Boston Fanatics take it too far

A good friend of mine whom I have not spent much time with lately recently made the trip down to Boston for games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Final between our Canucks and the Boston Bruins.
The following is a letter that my friend felt compelled to write following his trip to beantown....


Dear Mr. Mayor,
I am writing to you today to express my disappointment of the treatment we received in your city.
As a Canadian, and a life long hockey fan, I know what it means to be a passionate fan for my home team.
I work in the film industry, which grants me the opportunity to travel for work, and to attend conferences and trade shows through my labor union, I.A.T.S.E. Between this travel, and my personal vacations, I am able to see hockey in many markets, even occasionally seeing my home team Canucks in another city.

The opportunity to watch the Canucks in a Stanley Cup playoff series in another city seemed like a wonderful opportunity, too good to pass up. So on Sunday, my brother and I drove from Vancouver to Seattle, boarded a plane a made our way to Boston. We were both very excited about the whole trip. We arrived in Boston Monday morning, fully expecting the cold shoulder. We're big boys, we can take it.
After all, we we're now in your town, and Boston does have a reputation as being a tough city. So we were fully prepared for some banter and ribbing.

After checking in to our hotel, and a nap, we made ticket arrangements for that night's Game 3.

We then made our way down to the TD Garden.
From the moment I got out of that cab on Causeway St., I knew there was going to be trouble. The profanity that was instantly showered upon us was shocking. We ignored it and I suggested since we were in Boston, and being of Irish/Scottish decent ourselves, it was only fitting that we hit up an old Irish pub. Which we did. The server was fairly reluctant to serve us at first, but she did, and we enjoyed a good meal before heading into the Garden.
Once in our seats, things just went from bad to worse.
The verbal and physical abuse we were subjected to was disgraceful.
I'm 41 years old, my brother is 39, and never have I witnessed or been the target of such disrespectful behavior.
It's my understanding from the ticket brokers I spoke with that approximately 12-15% of the tickets went to Canucks fans who made the trip to Boston. Somewhere in the range of 2000 fans, for a cross continental trip, I would say that's fairly significant.
After the game we met up with a few of my brother's friends who also came to Boston. One of them told us that he was repeatedly hit with marbles. Security later told us that this has happened before, and that marbles don't show up on the metal detectors.
When two of his other friends refused to respond or engage with the taunts from a group of Bruins fans, they then instead took to verbally attacking their wives. Calling them whores, and using degrading racial slurs.

We were told of Canucks fans who were using the washrooms, standing at the urinals, and had Bruins fans turn and urinate on them. Fans who were spit on, both inside and outside he arena. Multiple people, including a group of girls in Canucks jerseys were pepper sprayed. Fans who were punched and head-butted in the stands. The fact the the now famous Canucks fans known as The Green Men had to be escorted out of the Garden under police protection. And of course by now we have all heard about the father and his 9 year old child who were dragged out of a downtown cab and assaulted by group of thugs.
The most ironic thing I heard was being told by number of fans after the unfortunate Rome/Horton incident was that "All Canadians should just F*****g Die" I tried to remind these people that 17 of the 22 Bruins on the roster are in fact Canadian. Milan Lucic is even from Vancouver. Head coach Claude Julien, Canadian. Bruins GM, Cam Neely is Canadian. And your two greatest hockey icons, Ray Bourque and Bobby Orr, Canadian. It didn't matter, the abuse continued.

Tuesday we wanted to see some sights. Do the tourist thing. But the verbal abuse that ensued throughout the day just ruined things for both of us. We met up with a couple Vancouver film industry friends of mine at Fenway Park. His experience and stories were much the same.

Game 4 was much the same. Taunts, yelling profanities, personal threats and insults. With the added touch of having beer poured on us. To which I will say that one brave and decent Bruins fan stood up to the hooligans with us, and had the offender ejected from the game. Verbal and physical abuse that continued outside until we were able to get a cab back to our hotel.

Now, to me, the most disturbing part to all of this, is that it all happened with Bruins victories.
I shudder to think what would have happened had the Canucks won one or even both of those games. How would these "fans" have reacted had a Stanley Cup been presented to the Canucks in game 4. We will never know, I think it's safe to say that it would have been the shortest on-ice Cup presentation in modern NHL history.

I don't mean to be down on all of your citizens. We did meet some wonderful, interesting people on our trip. People who tried to make us feel welcome. People who wanted us to feel perfectly comfortable in your city supporting our team. People who genuinely wanted us to be there, and to enjoy what your city has to offer.

Unfortunately for me, in the 4 days I spent in Boston, the negatives far out weighed the positives.
Of all the cities I have traveled to, I am sad to say, that Boston is the one and only that I have ever said that I have no desire to ever return to.

Regretfully,
Vancouver, B.C.