Fans stay into the game during the first period of the Stanley Cup Finals in Vancouver.
Vancouver Canucks fans’ anxious anticipation prior to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Rogers Arena took an early hit. Then it fully withered away.
What started as a ruckus, towel-waving environment for fans both in the arena and throughout the downtown core didn’t end with the result spectators have longed for in the team’s 40-year history; it turned into a towel-throwing, beer-tossing arena of frustration inside and much worse outside.
(MORE: Hockey Fans Turn Vancouver Into Riot Central)
The night started with promise and ended with tears—both washing away painted faces and from the eyes of players. A tearful Ryan Kesler repeated variations of “we didn’t get it done” while Boston players and staff hoisted the cup on Vancouver’s ice.
Captain Henrik Sedin said he not only felt horrible for his teammates, but also for the entire city. “We’ve grown up here and we wanted to win it for us and for the fans who follow us,” he said. “The province has a lot to be proud of.”
The game didn’t start with frustration. It never does. When the lights dimmed to start pre-game formalities, the Vancouver fans were more than willing to forgive their team’s woeful away performances, instead choosing to remember their spotless home record during the Stanley Cup Finals. The crowd never died down during pregame—except for a touch of respectful silence during the “Star Spangled Banner.” And once “O Canada” started, Vancouver fans exercised their lungs a bit differently, as is tradition in Vancouver, belting out the lyrics proudly.
(MORE: Did Brain Disease Cause an NHL Player’s Demise?)
Ken Clarke, attending his first Stanley Cup Finals game, said the custom of the crowd taking over the anthem really belongs to Vancouver. “We’ve been doing that for a long time and it has kind of caught on,” he said.
Chants of “We Want the Cup” started as quickly as the anthem faded and then the “Go Canucks Go” chants resounded in Rogers Arena for the entire game, albeit with less vigor as the Boston goals started piling up.
Willy Weiler, a Vancouver-area season ticket holder for all 40 years, said he “died with the team in that Game 7” in New York in 1994 and that nothing beats a Game 7 in Vancouver, not even the 12th-row tickets he had to watch Canada win the Olympic Gold Medal in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics, or the multiple Super Bowls he has attended. “There is nothing better than a Vancouver crowd,” he said. “This is intense.”
Clarke said the game was much bigger than the Olympics. “It is unbelievable, really,” he said. “People get so attached to this team and have been for so long.”
When the game started, the obvious tension about how goalie Roberto Luongo would perform eased after some early Vancouver chances. With the crowd of 18,000 rising to its feet to scream and wave the provided white towels at every play stoppage, the anxious feeling softened to anticipation. But the first-period goal by Boston’s Patrice Bergeron had the crowd rethinking its chances slightly, especially with the massive relief seen in the hug between Bergeron and Brad Marchand, who assisted on the play.
(MORE: Vancouver’s Stanley Cup Craze: Grown Men in Full-Body Spandex)
The crowd came back from the first intermission with a renewed sense of hope, growing louder than they did at the conclusion of the first period. A bounty of horn blowers revived the “We Want the Cup” chants, at least until Boston’s Marchand scored a goal midway through the period and then Bergeron added another five minutes later on a shorthanded breakaway.
The third period only managed to increase fan frustration, save for a final heartless cheer for the home team in the game’s final minute and one last “Go Canucks Go” chant while the Bruins celebrated on the ice.
With tickets to the game averaging $5,000 on the secondary market—more than either the Olympics Gold Medal Game or the most recent Super Bowl—fans outside Rogers Arena crammed into overflowing bars and restaurants or set up to watch the game on one of the four giant screens set up in the downtown streets.
A lot of people came out, but fans didn’t come home with what they wanted: the Cup.
(MORE: Vancouver Prepares for Cup Crowds — and Closes Liquor Stores)