re: Choosing an NHL team to follow (STL Blues, it is - questions on pg. 7)

This comes up a lot, and my biggest advice is this: be honest with yourself. If you like high-flying offense and gorgeous goals, you're not gonna last long as a Wild fan, who play suffocating defense and play team-first hockey. If you want to contend for the Cup, you're not gonna want to root for the Oilers, who have been redefining incompetence for the past decade (but are so loaded with young talent it's like they are trying not to win). If late collapses bother you, then there are few franchises in sports that know how to break their fans' hearts like the Blues.

All of your front-runners have definite positives for rooting for, but be aware of the negatives as well. Know what you're getting into. And since someone asked just before the playoffs last year, giving the criteria of 1) Good but not too good, 2) decent history, 3) Potential and/or star power, 4) Colors/city, I gave this answer, which still applies:

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Here's who you can't root for as a new fan: Penguins, Bruins, Kings, Blackhawks, Red Wings. If you root for any of those teams as a new fan, you are a soulless frontrunner who deserves to be mocked until you cry. Those are your most recent Cup winners. That's like showing up to the NFL and deciding to be a Patriots fan. Have some dignity.

I'm assuming you're in the South, and you could root for a southern team. That gives you the options of the Bolts, Panthers, Predators, Caps, Hurricanes, Stars, and Blues. If you want a southern team with history, you're pretty much stuck with the Caps or the Blues, who have both been around for 40 years. The problem is, their history is one of unending pain and suffering. These are hard franchises full of fans who have been through hell.

The Blues have the longest Cup drought in the NHL (never won, have existed since 1967). The Caps have the worst record in Game 7 of any team in professional sports. Both are playoff regulars (Blues went to 25 straight playoffs at one point, the Caps just had the 3rd longest streak in the NHL snapped this year). So, always good, never great, southern, and few bandwagoners overall (both also have cool logos and are in fun cities).

That said, since the Blues are in the playoffs, that's the team to go for. They are also a young team and have the NHL's best personality (Shattenkirk) and Olympic hero (Oshie).

If Southern-ness isn't that important and you still want "history", you probably want the Flyers, honestly. And that hurts to type. Won some Cups in the 70s, have the whole Broad Street Bullies thing, great logo, awesome city that people are afraid of, and you're immediately hated by everyone else in the NHL, which means awesome rivalries. You also get to root for Scottie Hartnell and Wayne Simmonds. Not a favorite, but still good enough to tempt you.

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I'd also throw the Islanders into that mix. Generational talent in Tavares, hopefully getting better, great history but terrible recently, probably on the upswing, classic logo, finally getting good so the bandwagon is just starting to take applications.