I was there.. at the riots.
The media is TOTALLY overplaying it, unless it got significantly worse after I left, which as I was told was minutes before they started using tear gas.
I did however see two cars flipped and burned, and bottles and random objects thrown at police.
I think that the riot could have gone much worse, few people were harmed, so far that I know nobody is confirmed dead. It's something that happens what... maybe once every 17 years
? It's not like the city doesn't have other things that are much more important to be disgusted by. A riot is something that every single person down there knew was happening. People left in the second period of the game, when they were down 3-0 in case of a riot. It could NOT have been avoided. I think Police handled the situation well, the crowds were not too collectively angry rather just a few people doing most of the instigating.
I did get a picture of a burning car, and some of vancouver's finest all dressed up for the ocassion.