This has been gnawing at me a bit lately but I just want to know if I'm alone in feeling like this. I'm getting annoyed at the way NHL fans seem to think the AHL is terribly inferior. Annoyed that they don't take the time to maybe follow the AHL team in general let alone now that their star prospects are playing down in teh AHL. I'm not saying go to games or order them on AHLlive but seriously, have a clue.
I like that Comcast is airing some Phantoms games but it is beyond frustrating that fans of an NHL team don't take any time to ever follow the AHL team. They're either narrow minded-as in Phantoms fans only worried about Gus, Schenn, Couts, Rinaldo, etc. or they think the AHL hockey automatically sucks (which honestly, is more entertaining and has more passion and heart half the time.) I'm not saying people need to spend all there time getting caught up on who's who but at least have knowledge of who your minor league team has and the guys on the team.
Case in point, Flyers fans have an affinity for Eric Wellwood bc he's soooooooooo fast. I like Welly but the guy's invisible half the time. In fact, he's such a great guy to have on the Flyers, he got H Bombed 4 straight games earlier this season. (This is even before a proven AHLer in Akeson was even called up.) He's an average player. Better yet, Flyer fight fans think Rinaldo's great bc of last season, but if they'd follow the Phantoms in any capacity this year they'd realize the kid may not be what they thought he was afterall. If anything I question
Zac Rinaldo more because of how he's gone about this season.
As a Phantoms fan I honestly care more and am more interested in the guys who don't have the glamor because their top prospects but still legit prospects nonetheless. Guys like Tye MicGinn, Cullen Eddy, Ollie Lauridsen, or Brandon Manning. And of course guys liek Fitzy and Dimmen on AHL deals. It's following these guys that makes it more special to see them reach the NHL on a recall or earn that NHL entry level deal after a season or two on an AHL only deal. To be able, as an NHL fan to say, yeah, I know this player and what he's gonna bring.
It's just annoying when an NHL fan all the sudden starts talking like they know their NHL team so well and then during the lockout gives 2 rips about the AHL team but yet when a recall happens in the NHL season they have no idea who the recalled player is half the time.