How would they "celebrate" a Cup?

Whats wrong with camera phones? thevye arrested alot of people wouldnt it be nice if they had some hard video evidence on them and could charge them, instead of sending them home the next morning.

Mr. Boone,

With all due respect. Let us delete this blog post. Almost everyone on here has a bad taste in their mouth and frankly by posting about it, we are giving the hooligans what they want.. Publicity...

I am not one to be political but I do not like when people put a nationality to a problem... It is not classy and makes the problem even worse.

We have a great hockey team. We have great Montreal Canadiens fans. We have the best fans in the world. I truly believe that Montreal Canadiens fans are going to bounce back and make this city respectable again...

This is my last post on the subject. Thank you and have a nice evening...

Players win games, teams win championships.
- Bill Taylor

I fully agree with your comments Mr. Boone. I am a die hard habs fan and I find this inexusable.

I almost wish they didn't win. It puts a bad taste in my mouth and makes the city and their band wagon fans look ridiculous. This will even be further motivation for Free Agents not to sign with the Habs.

Wow, what did they even win? Nothing, it's not even conference finals.

This is just terrible

Don't know what to say chorske, like i said, i call em like i see them.

I was out there the entire night, personally saw at least three cars set ablaze and dozens of bottles tossed... I talked to the guys who were doing it, asking them to stand down because they are embarassing out city, and all i got were answers in french and spanish (and nearly a fistful o' angry mob vengeance, might i add).

As i said, and lets not forget i used to word "mostly", but the Crescent street riot was catalyzed by francophones and non-white non-anglophone thugs, it's the truth. When the Gazette says "Cops blame mayhem on minority, plan strategy against future incidents", they say it for a reason. These cops arent story telling, nor taking the easy route out, because that's exactly what happened.

Packs of latinos and chinese guys and black guys and francophones running around using guerrila style tactics, running around crescent, comming through the parking lot that connects to bishop and throwing glass bottles. I know i sound like a complete bigot, and racist, but let me assure i am not. As a second generation immigrant, i don't see why i can't state the facts the way i see em without being called "don cherry #2" or "anti immigrant"...

I got mashed around a few times last night and wasn't too happy about it... And i know exactly who it was the cops were chasing, and for what reasons. Why can't i let it be known?

Am i saying no white anglophones caused any damage? Course not, was bound to happen, all sizes shapes and races have angry people... But the ones who the police were hunting, and rightly so, was the aformentionned populace who was responsible for brining it to the next level of violence...

According to the 'press' they taser you in Vancouver for not paying transit fares.
Maybe, if the Habs finish the next series at home, Mr Gillette could fly in some Vancouver Transit cops as guests of the Habs.

Well, let's put it up in a readable way. I come from a country which has a huge problem with hooliganism at the stadiums. The main problem is, of course, soccer, but hockey isn't safe and sweet either. If you want a piece of advice - try to stop such things from happening as quickly as you can. In Poland:

1. People actually DIED in a riot after a soccer game. And it wasn't just one case.
2. After the championship parade two years ago, our capital's old town was demolished.
3. You can't see fans of the visiting team sitting next to the hometown guys. There is a special zone for them, fenced and called "a cage". They virtually sit there like animals in the zoo. If there's no cage at the stadium, no visiting fans are allowed.
4. "Normal" people are mostly afraid to go to a game.
5. Police coverage during a game gives a pretty good impression how a town under siege looks like.
6. People wearing colours of a team from other city are hunted by hooligans. Yes, hunted is a proper word.

I was in Canada last autumn. I spent two fabulous weeks in Montreal and one in Ottawa. Watched four "live" games - Bruins@Habs (preseason), Hurricanes@Habs (home opener) and two games in Ottawa. I was impressed - the fans were so completely different from what I've seen at "home", it was like visiting an other planet. Say anything you want about Ottawa fans - I've been in their f-ing arena wearing a CANADIENS jersey and nobody touched me. Crikes, nobody yelled at me. They noticed, there were some laughs and that's it. That's the way it should be done. The most beautiful memory of my sports life is singing "Ole ole ole" with you, the Habs fans, in the corridors of Le Centre Bell.

Now I see that some idiots (pretty big number of them actually) are bringing the Canadian way of supporting closer to the morons who turned sports into gutter in my country. As a Canadiens fan, I'm ashamed, I'm devastated and deeply saddened.

And oh, believe me, comparing to what harm can actually be done, yesterday's night in Montreal was a walk in the park.

Look on the bright side - no one was beat half to death like in Boston.

Last night turned from a fun evening of street parties, to a scene from that new "godzilla" movie Cloverfield.

I am so embarrassed that this is how we celebrate. I would like to think it wasn't Habs fans that were doing this, but who knows. All I know is that running home, covering my head out of fear of glass bottles raining down, windows being smashed, and cars being destroyed was not what I needed on a Monday night.

I don't think the drinking age is the problem here - alcohol doesn't turn nice people into a--holes - it just turns inhibited a--holes into uninhibited ones....

1. www.flickeringpictures.com - not a hockey site, but still kinda neat
2. Josh Gorges on Montreal's attack: "They're comin', they're comin' and they keep comin'. Just line after line, wave after wave..."

TSN.ca has some footage of the events last night, really creeps me out.

No wonder no one likes Montreal or Montreal fans. I've never been to Montreal in my life and am still pegged with the stereotype that we're a bunch of idiots who are arrogant, cocky, and I guess now malicious after a win. It is embarrassing.

As a Montrealer who now lives abroad, and I don't care whether they are fans or not, this is embarassing as all hell. Why is it that Quebecers are more insane when it comes to this stuff than say, the three teams that went to the finals from Canada the last 3 seasons. Ottawa, OK, but don't tell me Calgary and Edmonton don't have crazy fans or people living in their city.

Proud to be a habs fan, ashamed to be a Montrealer this morning. Get a life.

The rioters last night were not Montreal fans... They were just youngsters being S*** Disturbers.... They deserve to be put in jail and stay there...

I find it disgusting that in a city that has big festivals like the Jazz fest and Just for Laughs without a hitch, that this form of vandalism is still done today...

I agree with a few posts.. I think we should refrain from writing about this ever again after today... It was a boneheaded incident that doesn't need more fuel...

Players win games, teams win championships.
- Bill Taylor

If anyone needs to apologize BEFORE he makes a statement, maybe it would be wise if he refrained from making such statements. Are we immigrants getting into your comfort zone, Gormdog? Or are you really Don Cherry in disguise?

Anyone thinking this was an inevitability, expected or probable is both irresponsible and reactionary. If you tolerate this sort of behavior then obviously you have poor faith in the ability for people to change or have such low standards of the people you walk by on your day to work. Alcohol, adrenaline and a passion all mixed together in a mob mentality is definitely a catalyst for something stupid to happen. The police cant be everywhere, and for the most part of what goes on in the city, its up to EVERYONE to do what you think is right. Speak up when you see something that bothers you. Are those that tipped and subsequently torched the cop cars more responsible for the people that watched them do it? Not in my eyes, shame on anyone that was there. No really, why don't you guys just walk around dragging your knuckles a few days and breath through your mouths like the primatives you are. Its a blemish on the city and a blemish on the habs fans that now have to be associated with this debacle.

I've always been an advocate that Police should exercise judgment more often (especially when you forgot to pay the bill that would renew your liscence and the cop tows your car away!), and it seems they did when they backed off the crowd exiting the Bell centre, but this is where I get fuzzy on the details, was it the crescent crowd, the bell center crowd or the mixing of both?

Next victory, I would expect the police not to make the same "mistake" I'm sure the few people that said nothing will happen wanted more then anything to be right and is sorely dissapointed, especially now that it means the riot squad has to be prepared after every home game.

Glad I got my happy post out last night, too bad for the City.

Hey Mike, would you feel the same of Gazette photographers shooting photos of burning cop cars and publishing them online?

It's not really fair to conflate vandals and rioters with citizen journalism. Especially given that the Gazette has published photos taken by Joe Blow on his mobile on previous locations. If they had a cell phone shot of someone torching a cop car, I wouldn't have been surprised to see it on my doorstep this morning.

It is really terrible that a handful of idiots decide to pull off a stunt like this. Living in Toronto, I'm sure that I will hear comments about how "classless" Habs fans are. I'm pretty sure that last night's escapade was just a bunch of alcohol-filled losers who probably aren't even hockey fans. We can take comfort in one thing though ... when Laff fans say "oh, that would never happen in Toronto", its exactly the same theory as predicting what will happen when you fly a spaceship into a black hole ... you can theorise all you want, but nobody in our lifetime will ever really know!!! GO HABS GO!!!!!

The ones responsible are thugs, not hockey fans, and they were looking for an excuse. I was there in '93 the night we won, and it was the same thing. People were launching beer bottles from apartment high rises onto the heads of passing fans below. I watched what appeared to be street 'people' (and I use that term loosely) break into a grocery store in close proximity to the Forum to steal cigarettes and alcohol. Intelligent huh? It is that element of the city I love that I despise. F off, and don't associate yourself with MY team anymore.

I saw it on the news this morning and just shook my head in disgust.... after such a great night... a few thugs spoil it all and tarnish the name of our team and a great city...
this is just more fodder for all Toronto and Canada wide media who can't wait for yet another reason to hate the Habs....very sad.... our team deserves better than those drunken louts

It's just disgraceful, really. These morons are tarnishing the reputation of habs fans everywhere, when it's clear [especially from reading this board] that most of us are sensible enough to know that rioting and arson are not the appropriate response to a series win.
The police better get ready for round two, who knows what kind of hell they'll be raising if we win.