TRUER WORDS WERE NEVER SPOKEN

HOCKEY APOLOGISTS TELLING A LIE !


It's the big lie. They trot it out every time there's a post-hockey riot:
"This has nothing to do with hockey. These lousy rotten rioters are all badminton fans who came straight from the ballet to smash windows and set cars on fire."
So all those tens of thousands of young people in Canucks jerseys tearing apart Vancouver on Wednesday night, that was just, um, a coincidence. Because this had nothing to do with hockey.
The Canucks insisted that "true fans" were not responsible for the riot. True fans, apparently, aren't the suckers who pay $400 for a genuine team jersey, because most of the rioters I saw were wearing pricey Canucks gear.
Apparently, hockey executives have never noticed those fans who can actually afford front-row seats when there's a scrum along the boards. There they are, faces contorted with rage, banging on the glass like deranged orangutans, behaving as though they actually want to get at the likes of Zdeno Chara and Milan Lucic.
The rage is always there. Vancouver municipal authorities provided the match to light the powder keg with the idiotic decision to allow tens of thousands of fans to watch the games on a big screens downtown. What followed was as predictable as rain.
In one of the clips of the violence, an especially empty-headed young thing looks into the camera and says: "We're really disappointed that our team lost, so we have right to express our feelings."
So they expressed their feelings by putting 150 people in the hospital and doing their level best to trash downtown Vancouver. Meanwhile, the Canucks, the NHL and their embarrassing media apologists all fell into line, repeating the mantra: "This has nothing to do with hockey."
The big lie. The truth is that the Vancouver riot had everything to do with hockey. The violent culture of the sport, combined with lots of alcohol and the stupidity of the authorities, touched off a hockey riot -pure and simple.

Meanwhile, the Stanley Cup is in Boston -where it belongs, given the play of these two teams over a seven-game series.

In hockey, heart beats art every time. The Bruins had the heart. Mark Recchi wanted it more. Brad Marchand wanted it more. Zdeno Chara wanted it more. Tim Thomas wanted it more.

No one in hockey deserves a Stanley Cup ring more than Bruins coach Claude Julien, who was as good as fired after losing the first two games of this postseason to the Montreal Canadiens. Julien is a salt-of-theearth guy, humble and hard-working. On the way to the Cup, he outcoached an outstanding list of individuals: Jacques Martin, Peter Laviolette, Guy Boucher and Alain Vigneault. He did everything a coach can do to give his team a chance. Even Bruins president Cam Neely can't ask for more than that.

Then there was that losing goalie: If that seven-game loss is on one player, it's the Canucks' Roberto Luongo. He's the one making $10 million a year. He's the one who looked great in Florida, making 46 saves in a 4-2 loss when no one cared. He is not the goalie you want between the pipes in the seventh game of a Stanley Cup final -or any road game against tough opposition. When it mattered most, Luongo broke like cheap glass.

Here's a prediction you can take to the bank: As talented as they are, the Canucks will never win a Stanley Cup with Luongo in goal.

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