Flyers Fans Have Been Woo-ing, and Players Are Angry

Jakub Voráček. Photo by James Guillory, USA Today Sports

On Tuesday night, the Flyers beat the Bruins in a nine-round shootout after the teams tied at 2. But that was not the biggest story of the game. The biggest story was: Woo!

A little backstory: One of the greatest wrestlers of all time is Ric Flair. He’s never been as mainstream-famous as Hulk Hogan or The Rock, but among wrestling fans he’s treated like a minor deity. I could go on for several paragraphs about Ric Flair’s skill as a wrestler or his talent on the mic, but what’s important for you to know is that Ric Flair yells “Woo!”

Flair was such a popular wrestler that his “Woo!” lives on in pretty much every wrestling show. Before one begins, fans will woo across the arena. Whenever a wrestler throws a chop, every fan in attendance will woo. When things are boring, fans will woo. And quite often it gets pretty annoying, but being annoyed by the dorks around you is a tradition in pro wrestling fandom I have been on both sides of.

The chants are not new to hockey; they’ve hit a few fanbases over the years. Sportsnet.ca says the chants started in Philly when Flyers rookie Travis Konecky let out a woo after an early scrum on November 27th.

All good fun, right? No! One group isn’t happy about it: The Flyers themselves.

Flyers beat writer Tim Panaccio asked the team about the chants the day after the shootout win over the Bruins, and the Flyers were pretty unanimous in their hatred of it:

• “Let’s hope it’s a short-lived fad.” — coach Dave Hakstol
• “Even rookie Travis Konecny says the incessant Ric Flair chants from fans at the Wells Fargo Center have become distracting.” — Panaccio
• “It’s childish and annoying and it’s really starting to piss me off. The first period they are fucking wooing. What are you? Fucking 10 years old?” — winger Jakub Voráček

Voráček took heat on Twitter from fans, and replied to some of them:

Oh my you really are something else… https://t.co/ZbjM4oWOwk

— Jakub Voracek (@jachobe) November 30, 2016

Never said and never would have want that.only dumbass like can come to this conclusion!!!ake a chill pill https://t.co/HepFEcR9Vm

— Jakub Voracek (@jachobe) December 1, 2016

Yes, Voráček called a fan who complained about his hatred of the woo chants a “dumbass.” Although some say the chants should continue — some people just because they want to piss the beat writers off, because for some reason sports fans generally hate the people paid to cover their favorite team — it’s hard to say the chants should continue when the players hate them.

Alas. Flyers fans will just have to be content with yelling “SHOOT IT!” every three seconds.