Van City

As you all probably know, the Vancouver Canucks lost in game seven of the Stanley Cup finals on Wednesday. It just so happens that the Canucks are my favorite hockey team and have been ever since I moved to BC when I was 5 years old. So, you would think I would be in complete disappointment and anger after this happened, which I was. However, the events of the day put my emotions on a roller coaster. At first before the game I was in a state of excitement and nervous energy. I decided that I would not get my entire hopes up after seeing what had occurred in game 6. In the back of my mind I found it kind of unlikely that a team that played that poorly just one game before when they could have won the Cup in Boston would have a complete turnaround when facing the same situation a few days later just in a different venue. Unfortunately my intuition was right. The Canucks seemed to put up a great effort throughout the first period but after that they went back to their old ways. Now don’t get me wrong, I am a Canuck and will always be a Canuck but one thing I do not understand is when you have worked your whole life to get to a point and you are one win away from achieving your ultimate goal, how you cannot show up to the last two games and put absolutely everything in your heart into those games. I know thousands of people who would’ve given their all if they had the talent and opportunity to do so. Are these players just lacking the determination? Has their passion been lost? With the exception of Ryan Kesler in game 7 it seems to me that this was the case for the Vancouver Canucks. In this world greatness isn’t just given to you; you must work your ass off to get it. If you do not play and think like you are going to win. You won’t win. It’s that simple.

I will discuss this later on, but through what happened in the events following the game, something became clearer to me. One cannot achieve peace with others without first having peace with oneself. When Boston won I was not mad at the players of their team for winning. I did not hate them. I had an incredible amount of respect for them. They were fighting for the same goal and just fought harder than we did. It is weird that these words are even being written by me but I was actually happy for Tim Thomas (the goalie of the Boston Bruins) when he won the MVP trophy and lifted the Stanley Cup.  He did not make it into the NHL until he was in his early thirties. He lost his opportunity to start in the playoffs just last season and did he let any of these things get to him? No, he didn’t. He played even harder throughout this entire season and put out what in my opinion looks to be a Vezina Trophy like performance this season and set a record for the most saves made in a playoff run along with getting a shutout in the final game to win his team the Stanley Cup.

As soon as the game ended I’ll admit I was a bit bitter and angry after the Canucks had just lost. However, as soon as I saw the images of the angry “fans” outside Roger’s Arena flip over a car and setting it on fire, I thought to myself “Is it possible that my anger in losing could ever go this far?”. I am pretty sure that it wouldn’t but it is still an unsettling thought. My feelings soon turned again to nervousness and disappointment. I was nervous for the families who got caught up in this disaster of a riot and disappointed in the people who were a part of it. Through this I am starting to be able to control my anger much more in situations like this when my team loses. Of course I am still angry but I am starting to not let it affect me as much. To those who are not avid sports fans it may seem silly to be so passionate about something you can’t control and something that is “just a game” but true sports fans feel like we are actually apart of the team and are sharing the disappointment right along with the players. However, in no way should it have ever gone as far as it did Wednesday night.

I know that the majority of these people were not hockey fans at all and some or most might not even have been from Vancouver, but just ordinary criminals wearing my team’s jersey who took advantage of the situation to do damage to a wonderful city. They probably would have done this even if the Canucks had won. However, it is hard to believe that not even a few of them were actual Canucks fans. I feel unbelievably sorry for these people and for anyone involved in their lives that had to feel ashamed for seeing these people make a disgrace of themselves on an international stage. I hope these people can find a way to fix whatever psychological problems they have that make them feel it is okay to do these things or even feel happiness for inflicting pain on others. I know there is something wrong with these people, but in some part of me it makes me embarrassed to even be associated to the same species as them. They are putting a bad image on my team, my province and even my country.

Finally, I saw something on Thursday morning that reminded me why I love this country and put my faith back in people. Thousands of people coming out to sign the boarded up buildings expressing their appreciation for the police and their work the previous night and going out of their way to help clean up the mess the criminals made the previous night. This put a smile on my face. These were the true fans. These were the people who deserve to live in such a wonderful city.

I leave you this time with a quote by a great man who went by the name Martin Luther King, Jr. which I apply to both the Canucks and to the criminals mentioned as well.

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”