Towel Power
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Towel Power is a term used by the Vancouver Canucks of National Hockey League (NHL) to describe the waving of towels by their fans.
[edit] History
The Vancouver Canucks tradition of "Towel Power" has its origins during the 1982 Stanley Cup Playoffs in a game against the Chicago Black Hawks when Vancouver coach Roger Neilson, fed up with the performance of the officials in the game, placed a white towel on the end of a hockey stick and held it up in mock of Surrender (white flag). The Canucks players sitting on the bench followed suit, placing towels on the ends of their sticks until the bench resembled a laundry line. Although the Canucks lost that game 4–1, Neilson's actions inadvertently began quite a trend as, when the teams returned to Vancouver for the next game, many fans brought white towels to the game and began waving them above their heads. Referred to as Towel Power, this sparked the Canucks to win the next three games and the series, taking them to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history, which they eventually lost to the New York Islanders.
Several other hockey teams have implemented towel waving. Red and blue towels are waved by fans of the Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs respectively and fans of the Anaheim Ducks wave bright orange "Fowl Towels" in the playoffs. Towels have often been implemented by other teams at various times for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Similar traditions exist in other sports as well.
[edit] External links
- Complete description of the "Towel Power" night from vancouverhistory.ca
- Towelpower.net - Canucks opinion and blog site named after the 1982 phenomenon
[edit] References
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