Vancouver History: Riots! III

Posted by JZ
Filed in City
July 28, 2008

On the evening of June 14, 1994 thousands of Canuck fans took a deep breath, let a couple tears go, and then got down to the serious business of rioting.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're not a Canucks fan. Nor do you possess a deep sense of inner sadness that haunts you everytime hockey season starts, or we play a road game against the Flames ("How many Cups have you won?").

Winning two games back to back, and forcing the New York Rangers to a Game 7 final in Madison Square Garden, the Canucks were poised to the win the Stanley Cup for the very first time in club history. While memories of the 82' finals were fresh in the minds of most Canuck fans, this time it was different.

2-0 Rangers after the first, Vancouver cuts it to 2-1 in the second. A Messier goal late in the second makes it 3-1 Rangers and the Canucks answer right back to make it 3-2 going into the third period. One more goal, one more period. Dear God's of Hockey, I will give anything to see the Canucks win the Stanley Cup right now. The final whistle blows...

The Rangers win the Stanley Cup.

Tears. I look around the room. Grown men wiping their eyes, complaining about "dust". Loud sighs. A moment passes.

Let's RIOT!

And at that moment, 50000 to 70000 other Canuck fans decided to heed the call of anger and converge on downtown Vancouver to destroy the city that had let them down. Causing an estimated $1.1 Million worth of damage (and 50 Eaton's storefront windows), the riot took 540 RCMP and VPD officers to quell the violence.

While up to 200 rioters were injured in the melee, the most serious was Ryan Berntt, a teenager who was shot in the head by police with a rubber bullet. Ryan spent a month in a coma and suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the shooting and had to spend nine months in jail for his part in the riot; his civil suit against the city was thrown out in December of 2001.

A sad day for Vancouver, both on and off the ice. For a full description of the riot by one of our very own officers, head here.

(Photo by SkyeNott from the BR Flickr Pool)

Reader Reviews and Comments

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Vancouverites may be known as cold and standoffish but at least we make up for it with a lot of boozy brawling.

Posted by: Chris at July 28, 2008 6:51 PM | Quote Comment

is there any other type?

Posted by: jz at July 28, 2008 10:08 PM | Quote Comment

Sorry but I call bullshit. I was there and this had NOTHING to do with hockey. Some idiot hurt himself- the paramedics couldn't get to him- the cops overreaacted- they soon were outnumbered- they panicked- shot rubber bullets -Vancouver rioted.

Posted by: sean Orr at July 29, 2008 2:42 AM | Quote Comment

I have to agree with Sean about this not having anything to do with hockey.

My most telling memory is my aunt's story about her boss leaving the office late on the night of game 7 and walking by a half a dozen guys with hockey sticks on his way to try to find a place to watch the end of the game. He yelled, "what's the score?" to them and they just shrugged and looked at him like he was speaking another language.

Some people already had it set in their minds that they were going to cause shit before the game even ended.

Posted by: Quinn at July 29, 2008 9:14 AM | Quote Comment

It is a good cover. The question is, if we won would we riot ala the Canadiens the year before?

Posted by: jz at July 29, 2008 9:18 AM | Quote Comment