I received some strong feedback from yesterday’s gallery of the rioting in Vancouver in the wake of the Canucks’ Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup Finals. My original intention wasn’t to blame hockey fans for the disgusting display of violence and societal breakdown, because I know that there’s a deeper reason behind this riot and others that we’ve seen over the years. It’s not about sports as much as it’s about people just being generally unhappy.

Hold on, someone just threw a brick covered in feces through my window. Ah, apparently I’m wrong and the rioting is indeed the fault of sports fans. Male sports fans with tiny penises, to be precise.

“People invest themselves, their identity, very much in the sports clubs,” explained Professor Ervin Staub, a psychologist and the founder of the program in Psychology of Peace and Violence at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “There is evidence that when a team loses, fans get a little depressed and when the team wins, they get a little high.”

Such biological effects, Staub explained, are directly linked to behaviors. Losers feel “diminished” and “powerless,” he said, and people then become tempted to “use destructive means rather than constructive means to regain one’s sense of effectiveness.” So they lash out. (Maybe the team lost, but I can bust a department store window!) (MSNBC)

To blame Vancouver’s riot solely on sports fans is lazy and unfair. This isn’t about thousands of young people being pissed off that the Canucks lost. Sure, it doesn’t help that they lost and it certainly gives people a good excuse to go out and get stupid, but this is about something so much bigger. All those people flipping cars, lighting fires, fighting each other, smashing windows and pillaging stores don’t give a crap about a hockey game. They’re pissed off at life.

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The story today should be that the Boston Bruins won their first Stanley Cup in 39 years. The story should be that Bruins goalie Tim Thomas, who was considered at one point to be done because of injuries and an unorthodox style, delivered one of the greatest Game 7 performances in Stanley Cup Finals history. Hell, the story should be that Boston fans are celebrating all over America today after not giving a flying pig’s poop about this franchise for years. But it’s not.

Instead, the story is about stupidity, arrogance, ignorance, and all of the other things that we detest about sports. After the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Bruins 4-0 last night at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, fans spilled into the streets and destroyed their beautiful city. While it’s not the first time that we’ve seen the fans of a major city’s sports franchise flip over cars, start fires, attack police, and loot stores, it’s still a pretty f*cked up thing to look at. I’ve been to Vancouver a few times and I consider it to be a pretty remarkable city, but looking at the images after the jump I can’t help but wonder why.

Perhaps it’s a testament to the growing tension among fans to pay an average of $2,100 to watch their team get blown out in the final game of a series that it should have won. Maybe it’s simply a case of a spoiled culture boiling over with a dangerous combination of intoxication, hormones and misdirected rage. Maybe Vancouver’s fans thought that those kids giving their lives in Egypt and Syria were just upset about their stupid hockey team losing. I don’t really know or care what the cause is. The fact is that it’s just flat out stupid. But congrats to Boston fans for a victory and for being the better people.

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Yesterday, we showed you a gallery of Vancouver boobs. Today, we come to find out that “Vancouver boobs” means something completely different. “What!? You beat us at hockey!? Well we’ll show you, come on guys let’s f*ck up our own town!” Burnsy’s going to have a bunch of “Canadians be crazy” photos up in a bit, but I wanted to give you a heads up in case every single thing we write today is about Canada’s miscreant equivalents of Kinger and Schmo.

Also, a hockey game was either won or lost, I can’t tell.

Sports

Latest: Fan Mayhem - Head on over to CTV and check out a video recap of the riots, including a guy with a faux-hawk talking about how the “young boys wanted to go downtown”. The best punishment for these heinous acts: make everyone who rioted move to that upper, barren part of Canada where all they can do for fun is ice fish and die of coldstroke. [CTV]

The Wrestling Podcast - When you’re done, be sure to check out my world podcast debut on TH’s fake fighting weekly. We talk about Japan, puffy Charlotte Hornets Starter jackets, and what you do and don’t expect upon meeting Chris Benoit. Good clean fun for the whole family! [The Wrestling Blog]

Video: ‘Moneyball’ Footage Released In All Its Brad Pittitude - Jon is better at writing little facetious one-act plays than anyone I’ve ever known. Watch the entire video to hear to Douche that Walks Like a Man from Entertainment Tonight barf about how great the movie looks. [SB Nation]

Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel for the NFL Lockout? – Or is it just a freight train comin’ their way, yayyyyy-yeah-heayahhhhh. Okay, that copy reads better if you sing it like James Hetfield. [The Smoking Section]

Not Sports

Video: Cooking Show Money Shots - Is it weird that if I could sleep with any woman in the world, it would probably be a 40-year old with a huge head and a cooking show? The food she cooks doesn’t even look good, what’s wrong with me? [Warming Glow]

Commando Reboot Has Great Script, Says Liar - I think “a great script” or “a really great script” is Hollywood code for “I agreed to do this for money but can’t say that.” I remember Sean William Scott going on talk shows talking about how he was NEVER gonna return for an American Pie 3, but American Wedding just had “such a great script”. Yeah, that script was fantastic, Sean William. [Film Drunk]

The Avengers Poster - I’m happy to say Hollywood’s first Ultimate Team-Up movie features my all-time pet peeve from comics – a character jump kicking nothing as they’re falling from a great height. What are you kicking, Black Widow? It can’t be important, Iron Man isn’t even looking at it. [Gamma Squad]

Zach Galifianakis and Fiona Apple are Friends - …and I want to go over to their house and hang out with them forever. Screw you, Tosh, “Never is a Promise” is an awesome song. Except for that last part where she goes “mmm mmm mmmmm” and almost ruins it. But awesome nonetheless! [Uproxx]

Rachel McAdams enjoys watching her beloved Canucks. I wonder where this is going.

I’m not much of a hockey fan these days, what with my beloved St. Louis Blues playing by the philosophy of rebuilding one decade at a time, but some friends of mine have told me that there is nothing more exciting in sports than Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. And since there is a Boston team involved, it can be especially fun when fans that haven’t cared about the Bruins in 20 years spill into the streets of Beantown tonight to celebrate their first Stanley Cup victory in 39 years or celebrate simply having a reason to flip cars, tear down light poles and wake up in drunk tanks with no clue where their pants are.

But everything that I have read and seen about this series has favored the Vancouver Canucks. Sure, they’re the team expected to win and they’ve certainly been impressive throughout the playoffs and regular season. Boston, on the other hand, is a huge underdog hoping to prevail much like the Dallas Mavericks just did in the NBA Finals. However, the more statistical analysis that I read and expert opinion I try to comprehend, my ultimate prediction of the Canucks winning Game 7 tonight comes down to one all-important factor – Boobs.

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The Stanley Cup Finals are going to game 7. Of course, there’s not a LeBron to be found in the NHL, not even Aaron Rome (although retroactively Eric Lindros came pretty close), so it’s hard to get things like Twitter excited about it. One thing is for sure: win or lose, Tim Thomas deserves the Conn Smythe Trophy. For those of you who don’t follow hockey, each year the Conn Smythe is awarded to the league’s most handsome goaltender.

Sports

Bruins Force Game 7 - If you aren’t following this, you should be, because the Bruins didn’t just decide to give up circa game 4 or 5 and call it a season. Scroll down and read all the hockey coverage, until you can’t handle it anymore and all the jokes about basketball and the Heat start being fresh and funny again. [Yardbarker]

Who Wants to Watch Chris Bosh Cry While Heading into the Locker Room? - I do, I do! But it’s always sad to see such a kind-hearted forest creature cry. [BroBible]

We Are Allowed To Hate The Miami Heat - In case you missed it yesterday, check out Mayor Burnsy’s manifesto about why it’s okay to get all bent-out-of-shape-happy about what happened in the basketballs. My version of this would just be the words CLEVELAND in big letters. [With Leather]

That Ken Burns Crap - Jason Fry does Ken Burns, and baseball is still happening whether you like it or not. Sports blogs are always better when they include the phrase “in my younger years”. [Faith and Fear]

Not Sports

The Best of The Venture Bros. Cosplay - I remember going to the Detroit City Motor-Con (or whatever the hell it was called) a few years ago and having more people react to my Henchman 24 t-shirt club shirt than most of the costumes. This gallery will give you a great idea why. We’re gonna recreate parts of this gallery on CNN later as “The Best of Jackie O Cosplay”. [Gamma Squad]

Every Zach Galifianakis Clip From Tim & Eric - Hoo … bastank. One of my favorite memories was going to a Washington Nationals game and running into Zach freaking Galifianakis. For those of you who are all ONE TRICK PONY ONLY GOT ONE SCHTICK BLURGHH, watch these videos and laugh the weirder parts of your ass off. [Adult Swim]

Meme Watch: The Best Of Hipster Edits - Like any Austin Texas resident I sure do hate the word “hipster”, but these get funnier and funnier as they go. Hipsters don’t edit things, they put birds on things and call it art. [Uproxx]

Bad Medicine: The Most Incompetent TV Doctors - You know the state of TV doctors is bad when Dr. Nick Riviera comes in at number ten. Every TV doctor is bad, because they have to spend the first 40 minutes being wrong to be “right” at the end and create exciting television. Sort of like those Law and Order episodes where they build and build and build and then the person’s all OH BY THE WAY I DID IT AND AM GUILTY as they’re fading to the credits. [UGO]

edit: Also, I still can’t believe that character’s name was seriously “Christian Shephard”.

One of the highlights (or lowlights, depending on how you look at it) of the Stanley Cup Finals was Aaron Rome’s absolutely monster hit that took out Nathan Horton. What actually happened is one of those things that make Internet communities type “your a f**ken idiot” to each other, but here’s what you need to know: Horton didn’t have his head up, and Rome blindsided him (a lot later than he should’ve) and Horton spent the rest of his evening having ice shoveled out of his head. The Canucks lost the game, based on some combination of penance and good hockey.

Today, the league reacted. From Blue Seat Blogs:

First of all the Canucks got a beat down losing the game 8-1 (in part thanks to the penalty issued on Rome) and today Rome was suspended by the league for 4 games for his actions on the Bruins forward, actions that have cost Horton the remainder of the Cup Finals as the Bruins announced earlier today. It has also been announced that Horton has been released from hospital.

I want to know what you think. We get a lot of commenters who seem to know what they’re talking about (even when they don’t), so fill me in. Is this a fair decision? Was Rome’s hit as cheap as it looked? And is the loss of an important piece of their offense going to hurt the Bruins, or are they just going to roll? Can the Canucks recover, and is it their moral imperative to do so? Should the Bruins get together and beat the orca sh** out of Fin?

Don’t wait until something pisses you off to comment, let’s talk f**king ice hockey.