Ok the stanley cup playoffs. I am a canucks fan, no doubt, as I live here in beautiful british columbia. But after watching, I have to say the Boston bruins were out passing, out skating, and out scoring us in a big way. Their goalie was like a brick wall that no one could get past. He was amazing. The better team won. The MVP was their goalie, excellent choice definately. It was a sad day for the canucks fans, but to be honest, they weren’t doing their jobs…none of them. I felt that if they did by some divine intervention they win, I certainly do not think that they earned it at all. They were not playing as a team. They put little to no effort into any of the plays. It was painful to watch.
I will say it again… the better team won. They deserved to win hands down. No question.Period.
What followed in the moments after and for the next 3 hours after the game… I could not believe what I was seeing. A riot??? are you kidding me??? What is wrong with these people??? The mayor and the chief of police kept trying to brainwash the media that all this was just a few bad apples??? really??? Ummm did they not watch the same news footage as the rest of us??? Perhaps the bad apples had the intention of starting a riot even if the canucks won… but As everyone can see… it went far beyond that. Seemingly normal young urbanites, disrespecting the police. disrespecting other people’s property, with absolutely no reguard for anyones safety. And that was just the morons who were doing the damage… then we had stupid idiots taking pictures of themselves in from of burning cars, in front of stores that had their windows smashed, posing in a manner that showed they were proud of this distruction and mayhem…it was exciting and amusing to them. That completely embarasses me to be in the same province and country as these people. Not only did they look stipid doing it, they also hindered the responders from getting in to the areas to put out fires and help injured people. That discusts me to no end. There were people taking pictures of the people breaking the law, there were people taking pictures of good samaritans getting beat up for trying to talk sense into these crazy stupid idiots. To me, in every single news footage I saw, there were a handful of idiots and a big crowd of…not sure what to call them. I believe that the citizens drastically out numbered the bad guys… so instead of taking pictures, why didnt they stop the madness??? there were way more of them, easily done…but no, they just took pictures, or watched and did nothing. Of this I am ashamed.Yes the pictures were helpful for identification… but you know what, if more people had stepped up and said no we wont stand for this and as a large group we WILL stop you and the police will back us up in doing so most of the picture taking would not have been needed. If people would have gone home when they were told to by the police. It would not have been such a disgrace to the city of vancouver. Embarassed. Discusted. Ashamed. Yup that about sums up how I feel about it.
Well, I know you feel bad. Hockey is after all the national religion of Canada. And certainly these thugs are a fringe group that don’t represent the Canuck fan. But I also have to partly fault the city for not learning from the past.
I don’t understand riots, especially as a result of something like this. Yes, it is disgusting and embarrassing, and I feel for the city of Vancouver. I read something online yesterday (I can’t find it now) suggesting that many of the rioters were residents of the suburbs who came to watch the game, trash the city, then go back home. The people who spend every day in Vancouver would never do that. (is it true? I don’t know, because I can’t understand what type of person WOULD do that!).
In any event, it is unfortunate that there is a certain negative stigma to walking around in a Canucks sweater and proclaiming that “I am from Vancouver, BC”. There’s nothing wrong with being a hockey fan and supporting your team – I do it all the time, even though my team missed the playoffs for the first time since 1996.
If there is a source of pride to take out of this, it’s that there was just as much visible opposition to this behavior as there was rioting itself. Granted, you didn’t see the “peacemakers” running through the streets restraining the rioters, but the efforts to clean up the city and to identify, embarrass, and prosecute those responsible was mostly grassroots. That is certainly a noble effort. And it sways the public perception in the right direction, spreading the word that there are lots of good, decent, altruistic people there; and that the city is not just full of people like we saw in the images and videos.
Back to hockey for a moment – goalies can be really streaky at times. It was hard for me to understand how my hero of fifteen years, Martin Brodeur, winner of three Stanley Cups and an Olympic Gold Medal, suddenly became ordinary and ultimately sat as the backup to … Roberto Luongo. It happens.
You should be proud of your hockey team and proud of your province. Let the positive response to this misbehavior erase the black mark of this incident.
Police were only doing as they were told by officials. I have a huge issue with the “leaders” of the city of vancouver. My father is a retired cop… and when the G8 summit was held in calgary, the not only had PREVENTIVE measures in place, they also hired the retired policemen and women to make sure that they had MORE than enough bodies to protect our citizens and the city. Calgary city police… always bring on extra staff on nights that are full moons…so do the paramedics and firefighters… why?? because it is FACT there are way more instances of chaos and mayhem those nights. ( Yes there was a full moon during the riot) Calgary stampede… the whole city parties… but again, they are always prepared, they are EVERYWHERE to show their presence…as a DETERRANT!!! and guess what Vancouver… it is effective… based on results!!! perhaps the leaders of vancouver should take a trip to cowtown and learn how the west was REALLY won! We had the olympics(1988) in calgary… no major instances…stanley cup playoffs… nothing major to report… they were PREPARED!!!
