ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Your team has just won the Stanley Cup (or any championship for that matter) and your fist feeling is exhilaration and happiness. Conversely, your team has lost the championship and you are disappointed, depressed and inconsolable. Your next reaction is not to take the streets of your home town and begin burning police cars and BMW’s and assaulting fellow rioters.
Unfortunately, the loss by the Vancouver Canucks to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night precipitated a 4-hour long riot in the streets surrounding the Rogers Arena. I’ve been terribly disappointed when my team has lost in the post season (and I have long experience with this) but have never thought of venting my frustration and disappointment on a nearby automobile or passerby.
A refrain from many on social media outlets was ‘it’s only a few people’ engaging in the riots. This is belied by the video feeds from several news outlets ( click here , click here , click here ) showing more than a few fans engaged in questionable behavior.
Meanwhile back inside the arena, the Canucks and Bruins were engaging in their handshake tradition.
It is unclear which was more awkward, the riots outside or the terribly uncomfortable handshakes . Despite the animosity and visceral hatred these two teams had built up over the seven-game series, there was still enough respect and tradition left to go through the motions.
We have visited Vancouver often over the last few years. The first visit was for the NHL All-Star game in 1998. Hated to leave. The numerous visits since then have been equally enjoyable. Indeed, we are looking forward to our next visit.
Certainly not everyone involved was a Canucks fan or even hockey fan. Hard to believe many of these “rioters” were not capitalizing on the situation created by the disappointment of legitimate fans.
There were however some opportunities for humor in the scenes. For instance, at least one person was being threatened by a police officer with a truncheon as more than several people turned their cell phone cameras and other image and video instruments on the scene.
And then there is the image of the young couple engaged in intimate behavior on the street while crowds mill about in the distance. Is the image real? Regardless of the answer to that question there is a sense of surrealism in the scene.
And do not to forget the image of a fan in a Montreal Canadiens jersey running through the scene. Priceless.
We still look forward to our next visit to Vancouver, but at some point there needs to be lessons learned from this event and others. An ounce of prevention would seemingly be the surest lesson.
Contact Lou.Lafrado@prohockeynews.com
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