Vancouver Has Learned Lessons From Stanley Cup Playoff Riots... Both Of Them

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For the mayors of most North American cities, your team making a deep run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is a great thing. You don't want to jinx things on the ice but it's hard not to think about parade routes and what kind of bet you'll want to make with the mayor of the other city.

However, if you're the Mayor of Vancouver, you might get a lump in your throat when the team appears capable of making a run.

According to TSN, Mayor Ken Sim wasn't too sure about the idea of holding outdoor gatherings to watch the Canucks take on the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the playoffs

That's not for the usual reason people get nervous about large gatherings, it's because Vancouver doesn't have a great history of behaving themselves when the Canucks go deep into the postseason.

There were riots in 2011 when the Canucks lost to the Bruins in Game 7 of the 2011 Cup Final. There were riots in 1994 when the Canucks lost in Game 7 to the Rangers in the 1994 Cup Final.

But hey, you'd be ready to light a car on fire too if your team had been around since 1970 and never won a Cup.

The City of Vancouver has seen rioting the last two times the Canucks made it to the Stanley Cup Final.  (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The city learned from previous experiences and has decided to go ahead with the public viewing parties.

"A lot of the individuals who were working on this year's, you know, festivities, they were there in 2011 and so they had a lot of lived experiences, and from that came a plan that was put together with a lot of thought," Sim said on Wednesday.

Fans will be able to watch Game 3 (which is in Edmonton) in a park that holds around 2,000 and is crucially a good distance away from downtown, which is where the riots were concentrated in the past.

The Canucks are still a long way away from another Stanley Cup Final appearance — which seems to be riot fuel in Vancouver — and they've got a big challenge ahead of them with an Oilers team that is probably the deepest in the Connor McDavid era.