The Reds

Yesterday Jess and I sat through the triple-header of hockey and by the end of the day, it was probably even more painful than the triple-overtime Stanley Cup Finals game in 2002. That said, it was a great day of hockey (with two awesome games) that was different than I expected.

The first game of the day was the least competitive but at least the USA beat Norway. The Canadian fans were polite to the US at first but once the Americans got a 2-goal lead, they turned quickly and were rooting for Norway loudly. The game wasn't that great but it was nice to see Gleason out there and it was cool to meet his father during the second intermission. We did sit next to a nice couple from Kalowna, BC (wine country, apparently) and when she saw Jess's Hurricanes jersey, she asked if we heard of Drayson Bowman. We said yes and she let us know there her daughter dates Bowman's younger brother. What I took away from this was that every young girl in Canada dates a Junior hockey player.

I expected the atmosphere to be festive and patriotic but it was really more of a party atmosphere than we're used to seeing in professional sports. Obviously, the Canadians were the most into the game and if they lost, I feared that there would be rioting and lots of dead Swiss but luckily for the Olympics that didn't happen. The two highlights that were non-action related were when Jonas Hiller got run late in the game and took a shot to the head, he fell to the ice like a soccer player and the fans started taunting him by chanting his name. The guy in front of me said it was "bad form" to chant but since he was clearly faking, it was ok (I should note that they did cheer when he got up). The second part was when the game was tied late and in OT, I kept saying over and over again that I blame Joe Thorton and finally by the end I had all of the fans agreeing with me that he was terrible and should never have been picked since he never wins anything or comes up big in crunch time. A guy behind us with his elderly parents spent the first period saying how great it was to see all these superstars and how excited they were. By the 3rd period, they were trashing the team and wondering why they took guys with no heart who weren't giving a full effort. Bipolar Canadian crowds were very entertaining - it went from crazy noise in the early parts of the game to dead silence in the bathroom during the intermission. It was so quiet, at some point a guy yelled "It's too quiet in here" and no one even responded. If Canada fails to win gold, I fear for the mental health of a whole country. All in all, it was a good time.

The last game was kind of painful since we been up since 5 AM PST and it didn't even start until 9 PM. The Russian team is loaded and Slovakia had played the night before but it was surprisingly competitive and went to the second shootout we saw in the day. Ovechkin even shot 3 times in the shootout but only scored once (the rules are different in international play). The most notable part of the game, however, was the numerous displays on Soviet jackets, jerseys and huge flag. One guy even had a huge flag with Lenin's picture on it. Watch out, America - Cold War II is coming. Don't say I didn't warn you...

After returning back to the hotel very late, we got some sleep and got up to do some shopping since our first event today isn't until 4:30 PST. Unfortunately, the Olympic store we were going to had a huge line that stretched a full block and everything else was packed with people. We stopped for lunch at a great local place called Red Robin and the authentic Vancouver burger was delicious. After that, we hit a smaller store that had some official merchandise and picked up some gifts. We'll be off to two more hockey games soon and then a short night of sleep before we head to Whistler where we'll most likley be bored and cold but at least the scenery should be nice.

As the Canadians say good-bye, "Until the puck drops next". Note: No one says this.