As we have seen in the past with in the pre-FHM era, and more recent at the start of the current season. There are (at least)three teams out there ready to do anything to get the slightest advantage. I'm of course talking about Edmonton, Hamilton and New Orleans.

Not surprisingly, these three teams are also among the best in the league season over season. And a big part of their success, the biggest event, comes through their home games. That home ice advantage with the arena being local, crazy fans all around you in the stands, and the easily bribed food catering business that provides the opponent team with a little "spicier" food than requested.

As an investigative reporter I have grown suspicious of these teams and their astounding home ice success. The most surprising part is that they always sell out. Every. Single. Game. Not matter if it's game that means nothing against a team like Toronto, or a playoff game for the championship. There is never a seat left empty, and they even have to turn away a bunch of people at the gates because they are full.

I have tried to talk to multiple fans at each teams home arena, after they were denied entry to a game. But none of them want to admit that this behavior is suspicious in the slightest. They all just keep repeating "I just really love the team!". And sure, fans are supposed to love their local team. Nothing weird there. The weird part is the blank look on their faces. There is no emotion behind their words, or really anything moving except their mouths. Now that I think about it. I'm not sure I have seen any of them even blink...

Trying to dig deeper, I tried to infiltrate these groups. I joined all kinds of fan groups on Facebook and other social media platforms. Trying to get a hint of where these people come from and what they do while they are not at a game. This is when I noticed something else weird. The fan groups I found, none of them even has enough members to fill out half the teams' arenas. It is like these audience members do not exist until game day...

A few weeks after I started joining all these fan groups, I received a letter in the mail. No information who or what sent it. The letter was telling me to stop what I was doing. That I'm just wasting my time. And more interestingly, that "We just really love the team". Of course, I could not stop now. This was getting way to interesting. I had never gotten a threatening letter before.

Later that same month, I had a breakthrough! I decided to buy tickets to a vantage point in the city of Edmonton from where I could see the arena. I got up there 5 hours before the game, just to try and catch where all these "fans" came from. Would they all show up in one big group, parading to the arena? Or are they really single fans coming and going as normal? I was about to find out. Not much interesting happened. With 2 hours until the game started, people starting flocking to the arena. But there was nothing suspicious I could see. All normal people. Some coming by car, others by bus, and some walking. None of them having that blank stare I saw earlier. But then, 20 minutes before puck drop the speakers around the arena started playing a weird sound. It was not music or an announcer. It was just static noise, at least to me. What happened after the noise had played was key. Suddenly half the city just stopped in their tracks. Cars stopped in the middle of the street, people just standing. Doing and saying nothing. After about a minute, they all turned to the arena and started walking! Thousands of people started slowly moving towards the arena. Just like those zombie games I used to play! They all crowded the ticket booths, bought tickets and entered. It all made sense then and there. I had finally figured out why and how these three teams have the best home ice records.

It is because they have programmed half their cities population as sleeper agents/fans!