Vancouver Canucks & Vancouver Riots 2011

The end of the hockey season ended in heartbreak and disappointment for all Vancouver Canucks fans, who were hoping the team would bring back the Stanley Cup after 40 years. The Canucks were poised to take the cup, as we were the best in the league, winning the President's Trophy in the regular season and after a rocky beginning, sweeping the Western Conference Finals! Then came the Boston Bruins. The Canucks started off great, leading 2-0 in the series. But their goalie Tim Thomas was just too good, and their players were bigger and more forceful than ours. After a long, drawn out 7 game series, the Bruins ultimately won the Stanley Cup. I was really sad to see the Canucks lose, and I'm sure other fans echo my thoughts, but the boys did a great job this season, and in the end, it's just a game and there is always next year.

What came after was a black mark on Vancouver. A handful of people had planned to start a riot and go looting, and things spun out of control a few hours after the game, with the police unable to stop the crowds. I guess it was just a mob mentality as there were thousands of people just bringing destruction to our beautiful city. Cars were overturned and set on fire, newspaper boxes knocked down, store windows smashed and people looting. I was fortunate to get out of downtown before some more serious stuff started happening and I was glued to the news at home, not believing what was happening downtown. The whole thing was a disaster and it's just surreal that something this horrendous would happen in our city. With everyone owning a smart phone nowadays capable of taking pictures and videos in HD, I'm not even sure what people were thinking, as pictures and videos were sure to be uploaded and shared almost immediately through social media, like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube for all to see. I bet everyone down there were regretting their actions the next day when all the pictures and videos surfaced. I hope they catch everyone involved and I pray that this never happens again. All the hard work pushing the tourism of Vancouver and all the good that came from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics down the drain. For shame.

On a better note, the true Vancouver Canuck fans and people who love our city came out the next day to help clean up downtown, picking up garbage, sweeping up glass. The windows of many businesses were boarded up and people started writing encouraging messages on the board, and it was really inspirational to see everyone come together to put our city back together.