Ranking the NHL's 8 Most Frustrated Fanbases Right Now

The Vegas Golden Knights have two appearances in the title round, not to mention a Stanley Cup parade, after just six seasons in the NHL.

So it's safe to say their fans are pleased. But it's not that way everywhere.

In fact, whether because of years of irrelevance or years of near-misses or years of something in between, it's also safe to say some fanbases are, to put it kindly, a bit frustrated.

And to put it unkindly...far worse.

The B/R hockey team digested early-season goings on across the league and gauged the collective current irritation from cities across the map, considering recent history and this year's expectations to compile a list of the league's most exasperated groups of supporters.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.

We're not sure who was expecting what on Long Island this season.

Coach Lane Lambert's team was a first-round playoff loser to Carolina last spring after missing the tournament with Barry Trotz the year before, so only the most optimistic of the Islander faithful were anticipating a run at a long-awaited fifth Stanley Cup.

And let's face it, a 14-8-8 run through 30 games isn't going to dampen their frenzy.

But it could have been even better. As many as 11 points better.

Which, in practical early-season terms, would mean first place instead of third.

New York has blown third-period leads on the way to three regulation losses and five more in extra time, including a particularly heinous meltdown from a 4-1 advantage to a 5-4 OT defeat against lowly San Jose on December 5.

"To lose that hockey game," Lambert said, "is a sin."

Five years seems like a long time ago, doesn't it?

The spring of 2019 became a magical time for hockey fans in St. Louis after the Blues made a midseason coaching change, plucked a magical goalie from the AHL and went from last overall to the promised land on the way to the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

To say things have gone off the rails since then would be, well...accurate.

The Blues went 8-14 and won a single series in three subsequent playoff appearances before missing the tournament entirely last season, and the malaise has carried into 2023-24 to the point where that fortuitous pre-Cup coaching hire, Craig Berube, was himself fired amid a four-game losing streak that dropped the team's record to 13-14-1.

But it didn't end there.

Franchise stalwart Jordan Kyrou was booed on home ice Thursday night after being asked about Berube's departure earlier in the day and saying "I've got no comment. He's not my coach anymore" while calling the arrival of interim coach Drew Bannister a "fresh start" and a chance to "get our culture back a little bit."

Yikes.

If they're unhappy, Seattle hockey fans can blame the Golden Knights.

The immediate expansion predecessor to the Kraken, Vegas reached the Cup final in its first season, was a Western Conference playoff fixture for the subsequent three and had to plan the league's inaugural championship parade through the desert in the spring of 2023.

It's not been that easy in the Pacific Northwest.

The Kraken's hodgepodge of draft picks and rejects foundered its way to just 27 wins and 60 points in the inaugural season of 2021-22, but spiked expectations with a strong follow-up that resulted in 46 wins, 100 points and a playoff elimination of defending champ Colorado.

So, given a 10-14-8 start and a fifth-place standing in the Pacific that's not quite ready for the postseason prime time after 32 games, the frustration in Seattle is no secret.

The offense's 2.69 goals per game are 28th in a 32-team league and the defense hasn't exactly been stingy with a per-game goals-against rate of 3.16 that's only 15th best.

"It's no mystery," coach Dave Hakstol said last month. "This is a hard league to be at your best in, night-in and night-out. And you have to be there a little bit more often."

It's hard to argue that the Calgary Flames aren't broken.

In fact, the task seems to be identifying exactly when it happened.

Fans of the NHL's other Alberta-based franchise will suggest it was the spring of 2022, when the Pacific Division champions lost a playoff eliminator in overtime and abruptly kick-started an offseason that saw them lose Johnny Gaudreau and trade Matthew Tkachuk.

It seemed GM Brad Treliving made the best of a bad situation by getting center Jonathan Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar for the departing Tkachuk and instantly agreeing to long-term deals that'd establish the newcomers as faces of franchises.

Suffice to say...not so much.

Oh, Huberdeau and Weegar are still there, but the sublimely skilled forward has been far closer to ordinary since his arrival, plummeting from 110 to 55 points in his first full season in town and managing just 15 points and a minus-14 rating through 31 games this year.

Not surprisingly, Calgary was equally pedestrian at 12-14-5 in the same stretch.

Treliving bolted for Toronto and coach Darryl Sutter was bounced for Ryan Huska last spring, but given the number of imminent free agents who may also leave, the Flames remain in desperate need of a culture shock, a rebuild, an exorcism or more.

There's not much sympathy available for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

After all, the team has won three titles in the 21st century, isn't too far removed from repeat Cup hoists in 206 and 2017, and had a prodigious run of 16 straight playoff appearances that was finally put to an end only last season.

And when the franchise brass engineered the offseason's biggest deal to bail prolific defenseman Erik Karlsson out of his competitive purgatory in San Jose, it seemed a return to both the tournament and deep run relevance in it was imminent.

So far, though, not so much.

Though the roster still includes the Art Ross/Hart/Conn Smythe duo of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the Penguins entered Friday's games with a mediocre 14-13-3 record that was only good enough for seventh of eight teams in a loaded Metropolitan Division.

Playing a significant role in the pedestrian record is a power play that's producing at just a 12.9 percent clip, good for 27th in a 32-team league after a stunning stretch of 37 straight opportunities—covering 13 games—without a man-advantage goal.

Goalies Tristan Jarry, Alex Nedeljkovic and Magnus Hellberg have performed well enough to post a 2.76 goals-against average that's ninth in the league, but the offense hasn't held up its end of the bargain with a per-game output of 2.83 goals that's only 25th-best.

A 7-0 loss at Toronto on Saturday, not surprisingly, made exactly no one happy and resulted in always dreaded player-on-player vitriol in postgame comments.

"We need to see why certain things are happening," Karlsson said.

"Some things are out of our control, but there are definitely things that we can do a lot better. When you're not feeling your best, sometimes you still got to find a way to contribute. And you can't just be satisfied, putting your skates out there."

New Jersey fans in 2023-24 may seem like spoiled kids at Christmas.

Just a year ago this time, the Devils were coming off an overall finish that had them far closer to the No. 1 pick than the Stanley Cup. But after a torrid start stretched into a successful regular season, the team arrived to this year's schedule looking like a legitimate threat.

Instead, they've looked like something less than world-beaters while struggling out of the gate and finding themselves sixth in a competitive eight-team Metropolitan Division with less than a week to go before Santa's annual visit.

Injuries to the likes of Jack Hughes and Dougie Hamilton haven't helped Lindy Ruff and Co. so far, and having two goaltenders with save percentages below .900 and goals-against averages above 3.00 through 29 games won't make things easier.

Akira Schmid allowed four goals on 27 shots in a 5-1 loss to the lowly Anaheim Ducks on Sunday, which didn't make a notoriously ornery Ruff any happier.

"You have to be comfortable when it's an uncomfortable situation," he said.

"That's all part of the game. It doesn't go your way every night. Sometimes you don't get the bounces, sometimes the puck doesn't come to you."

We agree. This one's sort of self explanatory.

Any hockey fan worth a vintage sweater is aware of the plight of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who reside in one of the NHL's hockey-maddest cities and haven't won a title since before anyone on their current roster, and many of their parents, were born.

We'll spare you the calculation. It was 1967. Exactly 57 years ago this spring.

And not only haven't the Leafs won, they've not been appreciably close.

Zero finals appearances. Five final four appearances. Exactly one playoff series win since the advent of the salary cap era in 2005-06. And they've lost those series in every conceivable fashion...blowouts and heartbreakers, to favorites and to underdogs.

Could this be the year? Sure.

Toronto is 16-6-6 through 28 games, good for second in the Atlantic Division and sixth overall in the league. They've got players at or near the lead in every offensive category and their goals-against average, while not stellar, is an equally not abysmal 17th.

But until they're actually skating around Scotiabank Arena with Stanley Cup in hand, few in southern Ontario will believe it can happen.

And even then they might not be sure.

The top two teams on the list could be reversed or they could stay as is.

Few would argue that aside from the Maple Leafs, no one's got more reason for angst—and we're talking full-on night sweats and trembling angst—than Edmonton Oilers fans.

Oh, you know the Oilers.

They won a bunch of Cups with guys named Gretzky and Messier through the 1980s and 1990, then skipped the line and won the lottery for another all-timer named McDavid in 2015.

He and 2014 draft steal Leon Draisaitl have combined for six scoring titles and four MVPs in nine seasons together and are often labeled as the top two players in the entire world.

But you know what else they've combined for? Zero Stanley Cups.

And like the Leafs, they've not gotten close. Nos. 97 and 29 have won exactly three playoff series together and the one time they did reach the Western Conference Final, they were dispatched in four straight by the eventual champion Colorado Avalanche.

Another loss to another eventual champ from Vegas followed last spring, and the Oilers had problems regaining their mojo, stumbling from the gate with a 5-12 start that cost coach Jay Woodcroft his job and saw $25 million goalie Jack Campbell dispatched to the AHL.

A recent eight-game win streak eased nerves a bit, but they've allowed 12 goals in consecutive blowouts since and find themselves five points out of a would-be Western playoff spot entering Monday's slate of games.

And, pssst...Draisaitl's a free agent after 2025 and McDavid after 2026, so you see why it'd be prudent to keep die-hard Edmonton backers from completely freaking out.