo - 0, Carolina - 1, and at the time the Sabres were up 4-0. The Hurricanes basically stopped skating and started taking bad penalties, yet in the fan's eyes, this was obviously a conspiracy. Even calls that don't require any real judgement (too many men on the ice, delay of game for firing the puck over the glass in their own end) drew chants of "Ref you suck!". This is annoying enough on it's own, but it doesn't even come close to ending there. I've never seen a fan base spend so much time concerning itself with the opposing fans rather than cheering on their own team. I always hear far more "Go Home Buffalo" chants in response to the Sabres' fans yelling "Let's Go Buffalo" and plenty of people yelling negative remarks about the Sabres rather than simply focusing on their own team and trying to encourage them. Now it's been a long time since I've been to a home game in Buffalo, but I don't recall the fans there acting this way, and that was only reinforced while in D.C. Caps fans cheered on their team, they didn't bother focusing on the opponents. Another shining example of the brilliance of the Hurricanes' fans came when down 1-0, they started heckling the Buffalo goaltender with "Miller... Miller... Miller... YOU SUCK!) chants. Generally these are reserved for times when a goalie has given up several goals and your team is easily in the lead. Did I mention that the Sabres were up 5-0 and chased Carolina's staring goaltender Cam Ward from the net in the middle of the 2nd period?

Furthermore, "Caniacs" in general are extremely fair weather, bandwagon fans... and at times they can't even get that right. Going into last night, Carolina had one 12 straight home games, and 9 straight overall. It was also fan appreciation night and their final home game of the regular season. The puck dropped at 7pm and there were still tickets available as of 5pm. Attendance was listed at 18,513, 98.8% of capacity, but I can assure you there were far more empty seats than that. This was the hottest team in the league over the past month, storming into the playoffs, and they can't even fill their arena for their last home game. This boggles my mind completely. Don't forget that a good 4 or 5 thousand of those people last night were Sabres fans too. Still it beats two years ago when craigslist was flooded with tickets at the end of the season for dirt cheap because the team was going to miss out on the playoffs, just a year after winning the Stanley Cup. And before you dismiss my opinion as biased, check out this page, which documents the changes in attendance from the first half of this season to the 2nd. Clearly the Hurricanes attendance boosted significantly late in the season when they went on a run. Now of course, winning breeds fans, that's obvious. However, look at traditionally hockey cities and there is little to no change, because they are close or at capacity all year long.

I realize this article has turned into a Canes bashing fest, but I feel the point needs to be made. I eternally hear how bad Sabres fans are (I swear they thing we eat babies) and how much trouble we cause. Even friends of my wife will say to me upon meeting me that they're surprised at what a nice, normal person I am considering I'm a Sabres fan, and how they refuse to attend games against Buffalo because they fear for their safety. Yet, I've been verbally assaulted (a certain amount of trash talk is expected of course), had things thrown at me, etc. when I've attended games at the RBC Center, and generally speaking have seen a lot more Hurricanes fans starting trouble than Sabres fans.

Now, getting back to the main point of this article, attending a game at an opposing team's venue can be a very interesting experience and lets you gain a unique perspective. This completely depends on the situation, location, etc. however. I journeyed to Jacksonville last year to see the Buffalo Bills play the Jaguars and had a good time, tailgating amongst fellow Bills fans and getting to see Buffalo win. Jaguars fans are a very sad sight however, as I easily obtained tickets below face value and several sections of the stadium were completely tarped off, so as to avoid blackout rules. Keep in mind this was a team expected to be bound for the playoffs at the start of the season and this was Week 2. At any rate, those of you from a rabid fan base, don't take for granted what you have, many teams can't muster half as good of a following regardless of their success. If you get the chance to hit the road and see your team on enemy turf, go for it, but make sure you observe everything around you. It will likely make you that much more happy to be part of a serious group of fans that are truly devoted to their team.