Our usual installment of “Random Thursday” will run tomorrow in this space.  Try to deal with it.

This blog got its roots in a trip to Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics.  I spent a week there and fell in love with the city almost immediately.  The natural beauty of the mountains and the ocean are a must see.  And during the daytime, I felt very safe in this city of more than two million people.  During my stay I rented an apartment right smack dab in the middle of the downtown.  By the time I left, I felt like I had seen all two million people.

When I returned from Vancouver, a lot of people asked me what I thought of it.  I gave it glowing reviews…but always added that at night, some of the hockey fans were very, very aggressive.  I left the city just before the Gold Medal game between Canada and the USA.  I told anyone who would listen that if Canada lost that game, that city was in trouble.  And I wasn’t kidding.

So as I watched Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals last night, I kept thinking that if Boston won the game there was going to be trouble.  Unfortunately I was right.  I’d like to think that these people involved in this riotous behavior aren’t actual hockey fans, but rather hoodlums looking for an excuse to cause trouble.