In the movie, Chevy Chase’s “Clark Griswold” wears the now classic ‘Griswold 00′ Blackhawks jersey in the scenes where he starts to lose his grip on reality thanks to some of the most rude, vulgar, and annoying relatives you ever want to meet.  At the United Center, the ‘Griswold’ jersey — which is kind of pricey at $191.50 — has come to symbolize older generation hockey. (You know, the guys who were there long before you were and who still call jerseys, sweaters?)  And that’s ok.  Those guys have watched a lot of bad hockey for a lot of years, have paid their dues, and now deserve to flaunt it a little in the newbie hockey fans’ faces.

It’s also kind of like those guys who wear the Charlestown Chiefs jerseys. If you know what Slap Shot is, then you’re “in the know.”  If you don’t know what “putting on the foil” means, well then, you may not be an avid hockey fan (or for some, a hockey fan at all).

Again, that’s ok.  The jerseys, the foil, the taped glasses, it’s all in good fun.  Except when it’s not. Last month, Jay Zawaski of AM 670’s The Score offered Hawks fans some “hockey etiquette” and scolded,

Listen, you are far from the first person to realize that Clark Griswold wore a Hawks jersey in Christmas Vacation.  It’s been done.  Please don’t do it.

Boy, there’s always one party pooper in the bunch isn’t there?  What’s wrong with the Griswold jersey?  What’s wrong with having a little fun?  Isn’t that kind of the point of hockey?  It’s one of the only sports left where you can be rowdy, as a player and a fan.

So, forget all the peripheral babble from yuppies who would actually dare to assign manners and etiquette to hockey, and party on Hawks fans.  And Jay, you may want to consider taking that hockey stick out of your keister.

It reminded me of the game I saw in Rockford. They’re called Icehogs, but they should be called Icehams for their WWE-style antics (Sean McMorrow in particular). I’m all for a well-timed fight to boost morale, but some of these guys could be lucha libre wrestlers. And after having gone to a game in Rockford, I understand perfectly why Kris Versteeg said “I never wanna go back down to Rockford!”

Anyway, the mic’d up series is brill. When you’re at a game or you’re watching it on TV you’re always wondering what the guys are saying. Like when Jonathan Toews was mic’d up he disputed a hooking call and said to the ref as he climbed into the penalty box, “That’s brutal!” We all just had to laugh. Wouldn’t have missed that little gem of a sound bite for all the world. Hmm…I guess what Denis Lemieux says in Slapshot is true. “You do that, you go to the box, you know. Two minutes, by yourself, you know and you feel shame…” But how would we have known without the mic’d up series?

My first recollection was the crowd booing Carlos Zambrano at Wrigley a while back. He made a motion indicating that he heard them and that he too was not impressed with his lackluster performance. Surprisingly Zambrano got in trouble merely for indicating that, yes, indeed, he had heard that the crowd was displeased with him.

Then I started hearing boos at Soldier Field. It wasn’t so bad when the boos were directed at Rex Grossman. Even the patience of the most ardent fans was wearing thin with Rex. But the minute Kyle Orton sprained an ankle and wasn’t immediately back up to his pre-injury QB rating, boom, he gets booed. Really? Is that fair? Orton who waited patiently on the bench, second-string runner up to a, let’s face it, Doug Flutie in training? Couldn’t Bears fans have cut him a little slack?

Most recently, I heard boos at the United Center at the Hawks/Ducks game. I couldn’t believe it. Because hockey is still a bit of a niche sport, hockey fans are some of the most devoted, and yet here they were booing their own team at the UC.  I’m told this is somewhat standard for the old school hockey crowds, which surprised me a little bit.  Still, I couldn’t help immediately flashing to that scene in Slapshot where the Hanson brothers climb into the stands and beat the crap out of the fair-weather fans that were lobbing food items at their heads, displeased with their performance. Had that happened on Wednesday, I wouldn’t have blamed the Hawks one bit.

What do you think? Is it ever ok to boo your own team?