How To Survive The Tank
By Brad Krysko
7 years agoFor anyone under the age of 35, this is unprecedented territory as a Wings fan. They’re not a good hockey team and extending the streak is likely impossible.
We’ve never been here before as fans, what do we do?
How do we approach this?
We’re all educated enough to know that high draft picks help turn an organization around, more often than not a top 10 pick will improve your team even if it’s only slightly. Thus we can all assume if the playoffs don’t happen, it’s best to go as low as possible. Like a fun game of limbo!
However we’re in fandom limbo. The bad kind of limbo. Here there’s no party hats or fancy drinks, only losses and misery.
It feels wrong to cheer against your own team despite knowing it’s what’s best at this point. A lot of Wings fans don’t know what to do so I’ll answer that question for you:
You cheer for them.
You yell loudly and proudly for every goal, marvel at every ridiculous save. There is no point in watching the games at all unless it’s going to make you happy in some capacity.
You throw your jersey on and hope the Wings beat the ever living hell out of whomever they’re playing.
I know this sounds contrary to what is best for the Wings, and it is, but there is no pride in tanking and the fans should not have to be a part of it. The Wings will take care of that themselves. You cheer, but they’re still bad and they’ll still lose all on their own. However, the upside of this is that it makes losing so much easier to stomach. It is okay to tell yourself “damn, they lost but least it helps the pick!”
There are many boat anchors on the Wings, so many bad contracts for players who likely should not be in the lineup but there are some players that are still great and some who are going to be great. Players we want to come back when they’re contracts are up for renewal. We need them to see the fan base is behind them no matter what.
Enjoy the few wins the Wings will muster throughout the rest of the season. Enjoy the hell out of them.
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