The NHL Game That Ended In A Riot

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]June 15th, 2011. The Vancouver Canucks lose game seven. The city doesn't mourn.

[00:00:06]It detonates. Cars flip. Glass shatters.

[00:00:11]Fire swallows downtown.

[00:00:22]>> But this wasn't sudden. This was a city that watched itself riot 17 years earlier and said, "Never again." then built the stage for it to happen.

[00:00:31]Anyway, this is the story of the night hockey broke Vancouver. The 201011 Vancouver Canucks were not just good.

[00:00:40]They were the best team in the entire NHL. 54 wins, 19 losses, 117 points.

[00:00:48]First President's Trophy in franchise history. They led the league in goals scored with 258 and allowed the fewest at 180. No team in hockey was more complete on both ends of the ice. Daniel Sadine took home the Art Ross trophy with 104 points. His twin brother Henrik finished with 94. Ryan Kesler was a force down the middle. And in net, Roberto Lewango led the league with 38 wins backed by Cory Schneider, one of the most reliable backups in the game.

[00:01:18]And that regular season dominance carried straight into the playoffs. They gutted out a sevengame first round series against the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks.

[00:01:28]>> Scores.

[00:01:32]They handled Nashville in six. They beat San Jose in five. Game seven, Stanley Cup final on home ice at Rogers Arena.

[00:01:41]For Vancouver, this was more than a hockey game. The city had not seen a Stanley Cup champion since 1915 when a completely different franchise, the Vancouver Millionaires, swept the Ottawa Senators in a best of five. That team folded in 1926. The Modern Conucks entered the NHL in 1970 and in 41 years of existence had never once lifted the cup. They had made the finals twice before in 1982 against the Islanders and 1994 against the Rangers and lost both times. So when this team, this historically dominant team, reached game seven on home ice, the entire city locked in. Bars were full by 9 in the morning. People skipped work. Strangers wore matching jerseys. For one night, Vancouver believed this was finally the moment. But there is something most people don't talk about. This almost happened before and nobody learned a thing. June 14th, 1994, the Canucks lose game seven of the Stanley Cup final to the New York Rangers. Final score 3-2.

[00:02:52]The game is played in New York, but tens of thousands of fans are watching from downtown Vancouver. When the final buzzer sounds, somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000 people flood the streets around Robson and Thurlo. What starts as disappointment turns into chaos. A man falls from a lampstander into the crowd.

[00:03:12]People on bicycles try to push through to help. Someone grabs a constable's bike. The officers pull back and then it breaks open. Windows shattered along Robson Street. And Eaton's department store had more than 50 of its windows smashed. Looting spread through the core. Police deployed tear gas to clear block after block. By the time it was over, roughly 200 people were injured, over a hundred were charged, and the damage was estimated at 1.1 million.

[00:03:43]Afterward, the city commissioned three separate reviews. The police commission, the VPD, and an internal city review all came to the same conclusions. Crowd planning was inadequate. Communication between agencies failed. Alcohol was uncontrolled and no one had a strategy for what would happen if the team lost.

[00:04:03]Vancouver said it learned. And to be fair, changes were made. So when the Canucks reached the 2011 playoffs, the city set up official outdoor fan zones on Georgia Street near Rogers Arena. Big screens, temporary fencing, checkpoints where officers confiscated alcohol.

[00:04:21]Liquor stores in the area closed early on game days. For the first six games of the final, it worked. Roughly 70,000 fans showed up each night, watched together, and went home without incident. But every one of those safeguards was designed for a crowd of 70,000 people. Nobody planned for what actually arrived on June 15th. On the day of game 7, people started arriving downtown before noon. By the time puck drop approached at 5:00 p.m., an estimated 155,000 people had flooded the area. 55,000 people were packed inside the official fan zone. Another 100,000 spilled throughout surrounding streets, laneways, and intersections. The carefully designed entry checkpoints became useless. Alcohol poured in from every direction. The corridors that had been kept clear for ambulances and fire trucks were now walls of bodies.

[00:05:15]Emergency vehicles couldn't get through.

[00:05:17]The VPD had 446 officers on the ground using what they called a meet and greet strategy. Officers walked through the crowd in regular uniforms. They high-fived fans. They posed for pictures. And until now, that approach had held. But before the puck even dropped for game 7, something felt different. Scattered through the crowd were people who didn't fit. Some were spotted wearing goggles on a warm evening. Others carried bags that looked out of place. Faces that regulars in the fan zone had never seen before. And during the first period, a group was heard chanting something that had nothing to do with hockey. Let's go riot. Let's go riot. Not everyone in that crowd came to watch hockey. Puck drops just after 5:00 p.m. Pacific at Rogers Arena. Every bar, every living room, every screen in the city is locked on the same feed. And then Boston takes over. Patrice Berseron opened the scoring at 1437 in the first period. The fan zone goes quiet. Not angry yet, just tense. But the second period makes it worse. Brad Marshon scores at 1213 to make it 2 nothing. Then Berseron added a short-handed goal at 1735.

[00:06:34]3 nothing Boston. And on the other end, Tim Thomas is untouchable. Every Canucks's chance, every rush, every scramble around the net, Thomas swallows it. He finishes the night with 37 saves on 37 shots. A perfect game when it mattered most. The third period is a formality. Vancouver has nothing left.

[00:06:56]Marshon buries an empty net to seal it.

[00:06:58]Final score, 4 nothing. Boston wins the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1972.

[00:07:05]Thomas takes the K smite trophy as playoff MVP. Inside Rogers Arena, the Bruins celebrate at center ice. Outside, the crowd stands in silence. It does not last. By 7:30 p.m., before the final buzzer had even sounded, 911 calls start flooding in. Reports of fights involving more than 30 people, bottles thrown at the big screens, windows smashing in the distance. The mood has not shifted from sadness to frustration. It has skipped straight past both. By 8:00 p.m., a GMC pickup is flipped onto its roof in front of the main post office and set on fire.

[00:07:44]Portaotties collapse as people climb on top of them. Debris rains down on the fans own screens. Canucks jerseys and Boston Bruins flags are lit up in the street. By 8:26 p.m., police read the riot act and begin broadcasting a pre-recorded warning. You are participating in an unlawful gathering.

[00:08:04]Leave the area immediately. Almost no one does. Over the next several hours, 15 cars are set ablaze, including two police cruisers. Storefronts are smashed open and emptied. The Bay, London Drugs, Sears, Future Shop, a Gucci store.

[00:08:21]People walk out carrying whatever they can hold. Now the full picture of who started this begins to take shape. VPD Chief Jim Chu later states that a group of instigators arrived equipped with goggles, gasoline, and tools. He calls them criminals and anarchists who disguise themselves as fans. But the reality is more complicated. UBC political science professor Glenn Koulthard pushes back, calling the anarchist label more of an assumption or bias that has been around for a long time. And Chu himself later admits that most of the people charged represent a wider spectrum of young people. many with no prior record. The instigators may have lit the match, but thousands of ordinary people chose to feed the fire.

[00:09:05]The officers on the ground are overwhelmed. Reinforcements are called in from across the region, eventually bringing the total to 928, but the response is slow. Public order equipment is stored too far from the center of the action. A defective radio means RCMP commanders never hear the order to switch to riot gear. By the time fully equipped squads reach the worst areas, the damage is already serious.

[00:09:29]>> It may have taken up to uh in some cases 40 minutes for them from when the order was given to get on their tactical gear because of the congestion and because of where the gear was cast.

[00:09:40]>> Nearly 150 people are injured. Four are stabbed. Nine officers were hurt. St. Paul's Hospital activates its mass casualty protocol and treats more than 50 people. A man jumps or falls from the Dunmir vioaduct and is hospitalized in critical condition. Not everyone in the streets is there to cause harm. Some actively try to stop it. A man named McKay positions himself in front of the bay to protect the store and is swarmed and beaten by 13 people. Others form human chains around broken storefronts.

[00:10:12]And in the middle of it all, Australian Scott Jones and his girlfriend Alex Thomas are knocked to the pavement by advancing riot police while trying to get home. Jones kisses her to calm her down. Photographer Richard Lamb captures the frame. That image circles the globe within hours. By the time order is restored, the chaos has lasted 5 hours.

[00:10:33]The damage totals $3.78 million. It is the worst riot in Vancouver's history.

[00:10:40]But what nobody is prepared for is what comes next. Because what happens in the days after might be more disturbing than the riot itself. Within 48 hours, the Vancouver Police Department is buried.

[00:10:53]More than 1 million photos and tips pour in from the public. Citizens upload 5,500 hours of video and over 29,700 photographs. 30 terabytes of evidence.

[00:11:06]For comparison, the entire 1994 investigation produced just a 100 hours of footage. But the public doesn't wait for the police to process it. Facebook pages and dedicated websites appear almost overnight. People begin identifying rioters frame by frame, then posting their names, photos, workplaces, and schools for the world to see.

[00:11:28]Friends turn in friends. Co-workers tag co-workers. Ex's name exes. Threats flood in. People lose their jobs within hours of being identified. Athletes are pulled from teams. One family is forced to leave their home after their address is posted online. And then the mistakes start. A man named Brock Anon posts a boastful Facebook status claiming he punched officers and set cars on fire. A hate page is created in his name. A mocking song called The Ballot of Brock Anon racks up 65,000 views. The internet decides he's one of the worst offenders.

[00:12:07]But when Vancouver police review the evidence, they find Anton was never there. His posts were lies. They declined to charge him, but the damage is already done. A 14-year-old girl named Sienna St. Laurent writes a blog post claiming she took part in the destruction. It isn't true. She later admits she made it up because she wanted to feel like she was part of something.

[00:12:29]The internet doesn't care about the correction. Camille Kako, a UBC biology student, is photographed walking into a looted formalware shop and taking two pairs of pants. She turns herself into the police within days. But the online response goes far beyond accountability.

[00:12:47]She receives inappropriate messages. She loses her job. She loses friends. She's eventually prescribed medication for depression and anxiety. When her case reached court, the judge noted that the online shaming campaign was more than enough to ensure she learned her lesson.

[00:13:02]He gives her a suspended sentence, probation, and community service. One riers's lawyer puts it plainly, "The people running the online campaigns were becoming part of the same mob mentality that swept through the crowd on the night of the riot. The city wanted justice. What it got was a second mob, just a digital one. The scale of what followed was unlike anything the Canadian justice system had dealt with from a single event. 912 charges were laid against 300 people, 246 adults, and 54 youths. It became one of the largest mass criminal prosecutions in British Columbia history. Many assumed they could disappear into the crowd and be forgotten. But with that mountain of photographic and video evidence now in police databases, matched by facial recognition software and cross- refferenced against driver's license photos, hiding was almost impossible.

[00:13:56]The VPD sent 51 forensic video analysts to a lab in Indianapolis just to process it all. Without that facility, the work would have taken 90 weeks. On August 31st, 2011, a 396page independent review landed on the desks of city officials. It was co-chared by Douglas Keefe, a former Nova Scotia Justice Deputy Minister, and John Furlong, the man who ran the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The report contained 53 recommendations and did not hold back. Furlong summed it up. Officials tried to do a good thing and acted with great courage, but their plans were overwhelmed and their mistakes amplified by the impact of an immense crowd far beyond what was expected. What came out of the review reshaped how Vancouver handles large public gatherings. A formal risk assessment framework was adopted for every major event. Regional police agencies standardized their equipment and communication systems.

[00:14:56]Uncontrolled festival style seating for crowds of that size was eliminated entirely. The city didn't stop hosting public celebrations, but the way it managed them changed permanently. The NHL game that ended in a riot was never really about hockey. It was about what happens when a city stakes its identity on a single outcome and has no plan for the alternative. The Canucks core that carried that 2011 team never got another chance. Roberto Lewongo was traded to Florida in 2014. Henrik and Daniel Sadine played seven more seasons in Vancouver, watching the roster around them slowly decline before retiring together in 2018. All three were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2022. None of them ever won a Stanley Cup. At the induction ceremony, Daniel Sadine stood at the podium and said something that cut straight through.

[00:15:51]This is a great honor, but I think I would have rather won the Stanley Cup, if you know what I mean. That window didn't just close. It was gone before anyone in Vancouver fully understood what had happened. And the riot itself left a mark that went beyond property damage and insurance claims. It was one of the first major events where both a physical crowd and a digital crowd operated on the same instinct, turning on people with the same speed and the same lack of restraint. The people smashing windows downtown and the people destroying reputations online were driven by the same thing. We've all been in a moment where we got swept up in something we weren't proud of. The difference here was scale. And the lesson Vancouver left behind is simple.

[00:16:38]When you build a stage for 70,000 and 155,000 show up, what happens next isn't a surprise, it's a consequence. Thanks for being part of Skates and Scars. If this one hits differently, hit the super thanks button below. Goes a long way in keeping videos like this coming. Drop a comment. Tell us what you think went wrong that night. And if you haven't subscribed yet, now's the time. Hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one.