'Nucks IceMan

Written by: Larry “The Nucks IceMan” Johnson

I was going to write about the seventh game of the Stanley Cup that I attended in Vancouver last night, but a sad development occurred on the way home. Here’s the lead up to it.

With Boston leading 2-0 in the second period, Patrice Bergeron scored a short-handed goal at 17:35. At that point, I got up out of my seat and headed for the exits of Rogers Arena. Now before anyone starts to get on my case about giving up on the team and leaving early, hear me out.

First of all, I don’t think you need to be an NHL analyst to understand my next point. After watching Tim Thomas in the Boston/Tampa series and then again play against the Canucks in this series, he was not about to give up three goals in this game.

Turned out I was right, he didn’t give up any. In fact, he only allowed eight goals in seven games and had two shut-outs, along with winning the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Stanley Cup.

Also, no way was I going to stay around to watch the Stanley Cup being presented and paraded around on our home ice. I have enough dislike for the Bruins to last me a lifetime.

I’m not going to go into the game, my feelings, what the Canucks are missing and what I saw at this time, but will do so tomorrow – after I mourn the loss.

As I headed towards downtown there were hundreds of Canuck fans leaving that area to go home. I proceeded along Dunsmuir, across Granville, glanced up the street and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Just a lot of people slowly dispersing heading for buses and the skytrain.

It was around 10:30 PM when a member of our season ticket group texted me to say that he hoped I would write about the classless bleep bleep Canuck fans. I paraphrase here along with the bleeps.

I texted back, “what happened?” He texted back “have you seen the riots on CBC?”

I had no idea what was happening, as I had not turned on the game when I got home nor had I any interest in watching any part of the interviews after it either.

After switching over to CTV, I was immediately introduced to a shot from the overhead news helicopter panning on the crowd below. There were various shots of the rioters, police equipped in riot gear along with dogs, mounted police, and the news reporter on the ground.

Here was this CTV reporter trying to report about what was going on around him, and these idiots are jumping in front of the camera showing their faces, screaming, posing and drowning him out. Fools – all of them.

The recap showed the riot starting just shortly after the game which led to a truck being the first of many vehicles set on fire. Then came a Mercedes in a covered parking lot, two police cars, a Hummer, various other vehicles and garbage containers, all set on fire and burning while the punks stood around and cheered. I couldn’t believe what I was watching.

This looked like somewhere else in the world but Vancouver, no way. How could 1994 happen all over again before my eyes?

I had just written an article on June 6th in which I reported on the crowds after the Canucks had won the first two games in Vancouver. In that article I spoke about a difference between the Olympic crowd and this Canuck crowd.

The following are some excerpts from that article.

Now that may be true about the numbers, but this was not your family members like we had seen during the Olympics. This was a young crowd of which a number were visibly intoxicated.

The police were visible but did not have the numbers they did the game before, so yes, there was open drinking and celebrating but the police did a good job of trying to keep the celebration under control.

I would suggest that you not bring your family downtown for any future celebration, as it’s a spark waiting to ignite. With the masses that were down there, the number of intoxicated, it’s only going to take someone barging through the crowd – and there was plenty when we were locked body to body, knocking someone down to pi_ _ them off, and an altercation will take place.

That’s all it will need to touch off a zoo atmosphere.

Little did I know this would come to fruition after the final Canuck game.

The question needs to be asked. How come Mayor Gregor Robertson, who oversees the Chief of Police, and the VPD, did not have sufficient numbers, even backed by RCMP reinforcements if needed, available after the game?

I consider the VPD very knowledgeable and expert in what they do, but knowing what had happened in 1994, wouldn’t you have thought that they would be out in full force to head off any disturbances?

It had been reported that one Canuck fan had already stated that if the Canucks lost, he was going to take his truck downtown and set it on fire. That’s exactly what happened.

St. Paul’s Hospital, which is located in the downtown area, reported two knife wounds, several fractures, plenty of people treated for pepper spray and what appeared to be tear gas. One person was in serious condition after he attempted to leap from one area of the viaduct to another and ended up falling several metres to the pavement, when he misjudged the distance between the openings.

To watch all these morons running around breaking windows, looting The Bay, London Drugs, Sears and other stores in the downtown area was really disappointing, even more disappointing than losing the Canucks game itself.

Millions of dollars in damage to property along with the brazen theft, while the world witnessed Vancouver at its darkest. What had happened to the crowds we saw so jubilant and controlled during the Olympics?

I know that a number of readers who visit this site are from the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and other parts of the world. To those people I say, these rioters were a few hundred people, mostly male, young and drunk, of mixed ethnic background , and they do not represent in the slightest, the general populace of Vancouver. Nor do we condone this type of action or treatment of property and goods.

There will be a price to pay for all this and I hope that the city’s prosecutors go after the few that caused this mess and make them pay for this. The parents of any of these underage hooligans should also be held accountable and be forced to pay for this damage by way of very large fines.

Apparently visual identification of the hundreds of people involved was captured from the television networks, cameras that were installed downtown, and spectators who took pictures with their wireless phones and cameras.

There has been a Facebook site started where you are encouraged to post your photos , as the authorities will be using these, along with hours of television coverage, to prosecute those that took part in this riot.

In closing, to those that live in other parts of the world, try not to judge Vancouver by a few that probably would have rioted even if the Canucks had won. Remember it as the beautiful city that it is and that you witnessed during the Olympics.

Footnotes: Kudos to the Vancouver Police, Fire and Ambulance departments that braved the rioters to try and protect Vancouver, its property and heritage buildings.

Photo Credits – AP, Getty Images, Google Images and Yahoo Sports!

To catch all the news, updates and new articles as they occur, along with the Canucks farm team, the Manitoba Moose, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/nucksiceman.

Note: www.nucksiceman.com is now mobile friendly. From the web address on your iPhone, you can choose Options/Mobile formatted and the site will appear in its entire living colour for you to view. Check it out.

Related posts:

Filed under: Vancouver Canucks