Hockey game the perfect ending

RICK MACDONNELL, SnowSeekers Inc.

Without a doubt, one of the top three moments of my life.
I can't recall a time where I've felt such euphoria, such uninhibited  joy. I hugged more strangers in the last hour than I have in my entire life. My hands are red from the high fives I've given. My throat is run raw from the screaming I've done.
GO CANADA GO!

I've never been so glad to be 25, else I would have taken a heart attack. Those first few moments of overtime were taxing, to say the least.
The entire SnowSeekers crew was holed up in Merlin's since 10 a.m. this morning. The doors didn't open 'til 11a.m. By the time we were allowed inside, the lineup was at least 200 strong (it stretched back to Monk's Grill).
Luckily, we had the foresight to get there early enough to reserve some prime real estate
"I'd hate to be one of the poor souls who thought they'd get in here at Noon," said Jon Vaughn of Margaree, Nova Scotia. " It's the men's hockey gold medal game, for Christ's sake. If you're not prepared to wait five hours to see this, then you don't deserve to."
For weeks, the pundits have said that if the men's hockey team didn't win gold, the Games would be a failure. As if that pressure wasn't enough, Canada went into their game against the United States one gold shy of the Olympic record for most gold medals in one Olympic Games.
In one fell swoop Team Canada satisfied the hopes and dreams of an entire nation, and set an Olympic record in the process.
I can't even imagine what it was like to be inside B.C. Place as the crowd of 18,000 strong belted out GO CANADA GO. When Cole Harbour's own Sidney Crosby scored the game winning goal, the crowd at Merlin's went off.

Cheers and chest-bumps went on for the next 10 minutes, all throughout the medal presentation ceremony.
It couldn't have been a more fitting end to an amazing Olympic Games. Canada's golden boy, Sidney Crosby scored to win it in overtime against the best goalie in the world – Ryan Miller.
 It's hard to imagine that a little more than two weeks ago, the public was crying for the first gold medal on Canadian soil. Now, we've set the record for not only the most golds on home soil (eclipsing the U.S.A.'s record of 10), but we've set the record for most golds ever at the winter Olympic games (14).
Whistler, along with Vancouver, has played host to one of the greatest Games in Olympic history (winter or summer). Without a doubt, we've raised the bar for future Games.
Sochi's got some work to do.

Stay tuned to www.snowseekers.ca/olympicnews for daily blogs, videos and more throughout the Olympics.

For full stories on Western Canada's winter destinations, visit snowseekers.ca and friend us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Canada vs. Germany (post-game)

RICK MACDONNELL, SnowSeekers Inc.

It pretty much went according to plan. Team Canada walked over Germany 8-2 in its qualification game tonight, setting up a thrilling quarterfinal game against the highly powered Russians tomorrow.
Most comforting was the play of the line of Sydney Crosby, Jarome Iginla, and Eric Staal, who were united as a trio for the first time in the tournament. The trio combined for three goals, six points, and dominated the Germans on almost every shift.

Coach Mike Babcock had been playing Crosby alongside all-star winger Rick Nash for the previous three games, but the two were split up after combining for a minus-6 in their last game against the Americans.
Nash, paired with Anaheim Duck teammates Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, finally got on the score sheet as well, scoring the team's eighth goal with a blazing wrister from his off wing in the dying minutes of the third.
"6-2, 8-2, what's the difference?" said Mike O'Donnell, a passionate Canadian fan who predicted a 6-2 Canadian victory earlier in the day. "Under promise and over perform, am I right? It couldn't have gone much better."
Even the two German goals – which might have been cause for concern given that the Germans have far from a potent attack – couldn't be blamed on goaltender Roberto Luongo, who started in place of the struggling Martin Brodeur.
By all reports, he looked much sharper than Brodeur did against the Americans.
The question now becomes whether this game was a case of Canadian skill and talent, or a just "a win over Germany."
According to O'Donnell, the Canadians deserve all the credit for the victory.
"The important thing to focus on is the fact that they were better than the Germans in every facet of the game, and by a large margin.

"The Crosby line looked fantastic, all four lines scored at least a goal, and Luongo did what he had to do. With Luongo, he wasn't going to have the opportunity to come out and look incredible, because the Germans simply don't have the talent to match Canada."
O'Donnell, a former hockey player himself at Northeastern University in Boston, is a former New Brunswick native who's wife is American. They attended the Canada/U.S.A. game on Sunday in Vancouver, and the duo are eagerly looking forward to a rematch.
"The atmosphere for that game was absolutely incredible," said Jenn O'Donnell. "I was one of the only people in the entire crowd with an American jersey on, so naturally I was getting it from the crowd. It was all in fun, though. We were hugging after the game. It was great."
The Olympic Games are so very different than other international hockey tournaments like the World Championships or the World Juniors. In those tournaments, opposing nations are considered enemies. Fans hate them and revel in that hatred.
With the Olympics, though, it's interesting to see the sportsmanship amongst the fans. Everyone still wants to see their teams win, obviously, but they're just as happy to celebrate other's victories as well.
"It's like one big happy family here," Jenn said. "We fight, we compete, we cheer and boo, but at the end of the day, we're all playing for the same team."
Let's see how sportsmanlike the Canadian fans will be on Wednesday after the game against the Russians.

Stay tuned to www.snowseekers.ca/olympicnews for daily blogs, videos and more throughout the Olympics.

For full stories on Western Canada's winter destinations, visit snowseekers.ca and friend us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Canada vs. Germany (Pre-Game)

RICK MACDONNELL, SnowSeekers Inc.

It's a slippery slope that Team Canada was on. The loss to the Americans on Sunday was a shock to the system, for sure, despite the fact that the Canadians carried the play for the majority of the game, and were the victim of some shaky goaltending in their own end and some stellar goaltending in the other.

The Canadian men are the most stacked team in the entire tournament (sorry, Russia, but you have nothing on Canada, depth-wise), and were expected by many to roll into the gold medal game.
A narrow victory over the Swiss and a loss to Team U.S.A. has shaken the team's confidence. One might think that their anxiety would transfer over to their fan base, but based upon the reactions from the crowd at Whistler's Brew House, the Canadian fans are already looking forward to a Wednesday match-up against Russia in the quarterfinals.
"I'm expecting nothing less than a 6-2 victory," said Mike O'Donnell, a native of New Brunswick who's lived in Boston for the past 20 years, where he attended Northeastern University and played varsity hockey and baseball.
"There's not a single player on the German team that would make me think twice about a Canadian victory."
Most of the onlookers were seeing the game as a tune-up for Russia, their only worry being that Canada might not beat Germany by enough. That, and the performance of goaltender Roberto Luongo, who wouldl replace Martin Brodeur, who's uncharacteristically poor performance has effectively moved him to the bench for the remainder of the Games.
Bobby Lou, as the Vancouver fans lovingly refer to Luongo, will likely ride the Olympics out as Canada's starting goaltender, a position that many fans thought he deserved from the beginning.
"Brodeur was handed the starting job because of his reputation, not because of his talent," said Chris Munro, who, along with Dave Munro, comprise Spy vs. Spy. The band played to the Brew House crowd prior to the game.
"Luongo is the better goaltender, he's younger, and he's playing to his home crowd (Vancouver)," Munro continued. "Now that he's been handed the reins, so to speak, I feel much more confident."
Regardless of the goaltending situation, most fans were in agreement that what Canada needs more than anything is a good thrashing.
"What they really need is to go out there and hand the Germans an 8-0 loss, or something like that," O'Donnell said. "They need to get the offense going, get their confidence back, and feel like they have a goalie back there that'll stop pucks when they need him to."
Heading into a quarterfinal against the Russians, the Canadians would definitely need their edge back. It seems like they've lost that swagger, that belief that they're the best team on the planet.
They'll need that back if they hope to challenge the Russians in the potential game tomorrow.
"If the Crosby line gets going, we'll be all right," Munro said.
The question is: what if it doesn't?

Stay tuned to www.snowseekers.ca/olympicnews for daily blogs, videos and more throughout the Olympics.

For full stories on Western Canada's winter destinations, visit snowseekers.ca and friend us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

The three pillars

By Will Colford, SnowSeekers Inc.

        

             Growing up in a small town, I know first-hand the importance of staying busy.  Idle hands are, after all, the Devil’s playthings. I know it now and my parents knew it then. As a result they kept me busy and involved with as many sports and recreational programs as possible. The community of High River, however, has a significant advantage over my hometown: a recreation centre. 

            Above the entrance are three signs designating the three activities contained within the rec centre, or as I call them, the three recreational pillars of any small town, swimming, curling, and ice rinks. “Without the rec programs the kids are out on the street, maybe getting up to stuff they shouldn’t be,” said Darryn Gold Thorpe, director of the centre.

 Cynthia Phaero, the center’s program administrator tries, “to implement a wide variety of sports programs to see which ones the kids like best, then promote those.” The local care foundation donates money, enabling a free swim twice a week. 

            The centre isn’t just for the youth either. “During the day the seniors use all the facilities through a wide variety of programs like aquatic aerobics, a curling league, and even a senior men’s hockey league called the Old Timers. But more than just a sporting facility, the rec centre is a social hub where people of all ages within the community go to be social and enjoy sport.

It was a fitting site for the Olympic Torch Relay ceremonies in High River. Make sure to catch the Travel Alberta Olympic Torch Relay videos on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/TravelAlbertaCanada

 

For full stories on Western Canada's winter destinations, visit snowseekers.ca and friend us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.