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Shark Fans Boo 'O Canada' Before Game
San Jose Sharks fans loudly booed the Canadian national anthem Sunday night before Game 5 of their team's second-round playoff series with the Edmonton Oilers.
The vociferous booing started from the opening notes of singer Annmarie Martin's rendition of "O Canada." While other fans attempted to drown it out by singing along, the boos were audible until the final notes.
Pregame anthem booing was a hot-button issue in sports shortly after the beginning of the war in Iraq, with fans in Chicago's Wrigley Field, Montreal's Bell Centre and other arenas booing their neighbors' anthem from 2002-04.
There was no apparent political motive for the booing in San Jose — just a questionable expression of the fans' dislike of the Oilers, who won the last two games in Edmonton to tie the series at two games apiece.
The Shark Tank fans didn't boo "O Canada" before the first two games, and fans in Edmonton didn't boo "The Star-Spangled Banner" last week.
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Shameful.
Hopefully the team will come out with some sort of statement about it.
If not, I will withdraw my support!
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All part of the game. Didn't we boo-ed at the American national song at one stage?
Lise wrote:
All part of the game. Didn't we boo-ed at the American national song at one stage?
Yeah that was Montreal thou, they don't count Habs fans and Quebeckers will boo anything. (//vny!://discoverseattle.net/forums/richedit/smileys/Happy/4.gif)
Apparently a couple drunks said that they booed because they heard booes on tv when the game was in edmonton. Just checked a TSN message board and it turns out they were booing Thorton when they should his picture on the jumbotron.
And on Yahoo the word "San Jose elitist" is being thrown around.
the american anthem gets booed all the time. the canucks fans did it on a few occasions, and dont forget the world jr hockey that was here last christmas. this is the first time i have heard the canadian anthem get booed.