Game 7

Oh man.... the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs were insane!! All season long I had said that Vancouver was going to be in the finals. Let's just say that I live with my bf who ALWAYS cheers for the other team. It doesn't matter who Vancouver is playing, he will cheer for the other team as he gets annoyed that everyone thinks that Vancouver is the best. He also does it to annoy me as he knows it works! This creates an interesting atmosphere throughout the season and even more so during the playoffs. 

Before the playoffs started, I told him that I was going to buy playoff tickets. He responded by telling me that I could not get tickets because it was a waste of money and that Vancouver would be out in Round 1 or 2 max. I said fine and told him that I will just wait and buy tickets when they get to the finals then. He agreed as he was 100% sure that Vancouver would not make it that far. Little did he know.

So Round 1 began with Vancouver vs Chicago. This was the team that ousted Vancouver in Game 6 Round 2 for the last 2 years. They were our nemesis. I hated Chicago and Toews. The Canucks NEVER take the easy route, so I was not surprised when we were up in the series and then lost a few games 5-0 and 7-2. Try being in a house with someone who downloaded the Chicago goal song and played it each time Chicago scored. Yes, those 5-0 games were NOT fun in this house. But we made it by Chicago in OT of Game 7! THAT game was our Stanley Cup final!

Onto Round 2, which was boring compared to Round 1. This time we took on Nashville. Again, Canucks didn't make things easy and gave fans a few heart attacks, but took the series in Game 6. No goal songs downloaded this time. 


Round 3, which put me against Miss Molly! It was a good series, though I am surprised the Canucks got through this one in 5 games. I had been rooting for San Jose just for Molly up until this point, but once our teams faced one another, I was all Canucks. 

Round 4, Stanley Cup Finals vs Boston. We had not been to the cup finals since 1994 when we faced the New York Rangers. I wasn't really a hockey fan back then so I do not remember a whole lot about it. I do remember that I was in Grade 7 and was 12 years old. All I remember is that game 7 took place on the day of our grade 7 graduation BBQ at a local park. I remember that all the parents and teachers brought generators and tv's so that they could follow the game as us kids were running around the park and swimming in the pool. The Canucks lost this game and Vancouver rioted. 


That brings us to this year. The Canucks started out well and took the first 2 home games. Then things turned ugly in Boston and we lost 2 horrible games. I was so close to buying Game 5 tickets; however, my coworker wouldn't confirm that she would go in on tickets with me until it was too late. Right when she confirmed, the guy was meeting someone else who wanted to buy them. She says I should have bought them anyways, but I found that too risky as I didn't want to be stuck with tickets if I couldn't find someone to take them! I was kicking myself later though as Game 5 was a sweet game!

Then after the sweet game which left the series 3-2 Canucks, we went back to Boston and lost horribly again to make it 3-3. That brought the series home for Game 7 (last time it was in New York). I told myself that I was going to Vancouver no matter what and would attempt to get tickets. So that is what I did. Last Wed June 15th, I headed over to Vancouver on the 10:15 ferry and was in for an interesting experience. 

Bring it on!!!

Helicopter at the Lighthouse. Love that the one guy on the left is wearing his Canuck jersey!

Change of water colours! 

Looking back towards Nanaimo.

 

 Go Canucks Go!

When the ferry arrived, we all rushed out to the buses and climbed on. Then we had to wait over 45 minutes for the Victoria ferry to arrive. What a waste of time; however, the other people on the bus were pretty amusing considering they were already drunk (this was at about 12:30pm). 

I arrived downtown and got off the skytrain just as I heard a lot of honking. Turns out some of the Canucks were driving by! Thank goodness they got stuck in traffic so I had time to pull out my camera! 

Wicked!

Wanna pose with the Sedin's?!

GM Pla... ahem I mean Rogers Arena!

 

Lou!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A quick nod to fans as he drove by with his coffee

Boo Bruins!!! ahaha. They got a lot of boo's when they walked by but they were the better team on the night so congrats Boston.

Another Canuck, but the windows were too tinted for me to see who! 

Enough said!

DJ's getting the crowd excited! 

Fin with his playoff beard!

So after I arrived at the arena, I walked around and took some photos and waited for a guy named Randy to show up. We were going to attempt to find tickets together. In the end, it didn't work out. Scalpers wouldn't drop their prices fast enough because too many people were milling about waiting for them to do so. In the end, the lowest I heard any tickets go for was $1400 and that was for the upper levels. That was also after the 1st period when it was 1-0 Bruins. 

After the 1st period, Randy went and met up with his friends and I headed back up to find the big screens to check it out. At that point, I was getting tired from standing all day and my back and feet hurt, but I didn't want to leave without seeing how the game would progress. It didn't look good considering the team that scored first in each game all series, won that game. So since it was 1-0 Bruins, as much as I hoped Canucks would come back, it didn't look good.  

BC Place construction to make a retractable roof

Mobs!

Dummies

More idiots

Top of the Canada Post building. This is where the first car was burnt later in the evening.

Choppers keeping an eye on everything.

Cops on the top of the Canada Post building videotaping the crowd

I went down and planted myself in the middle of the crowd outside the Canada post building. There were 2 screens that I could see from this location. Here is one.

There is the other. I didn't last long here. The smoke (cigarette and pot) plus all the dummies around me got on my nerves, so I went back and planted myself near the back for a bit. 

People watching wherever they could (this was near the back of the crowd)

At this point it was the end of the 2nd period and it was 3-0. I had a feeling that this was going to turn bad, not to mention I was tired, sore and hungry, so I decided to head out of downtown and find the Whole Foods Grocery store. I had always wanted to go there as we do not have one on the island (yes I am weird). I was in the grocery store when the game ended 4-0 and the Boston Bruins won the 2011 Stanley Cup. 

I got back on the skytrain to take me to the bus for the ferry. At that point I started getting BBM's and text messages asking if I was still downtown and that people hoped I wasn't. It was then, I learned that people had started burning cars. That turned into a full blown riot by a few 1000 idiots. Why the heck would you ruin your own city you morons? It turns out that the people who started it had planned to riot win or lose. I was embarrassed of these people as the whole world was going to see it and think that Vancouver in whole is sad for rioting over a hockey game. Vancouver is a great city and these freak rioters do NOT speak for the general public and the majority of Canuck fans. Thankfully, due to the millions of photo and video evidence, people are being outed left right and center so hopefully the court system will punish them accordingly. 

While the Canucks lost and even though the riot took place, I am still glad I went over to Vancouver. Let's just hope its not another 17 years before the Canucks make the finals again!