Why do people hate on penguins fans?

Because the Penguins had almost no fans just a few years before Crosby, then they all came out of nowhere. Penguins fans tend to be the worst bandwagoners of all fans in the league, usually know the least about hockey and are generally still the most arrogant fans around. Most Penguins fans couldn't name a full line of one of more than maybe 2 or 3 NHL teams besides the Penguins at most, and even still more than that claim to have watched hockey even before Crosby, when in the early 2000s your team was bankrupt and going to move because there were so few fans.

The Bandwagon got huge for Pittsburgh, and the fanboy man crushes around Crosby drives other fans nuts.

Super fans know everything about the current team, former players on other teams, past teams, team history good and bad, etc.

Regular fans know the players and their histories.

Casual fans know a few names on the team. If they know the back up goalie's name, that's a surprise.

Bandwagon / Fair weather fans only show up when the team does well, and they only know the superstars on the team. They know little to nothing about hockey or the team.

Unfortunately, with many teams, this is a large core of their fanbase.

It's become taboo anymore to say you're a Penguins fan. There are fans who will assume you belong to a fan base which will dry up in a few years if the Penguins aren't consistently winning championships. The elitists will talk down to you while clicking back and forth on their Wikipedia tab pretending they're quoting this knowledge by heart. The trolls will likely send a barrage of homosexual slurs your way. Most of them having to do with some feminine play on Sidney Crosby's name.

Many NHL teams have suffered similar "dark days" in their histories only to reemerge. The PIT fans get these comments more than ever despite many NHL teams being relocated. It's conveniently unmentioned.

- Minnesota North Stars: Relocated due to poor attendance during a string of losing seasons.

- Winnipeg Jets: Relocated due to costs. The Jets had a loyal fan base until the team was relocated to Phoenix.

- Quebec Nordiques: Once promising team collapsed in the late 80's and fell to become the worst team in the league. Attendance was poor. The team was relocated in 1995.

- Hartford Whalers: Poor fan attendance frustrated Hartford's owners. Relocated to become the Carolina Hurricanes.

- Atlanta Thrashers: Ownership issues, low attendance, and lack of investors caused the Atlanta Thrashers to be moved to Winnipeg to become the Winnipeg Jets 2.0.

They cite the Draft Lottery as the game changer for the franchise. The fan base jumped by a mere 4,000 in attendance and the Penguins didn't make the playoffs that year and had a terrible losing streak that cost Eddie Olczyk his job. Bandwagon fans come when a team is doing well. They don't come because of one person during a losing season. People bring up the bankruptcy issue all the time. Fan attendance was a league worst at the time. Due to a multitude of financial troubles the Penguins filed for bankruptcy. The Ottawa Senators also filed for bankruptcy - a fact that is often unmentioned. It's just my opinion but I honestly believe many fans wanted to see Pittsburgh and it's superstar Mario Lemieux fall from the NHL.

The Penguins have found themselves the victims of three consecutive early playoff exits but the fans still keep coming. That doesn't sound like a bandwagon to me. The Pittsburgh Penguins just finished their 4th consecutive sellout year. The fans are still growing.

Yes, there are plenty of new fans from Pittsburgh who were not around during the dark days of the team that love hockey and talk about it. Yes, there are fans who only began paying attention to the team once Crosby became a part of the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise. Yes, there are brand new fans in the market who know little or nothing about the team but talk as if they're experts in the sport. Yes, there are fans who have only been introduced to hockey recently. They weren't born knowing everything hockey related like the rest of the world would have us believe they were blessed with. Yes, Penguins fans can display a complete lack of humility and will pat themselves on the back for being great fans of a great team and will expect championships and awards to be handed to them because of the hype surrounding their team.

Well, guess what ... that will happen with team in every sport. Every NHL team from Detroit, to Colorado, to even the newly crowned Stanley Cup Champions in L.A will find itself paired up with bandwagon fans who couldn't have cared a shred less about the team before it started winning. That's just a part of how sports work.

Because 90% of your fans are bandwagon fans.... If your a real penguins fan you would know that Pittsburgh almost lost the team because nobody went to watch them. Then crosby comes along and all of a sudden theres thousands of "real fans" crawling out of the woodwork in pittsburgh. In other words, pittsburgh only stands by their team when they are winning.

Don't know about the U.S. Maybe because you have all those teams within an hour of each other.

I have never personally heard any hockey fan in Canada express hatred toward the Pens. We loved Lemieux and now Crosby. They are both ours.

The penguins fanbase is a joke if they go back to being the embarassment of a team that they were in 03-04 you would claim you were never a fan. Verge of being relocated get crosby and all the "fans" act like theyve been fans for years. Also the most ignorant bunch i have ever come across.

i think its because people see crosby as a whining little *****. but really, i dont hate any fans of any team. you cant help but support the team of where youre from. at least you guys have won some cups. im a sabres fan....but im glad i moved away from buffalo a long time ago. thank goodness for center ice.

You might be, but numbers would indicate that this isn't the case.

FACTS: Attendance tanked when the team tailed off and your owner started playing footsies with Jim Balsillie (to buy the team and move it to Ontario). I can remember going to opening night in 2002-03 (in Pittsburgh); the Leafs beat PIT 6-0 and if there were 10K in attendance they counted people more than once (and at least a third were Leafs fans). This with a team featuring Mario Lemieux in the lineup.

To paraphrase...they won a lottery. Literally and figuratively.

If you want to know why I hate a lot of Pens fans just take a look at Rachael's answer, that's how most Pens fans act.

That's not true