I don't think people understand the rivalry unless you are from the mid-west and have lived it. I don't believe anyone is being rude or derogatory whether a Blose or Hacks fan as we are known by them. It's a very real and spirited rivalry but its not like Philly/Pitt or Montreal/Toronto, at least in my opinion. If you aren't from the mid-west, I will try to give you some real life experiences as an example.
Warsaw, youre from the area so I'm sure you get it. Are you in southern IL closer to SLO? Do you have family up in the Chicago area? If the Blues win the series, it will be huge at the office and family get togethers right? And, if they win and then get bounced and don't win the Cup, you will hear "yeah well at least we beat the Hacks", right?
Anyways, here is a true story so you have some in site. Many moons ago at the first real big famy get together in Chicago where family drove and flew in from all over the US, I was probably 10 years old or so. There had to be 100+ people at my grandmothers house in Bensenville, and once everyone got there, gram pulled all the kids together and introduced them all to each other, this is how it went, no joke; this is cousin Tony from Bensenville, cousin Bobby from Elgin, cousin Anthony and Rosemary from Elmhurst, cousin Robert from Bensenville, cousin Tony from Oak Park, cousins Gene and Rose from Oak Park, cousin Anthony from Elmhurst, cousin Tony from the south side, cousin Gene from South Elgin, cousin Tony from Tampa FL, cousin Bobby from South Bend, cousins Tony and Rosemary from Chicago, cousin Robert from Fort Wayne IN, cousin Anthony from Champaign, cousins Gene and Milly from Chicago, and this is your fourth cousin on Grampas side Leonard from St. Loui Missouri. Now you kids be nice to little Lenny and let him play.
Well, all the IL and IN cousins were immediately on the same page, Leonard was always "it" in keep away, he always had to count and find us in hide & seek, he was always right fielder in baseball, Leonard was "that kid", the outsider you picked on, always last to get food, didnt get any cake until the other cousins had theirs, etc. he didnt care though, he was just happy to be "included", kids being kids, cousins being cousins is all.
But, a year later at another get together we went to the park to play football, some other kids were there that we kind of knew from the neighborhood, so we all played a game together. For some resin these other kids seemed to pick out Lenny from the crowd and started picking on him a bit. One kid really gave him a shot that was uncalled for, almost a clothesline, and what happened? He had about a dozen Anthony's, Genes, and Bobby's on his azz the rest of the game. We punished him every play until he finally just left and limped home.
That's how we "Chicagoans" feel about our little cousins to the south. They get picked on by us, they will always be the "little cousin", but if youre not family and you mess with Leonard, we will pummel you into submission and make you regret it.
You'd have to be Italian or Sicilian and from the mid-west with family spread out across IL, MO, and IN to understand it I guess.
