We all know how it works: when a team is successful, everyone has hats and shirts and selfies at the stadium. But string together several sub-par seasons, as the Vancouver Canucks have done, and the crowds dwindle, the hats stay on the rack, and Twitter becomes a den of depression.
Surviving those lean years to be there when the tides turn — watching your team become a winner again — is the sweet nectar of true fandom. You have to pay the price now for the real euphoria later. And with another lacklustre finish to the 2016-17 season, the Canucks are surely setting us up for the euphoria of the 2021-22 Stanley Cup run.