... well, there was a high-stakes hockey clash last Wednesday and although I was in downtown Toronto for this fateful final game of the NHL season, there were clear sightlines all the way across the prairies, over the snowy mountains and on to the sea ... the coveted Stanley Cup, Holy Grail of the sport, was to be awarded in Vancouver ... perhaps even to Vancouver ...
... having lived in B.C. for many years, the recently concluded playoffs and Stanley Cup run were too "close to home" for me to be unaffected by the hype, in spite of the fact that a hard, slippery puck (oh, for want of a single letter) is essentially foreign to my soul ... as a sporting spectacle, the contest between the American based team from Boston and the Vancouver Canucks was a gripping, bi-coastal, international affair warranting the spotlight it commanded ... both teams had more than the requisite need to triumph, having seen others win for forty years, but one franchise was always going to have to wait for another day ...
... gravitating instinctively to the roundness of a football (soccer) for my sporting kicks, the emotional stakes were less than if I had grown up on skates, but enough to get me to pause face-to-face with a sporty mannequin in the Eaton Centre shortly before the first-period face-off ... he told me all of Canada had co-opted Vancouver's team as flag bearers for this moment in time ... as I mused with the steely-faced "fannequin" in the rolled up sleeves behind the incognito eyewear, I felt myself willing Vancouver to win ... for the sake of a city which has been to this juncture before, with precedent setting consequences ...
... while I wasn't there, images I've seen of riotous fan behaviour, following the decisive Boston victory, can be considered anachronistic, despite the 1994 destruction following a similar last-hurdle disappointment ... this because Van-sterdam has too many positive aspects and accolades to be occluded by comparatively isolated mischief ... repeatedly hailed as one of the world's premier cities and flush with recent Olympic exposure, Van-city can lay claim to having transformed into metropolitan Van-opolis, if not quite the realm of any team-sport elite ...
... increasingly, it seems to be accepted that civic greatness is a function not only of glittering achievements, but also how a city transitions through adversity and challenge ... post-mortems will reveal more about the social complexities of contemporary Canada and value systems bred into future generations, than they will reveal about the contest itself ... my 100% Canuck bredrin-by-the-wall-in-da-mall looks serious, but the marauding feature-creatures on Georgia Street, laughing and dancing, petulantly taunting and camera whoring, were enacting modern rituals ... martyrdom for the uncaring cause of anarchy ...
... it's unclear how some of these guys 'n' gals benefit ... y'see, even if you can successfully jack some Louis Vuitton swag from a shattered storefront, move it all online at irresistable prices for beer-money or next-year season-tickets, who y'gonna tell it to? ... moreso, how y'gonna deny that's you on youtube and facebook with that souvenir tuxedo ecstatically embraced in your grasp? ...
... this Red Bull fed flare-up was no sneak-up ... on the bright side, the authorities gain the sort of experience that should make the next imbroglio less destructive, punishment awaits those who will be identified and those who have oafishly self-identified via digital media ... and then there is the redemptive outpouring of public consciousness regarding anti-social foolishness ...
... "the 'couve" now stands to gain, having added a blemish against which to measure its own greatness ... in big-city terms this is called maturity, which ironically could prove to be the missing intangible when the Canucks do win at a future destiny ...
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