Hey, it's time to leave Detroit alone

The Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 earlier this evening to win the Stanley Cup. Sadly, this night will be remembered for the way that Vancouver fans responded to the loss. In one of the most disgusting scenes that I have seen as a sports fans, hooligans took to the streets of downtown Vancouver and set fire to police vehicles, smashed business windows, looted and threw bottles and other objects at police officers trying to put an end to the violent behavior.

When watching the 2010 Winter Olympics last year, which took place in Vancouver, I could not believe how beautiful a city it was. I thought it was not only a beautiful city physically, I thought that the citizens there provided a fantastic atmosphere and showed the world how great of a city it was. However, after tonight, there is very little positive thoughts in regard to Vancouver. It's difficult to label an entire city based off of the act of one group, but this isn't a small crowd partaking in these acts. The group committing these acts is very large and full of immature people.

With what's happening in Vancouver tonight, it's time for people to lay off the city of Detroit and find a new city to bash.

Having spent my entire life in metro Detroit, I've grown sick and tired of listening to people who want to compare every negative issue to something that occurred in Detroit. This city will never be forgiven for the Palace Brawl in 2005, whether or not it was the Indiana players who went into the crowd and began the physical confrontation. Every riot will continue to be compared to the one that happened after the Detroit Tigers won the 1984 World Series. Finally, who could forget the Canadian reporter, Robert Tychkowski, who wrote an article in November that stated the forecast in Detroit was, "muggy with a chance of murder."

I'm never going to argue that Detroit doesn't have issues as a city, however, when it comes to sports, there is no doubt that this city and its fan base knows how to handle both winning and losing with class. There has been 11 professional and major University championships won in my lifetime here in Michigan and not once have we had any issues with fans behaving like we are seeing tonight in Vancouver. Detroit even lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2009. Did we riot in the streets? Did we set cars on fire? Did we attack police officers with physical violence? To the surprise of many people, most of which have never spent any time in this city, the answer to all of those questions is no.

One thing that people need to remember, this is over a hockey game. This isn't an issue of life or death, it's not even an issue serious enough to warrant any of the behavior we are seeing tonight. This, folks, is a game. There is always going to be a winner and there is always going to be a loser. Sadly tonight, the Vancouver Canucks aren't going to be the biggest losers when all is said and done. It's going to be the city of Vancouver.

Step aside Detroit, there's a new whipping boy in town, and deservedly so.

*I want to thank CTV for the great coverage of tonight's events in Vancouver. Provided a great glimpse for those of us at home.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press

NHL proves yet again it has no backbone

Nathan Horton laid on the ice motionless for what seemed to be an eternity. The camera zoomed in so everybody watching could see as he struggled to take deep breaths on the ice while unconscious. The panic he went through when he finally regained any sense as to what was going on was unbearable.

That was the end result of one of the most vicious, disgusting hits I have ever seen in hockey. Aaron Rome, the responsible party for this hit, not only deserved to miss the rest of the Stanley Cup Finals, but he deserved to miss much more as well. The problem is, the NHL yet again showed that its disciplinary action is far from respectable by only suspending him for the rest of the Cup Finals.

Possibly even more disgusting than the hit itself, was Mike Murphy, senior vice president of hockey operations, stating that the hit was not covered under Rule 48 and was simply an issue of a late hit. Murphy went on to explain exactly what went into the decision-making process behind the suspension.

"Two factors were considered in reaching this decision," said Murphy. "The hit by Rome is clearly beyond what is acceptable in terms of how late it was delivered after Horton had released the puck and it caused significant injury."

For those of you who are unaware of Rule 48, it defines an illegal hit to the head as, "A lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principal point of contact is not permitted."

What is most frustrating about this whole situation is the fact that while the hit was definitely a north-south play, Rome was targeting an unsuspecting player. Replays clearly show that Horton takes nearly three full strides before contact takes place and Rome's eyes never leave Horton the entire time. Rome knew that the puck left Horton's possession, yet he was intent on delivering a critical blow. Sadly, he did.

The NHL took steps forward this season to finally addressing hits to the head, an issue that has been hindering the league for quite some time now. However, an incident like we saw Tuesday shows just how much further they need to go to addressing the problem.

One step toward possibly doing this is the NHL naming Brendan Shanahan the new head of discipline next season, taking over for Colin Campbell. While some will contend that Shanahan will have a conflict of interest when addressing disciplinary actions for teams like the Red Wings, who he played for, I believe that being a former player, along with working in the league office will help him intelligently and fairly hand down discipline.

As for now, I only wish somebody in the league office would have had the backbone to stand up to the dirty hit by Rome and suspend him for a greater length of time. It was one of the most disgusting plays we have ever had to witness, yet sadly, there will be another hit in the future that tops it. Hopefully by then, the league works out its problems and can adequately handle it when it does happen.