As has been mentioned previously, I suppose the NHL could just remove the team from Vancouver as a means of controlling the hooliganism that will undoubtedly break out in the future. Clearly, the city is just so fanatical about hockey that it is incapable of hosting an NHL franchise.

They should all be replaced for the sheer stupidity of the attempt.

Let’s just hope that none of them actually BELIEVE it. That would be very scarey.

There was going to be a riot after game 7 win or lose – period. Those Vancouver citizens responsible for the riots and mayhem were taking advantage of the situation to do what they did. The City of Vancouver is solely responsible for not being prepared. And the people that elect the leaders – who (1) weren’t prepared when they knew it was coming and (2) are trying to not take responsibility by pointing fingers at the NHL – should remember this on election day. If they get re-elected then all of Vancouver is complicit in this. Whether you picked up a torch that night or not.

As for this being just a reporter trying to sell papers… hes quoting the city councils own report. This is not the opinion of some obscure newspaper writer as your saying, its the opinion of the city of Vancouver…. which is very sad.

I don’t think anyone would ever say that everyone in Vancouver was bad or anything like that. A small group of trouble makers used the situation to rally a bunch of pissed off drunks to their cause. It happens…. but Vancouver needs to take responsiblity for it, and not try blaming everyone else.

I would certainly _expect_ that the greater majority of inhabitants of Vancouver weren’t complicit in this, however, the fact remains some were, and your City Council is attempting to pass the buck onto the NHL for the failings of the Vancouver Government and Police Force. That is simply ridiculous.

This isn’t even a matter of defending the NHL’s honor or how it runs it’s business, and it goes WAY beyond someone passing the blame onto someone else. If I were a Canadian citizen, I’d be suing the Government for funding this ludicrous study, and then ousting every single member of the council that took part in it. What a complete and utter WASTE of their taxes. And seriously, coming from America, that’s saying ALLOT.

As a penalty, the NHL should refuse to hold any Stanley Cup Finals games, for any Canadian team, in Canada, until they publicly retract this….’piece’ and apologize for wasting everyone’s time AND failing miserably at learning from recent history. Old proverbs are there for a reason, it’s because they’re typically true.

“Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

Disgraceful.

Meanwhile take a look at Vancouver, the city has a history of mass protests that turn into trouble, not usually to this extent but mass gatherings and tension are not unusual to that city. So with that in mind would it not seem odd that the city set up enomrous screens downtown and invited anyone and everyone to come view (150,000 or so showed up) and not expect some kind of trouble?

I guess if the NHL were to “advise” cities on how to deal with these sorts of things, the first thing they would tell them is “don’t invite 150,000 people into a very small area allowing them to drink freely.”

Oh one other note, Vancouver just hosted the Olympics in 2010, during that 2 weeks downtown Vancouver had way more people jammed into it and everything was kept fairly safe and orderly….wouldn’t that provide a much better blue print for how to deal with things in Vancouver than some generic report the NHL could have given them?

SMH

Just admit it… a bunch of your citizens got drunk and ran around like violent, destructive hooligans for a day. On top of that, you ignored the possibility it could happen and didn’t even come close to taking the steps needed to prevent it. Its your fault Vancouver, and don’t even try to say otherwise. So stop trying to pretend its not your job to handle your own security….