There is going to be a series of matches where you should expect more overtime off the ice than in the game itself, writes ‘s NHL reporter Tommi Seppälä, who has lived in Vancouver for ten years.
Tommi SeppäläNHL reporter
18:00•Updated 18:04
The match series between the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers got off to a rough start in the NHL playoffs. Edmonton led the opening game 4–1, but Vancouver surged to a 5–4 victory.
I’m not at all sure that Vancouver and Edmonton are ready to deal with the tension surrounding the series – and I’m talking primarily about cities and fan groups.
Let’s get a cold hard fact on the table first: cities that really don’t like each other are fighting for a spot in the conference finals.
The first overshots were seen before the puck had even hit the ice.
There are already really tasteless videos insulting the opponent and sheer racism on social media. Not good.
When talking about Vancouver, the ballast of history can never be forgotten. Vancouver isn’t traditionally thought of as hockey-crazy like Toronto or Montreal, or even Edmonton, but the city really cares about its team.
Vancouver is a passionate hockey city whose identity is colored by the charge brought by bitterness. Three losses (1982, 1994, 2011) in the Stanley Cup finals always haunt the background.
And that’s not all.
Tie-breaker losses in the finals in 1994 and 2011 led to huge riots in downtown Vancouver. It is estimated that in the summer of 2011, as many as 55,000 people came to the public event built on West Georgia to watch the decisive match against Boston. If the surrounding streets are included, the population is said to have risen to over a hundred thousand.
After the 0–4 loss, the result was in line with that. The police reported that 112 business premises and 122 cars were damaged. 52 assaults were recorded. Damages amounted to almost four million Canadian dollars.
The saddest thing about the case was that it happened again. Similar brawls were seen on the city streets in 1994.
When Vancouver faced Nashville in the first round, the city banned public gatherings in the center. No big screens, no big crowds.
This suddenly changed when the city’s mayor Ken Sim promised to study the possibility of building public events in the city center where the games could be watched.
Of course, like in 1994 and 2011, the stakes are not yet the biggest and most beautiful, but it is certain that the townspeople are excited. Especially when the Canucks are playing in the second round of the playoffs for the first time since the sad summer of 2011. And it doesn’t dilute the charge that it’s the big and beautiful Edmonton Oilers with their superstars who are especially hated in the city.
The local police has carefully prepared for spring and increased the number of officers in the center already during the first playoff round.
Tensions like this are rarely seen in the NHL. Of course, there is sometimes spillage in the trough, but outside of that, the charge rarely gets this high. If the Canadiens played each other more often in the playoffs, we’d see it more often.
If the events in the rink give the fans a special spark, all the ingredients for an overkill are at hand.