A Terrible Night after A Terrible Hockey Defeat

VANCOUVER--All that was gained, lost.

What sport did for Vancouver last year, it did to Vancouver last night. And if this gorgeous, wealthy city was more than happy to benefit from the goodwill, joy and prosperity delivered by the Olympics last year, it has to now accept that the rioting and widespread lawlessness that struck the city core in the wake of the Canucks' Game 7 loss to Boston cannot be completely disassociated from sport, either.

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The temptation will be to say this was a small group of people causing trouble, and that it had nothing to do with hockey.

Well, yes and no.

First, it wasn't a small group. We're talking hundreds, probably thousands, of citizens involved in the ugliness that erupted even as Gary Bettman was handing the Stanley Cup to Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. Having been around other sport "riots," I can tell you this was a whole other level.

Vancouver was an ugly, dangerous city last night, and people got hurt. Frightening. Not just police cars on fire. Not just looting and tear gas. Stabbings. Vicious, fights. Wanton violence accompanied by the joyful whoops and hollering of young people who apparently believed they were part of something exciting and were having a great time.

The game ended at about 7:45 local time, and by midnight weary riot police were still trying to disperse crowds. As I watched from my hotel balcony on Burrard St., a line of riot cops walked up the street, police dogs barking, police sirens wailing, a police helicopter overhead shining a light down on the street.

When Montreal "fans" went wild two years ago after a first round playoff victory over Boston, it was contained to a small area of the downtown. Passersby watched it almost as a surreal sport unfolding, but unless you were in the middle of it, there seemed to be nothing to fear. It was over quickly.

Not this last night in Vancouver. It went on for hours. At one point, there were four separate areas where police were trying to stop violence and looting. People were left lying on the street covering in blood. Crazed young men smashed windows of stores and business, ignoring police commands to disperse, seemingly uncaring that they were being videotaped and photographed, as if they believed they were untouchable.

It was like the city had lost its mind. Over a bloody hockey game.

It was anarchy, and somehow, it was not just about Vancouver, a place where fans are encouraged by local media to believe there is a conspiracy to deny them ultimate success, but also about the Canucks. Everywhere you looked those who were committing crimes did so while wearing Canucks jerseys with Kesler, Sedin and even Bure across the back of the shoulders. Cop cars on fire with goons wearing Canuck sweaters dancing nearby. Just as Oakland Raider garb was once the choice clothing for California gangstas, now Canucks jerseys will be associated with this terrible night, a night which locals insist was much worse than what occurred 17 years earlier after Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final against the New York Rangers.

Last year after the Olympics, many of us felt the peaceful, joyful crowds that assembled every night in the downtown streets were the real story of the Games. I'll always remember the long yet happy lines outside The Bay, people waiting for hours just to get a chance to buy a piece of Olympic memorabilia. Last night, that same store was under siege, left with smashed windows, as if it had become a target rather than a peaceful gathering place.

There will be many questions to be answered about the police presence and how this was handled, or mishandled. It will be the big story, bigger than the shocking collapse of the Canucks, a team that sat atop the NHL all year and then was flattened in the Cup final by a determined Boston team. City officials promised they were ready and in control, but reports suggested the police presence was too light, and that police were simply overwhelmed by fast-moving mobs as they started fires and looted Sears, Chapters and London Drugs stores. How could they have been caught by surprise - again?

But more important will be what this, the riots and the ugliness, says not just about Vancouver, but about the Canucks' place in it. You can hardly blame the hockey team for what happened, yet at the same time its the Canucks who seem to be the match that lights the civic lawlessness in this city. 

There's a strange mentality here that the NHL is out to get the Canucks, to deny them their rightful victories, and it's propagated by some very prominent media voices. There's always booing when Bettman tries to present the Cup, but it was deafening at Rogers Arena last night, an apparent expression of a belief that the NHL screwed the Canucks, that suspending defenceman Aaron Rome, for example, was unfair and unjust and part of some grand conspiracy.

People really believe this stuff. Even after the game, Canucks coach Alain Vigneault bitterly talked about a Boston "plan" to defeat the Canucks that was based on illegal hits after the whistle, implying the league had done nothing to keep the games fair.

It goes back to the hysterical reaction to the Steve Moore hit on Markus Naslund that precipitated the Todd Bertuzzi attack on Moore, one of the ugliest pieces of violence in NHL history. There's this suspicion that everything isn't above board, that Canuck players are treated more harshly. Even last night, there were wild rumours that Boston's Nathan Horton, injured by Rome's headshot earlier in the series, was going to play in the game, thus proving that his injury had simply been a pretence to deprive Vancouver of its chance to win the Cup.

There are many here who also fervently believe Toronto, and the rest of Canada, hates Vancouver and wants the Canucks to lose, which again fuels this bizarre sense of paranoia that permeates the hockey atmosphere in this town.

Did that paranoia create last night's riots? No. But its part of the story here, part of the anger and bitterness here, part of why a local reporter, angered that they were still blaring the music inside the arena last night long after the teams had left the ice, remarked, "Bloody Bettman" when he was told the music had to continue under orders from arena management.

Idiots and criminals created last night's ugliness. But hockey and this town's hockey atmosphere were part of it as well. You cannot pretend otherwise.

 

Comments

[A Vancouverite in Toronto]

For the love of god, please stop calling these idiots fans. These were never fans! Fans do not bring bats, masks, baklava masks, etc. to watch the game. These guys come to stir up trouble, and were going to do it whether the Canucks won or lost; these are the same idiots who will riot at political events (remember the G20 summit Damian) and sporting events. And it was not thousands...thousands were in downtown, but it was only a handful who did these riots.

The true Canucks fans are grateful for a great season the team gave them, are congratulating the Bruins and Boston for the win, are appreciating a great playoff run, and thankful and proud to call Vancouver home.

I hope these rioters rot in jail or at least got tasered like crazy by the police.

GO CANUCKS GO!!!

[barbara general]

Good story! I had to laugh on "It was like the city had lost its mind. Over a bloody hockey game."

Yah they did!

[Lynn]

What I saw yesterday evening, is the Vancouver I experienced while I was living there as a fairly new immigrant to Canada.
The people are paranoia and think that everybody is out to get them.It is indeed a beuatiful city, but what does it mean when the atmosphere is extrmeley hostile and unfriendly.

[capt.ADK'er]

antisemitism directed toward bettman must be a considered component of this predictable recurrent and disgusting cultural canaduhian characteristic!

GO USA!

[Ted Heeley]

When did Vancouver become everything it claims to hate about Toronto? There are yahoos on here still bitching about the writer's opinions about the playoff series, as if that matters in the face of the public carnage after the series was over.

[Underworld]

In all these comments no one has mentioned alcohol. This is what you get when you combine thousands of people, excessive booze consumption, mob mentality and an unhappy sporting event outcome. same thing happened to lesser degrees in Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal. Same thing would happen in Toronto if the Leafs ever got to the final and lost. What bothered me most in looking at the pictures and video is how many people thought it was cool, exciting, a trippy experience etc.
As far as the police response goes, maybe in the wake of the G20 inquiry they were reluctant to have a large police presence before anything actually happened for fear of criticism of heavy-handed tactics etc.

[David Hunt]

All I have to say is LEARN HOW TO LOSE GRACEFULLY. Vacouverans are putting a black mark on Canadians and Hockey fans in general by acting like such ridiculous idiots. Everyone else has said everything else.

[Scott]

You are leaving out one other key ingredient to the hooliganism. Hockey in Canada is becoming infused with a boorish Nationalism that increases the stakes in these games far beyond what they merit.

-expat Canadian (watch all that tolerance come flying in my face now).

[Roger Christian]

Nice piece. The Canucks didn't deserve to win this series and I'm glad they didn't. That's not a Torontonian-who-hates-Vancouver talking. I would have said the same thing about the Leafs or any other Canadian team in the same position. I'm a born-and-bred lifelong Canadian resident and have skated and played hockey since I was three years old, at one point at a pretty competitive level. But the Canadian nationalist hype built up around hockey is getting more and more obnoxious with each passing year. The corporatization of everything and all the military patriotic crap of recent years seem to have created this problem. Don Cherry is the patron saint of all this nonsense. When you invest so much money and emotion in something as insignificant as professional sport -- and a particularly violent one at that -- it's bound to whip a lot of people up into a mindless frenzy when things don't turn out as people want or expect. Thrown violent cops who function with impunity into the mix, and this is what you get. It's all a sad comment on what Canada has become in the last decade or so.

[Robert]

Got to feel bad for Vancouver fans. That was a tough loss to watch and I'm not even a Canucks fan.

[sproutlore]

1000's? From the single picture of the burning car, that was shown over and over on CBC is seemed that the majority of the crowd was there for the show and not to participate. Why the police where rushing in an tossing tear gas is just an over reaction, judging by the view on television. And you don't need thousands - just a bunch organized enough to start a fire, throw a brick and cause a bt of panic.
And Vancouver got psyched out by the goaltending of Thomas and Luongo. On one side fearing they could't score and on the other, fearing they couldn't stop a score.

[2nd Guess]

@Communist Toronto: If it turns out that Vancouver cops arrested more than 1,000 "rioters" last night and this morning who end up being released without charges, THEN you can make ridiculous comparisons to the G20.

[TDotSportsBolgr]

Thank you, Damien for enlightening the world on this ugly, ugly turn of events. The city has lost all control, and the Mayor needs to resign today and new legislature needs to be written to give VPD more power (ala G20) in order to avoid a 3rd "war zone" in the future. The invite fans onto the donwntown streets with 100 foot TV screens when the past tells them there will be trouble; there is trouble in the Granville district every Fri/Sat night, so when you hear "we didn't expect this" it's hogwosh! To your point about local media; please watch messers: Don/Gary Valk/John Garrett were absolutely pathetic last night - making fun of the Leafs on this night?? Telling viewers the mess downtown wasn't that bad??? Gary Valk must have said Marchand "cheated" on the faceoff prior to the first goal 100 times last night!!! Sportsnet do yourselves a favour and cancel the Pacific shows - it is truly unprofessional and obscene to watch/hear!

[DickM]

If Vancouverites think the rest of the country is out to get them that is competely ridiculous. Frankly, the rest of Canada loves Vancouver, loves to vist it and wishes they could afford to live there. I have NEVER heard anyone "dis" Vancouver in my life.

The saying is something like "You'll be surprised at how seldom people think about you." We all go around making up horrible things that people think about us or where we live but it just ain't true :-).

Too bad about the Canucks (I got sick of hearing "And Thomas makes the save !!") but I think all can agree the best team won and that's it. Coming second in the Stanley Cup finals isn't the best outcome but it's pretty impressive if you think about it.

As far as the rowdies in Vancouver are concerned that is really unfortunate and the city probably needs to look in the mirror and try to figure out what that anger is really all about (and it has nothing to do with hockey). But it is not a reason to hate Vancouver, it is a reason to have compassion and sympathy for the 99.9% of Vancouverites who just want to live their lives in a good and decent way.

Have a great day Vancouver - you deserve it.

[Max]

Well as per usual Damien goes after the low hanging fruit, and pins the blame on somehow Vancouver and its fans being "different" than those here in Toronto.

The simplistic tub thumping of Cox and his fellow typists at the Star only serve to pump up tribalism and has no actual insight into violence on or off the ice.

[Mark Starr]

It's not just a Canucks issue...the whole city of Vancouver seems to have a chip on its shoulder and a rabid sense of entitlement. People in Ontario like to complain about Albertans, but I've never met a non-friendly Albertan. We just have differing political views. But Vancouverites seem to want to rub everything about their city in your face: the scenery, the warm weather, etc. Yet like all braggarts, underneath all of this is a crippling insecurity.

The difference, it seems to me, is this: Canadians from the prairies, Ontario and the east love this country. The Calgary Olympics were a celebration of this country. The Vancouver Olympics were a celebration of how great Vancouver supposedly is. Well, there goes that myth.

[Ronny Schwenger]

You have no class Cox and you know it.

You are a " misery loves company mouthpiece" period. Your home town team can not win, so you dump on Vancouver with a bunch of one-sided dribble to make yourself feel better.

I've been a leaf fan all of my life - still am but I live in Vancouver, so I cheered for the Canucks. In my mind, the Canucks were a far classier team than the brawling Bruins but you would never have noticed that because that would be balanced.

You practice yellow journalism with your tabloid style diatribes. I am surprised that a decent newspaper like the Star keep a bum like you around at all.

You are the one that's sad and the nonsense you dispense is the part that is sad and pathetic.

[Abigail]

I am a Vancouverite and I am ashamed for the hooligans that provoked this. The average Vancouver citizens do not support this nor did they incite it. It happens in a lot of big cities when there are big events...just because. But I many of my friends are from Ontario or back east (ie Nova Scotia). If we are such a horrible city why are so many people moving here from other parts of Canada. Why don't you just stay away then, perhaps the hooligans were related to you (fromt he east). Do not criticize when you have to look in your own backyard as well.

[Abigail]

To Paul Dunn:
Do you realize that many of these disenfranchised people you see running away from cops are from back east. I know because I work as a community health nurse down there and they all migrate here to Vancouver. Be sure of your comments before writing!

[The Fonze]

Well I certainly have to give Damien credit for printing my critisisms. I do read all your articles and usually I am a fan. This was just a little over the top though. Some of the comments are crazy: inact prohibition in Vancouver? Hands down the dumbest thing ever printed online.

[RJR]

OMG! The conspiracy theory stuff is laughable! C'mon Vancouver, stop the crying already!

[Teresa Pamatat]

To quote the exact words of another reader...

For all the sore loser/hooligans in Vancouver:

You’ve embarrassed the game of hockey.
You’ve embarrassed Vancouver.
You’ve embarrassed Canada.

What does the rest of world think of us? I’m ashamed to imagine.

Maybe the Stanely cup should never be in the City of either team playing

[Max]

Cox I was intrigued by your quote "place where fans are encouraged by local media to believe there is a conspiracy to deny them ultimate success" and contrasted by your complete obliviousness as to how you personally have added to this impression in Vancouver with your constant demonizing of Vancouver and the Canucks. I know it probably sells papers to the Leaf faithful, but at the end of the day what are you adding to the debate?

[discouraged in Vancouver]

It amazes me to see how quickly people are eager to attack all of Vancouver and paint everyone with the same brush. The reality is that Vancouver does not have an isolated society, our society is much broader and what happened in Vancouver is a reflection on society.

[b]

"There are many here who also fervently believe Toronto, and the rest of Canada, hates Vancouver..."

Well, this article doesn't do much to dispel that notion.