Old School NHL Fan

From Greg Grant of the Online Folk Festival via email.

Old School NHL fans pull for teams in this order in
any playoff series:

1) Your team
2) The team playing the team you most enjoy hating
(ie, Red Wings fans may pull for whomever is playing
Colorado, and Maple Leafs fans may pull for whomever
is playing Montreal before invoking the remaining
rooting precedence structure).
3) The Canadian team
4) The Original 6 team not from Canada. In the event
two Original 6 teams are playing each other, you
should root for the team that is not the Rangers.
They won their Cup a few years ago, and if it takes
another 40 years to win it again, that's just fine for
the true Old School NHL fan.
5) The first set of expansion teams (Buffalo, Pgh,
Philly, etc.)
6) The team north of the Mason-Dixon line and east of
the Mississippi
7) The team west of the Mississippi and north of the
Mason-Dixon line

Corollaries to the above: since an Old School NHL fan
holds grudges, has a long memory, and has a sense of
history, you may not in any event pull for:

1) Any team that has moved out of Canada (Phoenix,
Colorado)
2) Any team that has moved out of Minnesota (a.k.a.,
the Canada of America) [Dallas]
3) Any team that has been in the league for less than
5 years

Therefore, it is clear that if you are an Old School
NHL fan, you will be pulling for the Calgary Flames in
the finals over Tampa Bay, since they carry the banner
for Canada (see Rule 3) and Tampa Bay is below the
Mason-Dixon line (and may only be supported if it is,
indeed, your team. Of course, since no Old School NHL
fan would have the Tampa Bay Lightning as their team,
this point is truly moot). The Root Canadian Rule
would also take precedence over the Flyers.

In the event that two teams below the Mason-Dixon line
would end up in the finals then it doesn't matter whom
you root for, since Old School NHL fans would be
thoroughly disgusted and will simply be watching in
hopes of catching some really fierce checks, since the
presence of both teams in the NHL is truly an
abomination and they cannot really root for either team.

BTW my daughter has invoked rule #2 to cheer for Tampa, having been born in Edmonton she just can't cheer for the Flames.

- Peace