Top Ten Most Hated Teams - #8 New Jersey Devils

The Devils once again won the Atlantic Division for the 2009- 2010 season, you wouldn't know it though by watching their games. They ranked 21st in attendance last season in Percentage, and 20th in overall attendance. Great fan base. It's not enough that they have a good team, but they have a very new arena as well. How a good team, with a new arena can draw in the bottom half of the league in attendance I'll never understand, good allocation of tax money though New Jersey.

I guess I can see why no one goes though. Has there ever been a more boring spectacle than the Devils worthless, boring trapping style of play? Nothing like watching a team quiver, waiting to score only when another team makes a mistake. It's very easy to make a mistake against the Devils though, their style is akin to water-boarding to hockey fans, and I'm fairly certain watching a whole New Jersey Devils game was recently denounced by the United Nations Convention on Torture.

Boring hockey also brings us to the sister-banger. Martin Brodeur has made a living off this trap style of hockey. He is widely regarded as one of, if not the best goalie ever. He also helped write his own auto-biography (although I think you should write it your damn self) in which he praises himself, as a hero, talks about how great of a guy he is, and that the Devils will owe him for eternity.

In fact Brodeur loves to whine about the so called "Brodeur Rule", aka the trapezoid, but it was his whining, and his lack of cool that led to the NHL making up a rule in the middle of the playoffs known as the "Sean Avery Rule". Having the league come to his bumbling, cry baby, defense wasn't enough though. Once the Devils were again bounced from the playoffs prematurely, he refused to shake Avery's hand. Showing just what a sport he is.

Now that I think about it though maybe the fact that the Devils play in Newark has something to do with their lack of fans. Let's face it the average hockey fan is overwhelmingly white males. The average hockey player in almost all cases is a white male. The average ticket price for a New Jersey Devils game? $48.05.

Now let's compare that with where the New Jersey Devils play. As of the 2000 Census 53.46% of Newark's population was African American, 29.47% were Hispanic or Latino of some sort, with only 26.52% being White. So the Devils core Demographic is the third highest percentage of their population, that is begging for failure. Add in the fact that the median household income (2003) was $26,913, with 28.4% of the population below the poverty line. With an unemployment rate of 12% it's hard to imagine Newark being able to sustain a team, especially if the team falters. Whoever decided to put a hockey team in Newark is out of their mind.

The NHL recently had to void a contract the Devils signed with Forward Illya Kovalchuk because they can't even be trusted to do business in a fair manner.

Jim Schoenfeld proved that he was a scumbag in 1988 when he pushed an official to the ground and berated him while he was down, calling him "a fat pig" and telling him to "have another doughnut". He was supposed to be suspended for the next game, but of course the Devils filed an appeal he was allowed to coach. This caused a massive delay as the officials refused to work the game while this bully went unpunished. The game was played and Schoenfeld was suspended again soon after.

"Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!"

One Nice Thing About the Devils: I think this would be better served with a video