Hey, some people will use any excuse to do crzy stuff like this.

I remember burning cars on St. Clair Ave at Dufferin back in ‘93 after the Leafs advanced to the 2nd round too. That doesn’t make what happened in Montreal last night right, but it does show that this isn’t a particular foible of “Habs fans” any more than it is of Leafs fans (although, to be truthful, Habs fans have had a LOT more opportunity to riot than Leafs fans….).

When you have a lot of celebrating fans, with a little alcohol and after a long exciting series, one can predict this. My buddy and I watched the game and the first thing we said when it ended was “Its going to be wild in Montreal tonight”.

The real question is, why couldn’t the MUC predict this? Sounds like they were understaffed.

Also, for the everyone of the 16 who were arrested and the maybe 100 who took part, there were thousands, even in Montreal, who didn’t riot - they had a few beers, threw a few high fives and went home without burning a police car or looting a store.

Well, it is crazy, but in the defence of Habs fans, I HIGHLY doubt it was “Habs fans” turning over cars and setting them on fire, or looting stores. When you see video footage of cars being set on fire, it’s not some guy in a Habs jersey, it’s some guy in a black hoodie wearing a balaclava.

I don’t think most of the mayhem and destruction has to do with Habs fans (not that no drunk Habs fans did anything wrong, surely some did) I think it has much more to do with young punks and anarchists who used the crowds after the game as cover. If you’re the type of hooligan who wants to torch a police cruiser you probably don’t go to the game (you probably couldn’t get tickets!) but you’re sure as Hell going to get dressed up for a bit of mayhem and hang out outside the Bell Centre after the game to start throwing rocks and torching cars once the crowd gets big enough to hide in. We’ve got to admit, there’s a bunch of young people out there that just want to smash stuff up, and I’ll give them this much. They’re smart enough to realize that an NHL playoffs Game 7 is a great cover for their antics.

Hey, there was a riot in SASKATOON back when the Blue Jays won their first World Series.

As a fanatical Habs fan for whom 1993 seems like a lifetime ago, I cannot understand how a sweet, sweet victory could bring out such destructive urges in people. As noted, it does seem to be dedicated looters who did most of the damage, but I doubt we can entirely exonnerate drunken sports fans. They have a sad history of poor judgment in how to react appropriately to victories/losses/poor refereeing, etc.

On another note, it’s “WTF”, not “WFT”. I mean, really, what fuck the?