Great Hockey Riots #9

Edmonton Riot of 2006 - the Oilers defeat the Anaheim Ducks in conference final

Unlike #10, the Oilers actually made it out of the first round before things got a bit premature. The riot happened after they won the right to play in the Finals on behalf of the Western Conference, a fact nobody thought would ever happen again until someone invented time travel and went back to the mid-eighties.

In the eighties the Oilers were the class of the league.  Fast, talented and tough they ushered in a new style of play that focused on goal scoring, cheap shots (led by Mark Messier) and getting the puck to Wayne Gretzky.  They played a score now, worry about defense later style of play that made for the most exciting hockey since the movie Slapshot.  

Then The Trade happened.  Oilers owner Peter Pocklington needed money and sold the Oilers and the NHL's biggest asset in Wayne Gretzky to the LA Kings.  Except for one last hurrah towards respectability in 1990, the Oilers quickly sank down to their current level on the cusp of being either an average farm league team or an elite beer league team.
It stayed that way until 2006, the year after the NHL's 2nd work stoppage.  The first year of the owner imposed salary cap system meant that the perpetually poor Oilers were able to acquire the skills of MVP defenceman Chris Pronger and the heart of Mike Peca who at one time was destined to replace Stan Smyl in the Canuck organization, in ogie's perfect world before the Canuck organization messed that up, as per club policy.

Despite the acquisition of some top-rated talent and the continued use of some mid to low rated talent, the Oilers squeaked into the playoffs as the eighth seed in the Western Conference.  From there they would go on to surprise everybody in the hockey universe by beating the league leading Detroit Red Wings, then go on to beat the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks to meet the Carolina Hurricanes, who surprised everybody because they had no idea a team existed in Carolina.

So, figuring that the Stanley Cup was all but theirs again, they streamed out of the pubs and clubs to party like it was 1985 again.  Some Oiler faithful took advantage of the riot and decided to take matters into their own hands and settle a debt they had with a phone booth on Whyte Avenue:

i have no idea what this phone booth did to deserve such hatred.

Speaking on behalf of the Edmonton tourism board; 

"It's madness, it's just madness," said Steve Parent, 19, on Whyte Avenue. "This is how real Edmontonians party."

As riots go, it was a pretty friendly one; only two people were stabbed, a dozen arrests were made out of an estimated 50,000 people.
The Oilers did manage to win 15 out of 16 games and helped Canada forget all about their hatred towards the NHL owners for the loss of the 2005 season but as riots go, unless you were using a pay phone that night, it was a pretty mild affair.