Canada coach Mike Babcock was spot on when he said hockey isn't just the national sport in Canada, it's a religion. While the Olympics stretched over three weeks and Canadians were excited about the Games and their success, the main topic of conversation would always be the men's hockey title game -- in bars, restaurants, taxicabs or on the street.
The demand for seats was so overwhelming that when tickets first went on sale -- well before the start of the Olympics and before anyone knew the gold medal participants -- organizers said they could have filled Canada Hockey Place 18 times over! By the time Canada and the U.S. advanced to the final -- setting up the matchup everyone was hoping for -- some tickets were selling for as much as $5,000. For one seat, to one game..
But this wasn't any game. This was The Game. One that 2/3 of the entire Canadian population stopped to watch. Two-thirds!Even the demand for media seating was overwhelming. Bloomberg had two credentialed seats, but we didn't get a third one for me until the morning of the game. Needless to say, I was quite psyched when I found out I'd be witnessing history from rink side instead of on a TV in the media center. Leaving the hotel to head over to the main press center, you couldn't help notice this was a special day. At 9 am, downtown bars had lines of hundreds of people stretching along the sidewalk. Police in uniform were playing street hockey with fans.
Fans with a giant Canadian flag which was passed around the lower bowl of the arena.
Drop the puck! And we're underway... The game itself lived up to the buildup. After Canada took a 2-0 lead, sending the packed house into delirium, the U.S. fought back. With 24 seconds left in the third period, Zach Parise scored the tying goal and you could feel the air come out of the building, a stunning blow for the home crowd that was counting down the seconds to a gold medal. Overtime.
You couldn't ask for anything more. And when Sid the Kid, Canada's favorite hockey son, ended it by flipping the golden goal past U.S. goalie Ryan Miller, the place absolutely exploded in celebration. Pure pandemonium that stretched across an entire nation and provided a fitting conclusion to the Games. It was amazing to watch.
Luongo reaches into the air as Canadian players throw gloves and sticks into the air..
From celebration to devastation. The U.S. players can only stand on the ice and watch Team Canada celebrate...
Mike prepares to send in his game update from press row as the players congratulate each other after the game..
The customary post-game handshake. Neat to see. These guys wanted to beat each other more than anything during the game, but they're all NHL players and many of them are teammates..
Raising the flags after the game. Finland took the bronze medal -- a game which we'd seen in person the previous night -- by beating Slovakia. The Canadian celebration didn't end when the game did. It stretched far into the night. Downtown Vancouver was packed with fans who had been watching the game in bars and on giant screens in the streets. Horns honked, cow bells rang incessantly, people yelled out windows... And this was at 11 pm -- hours after the game ended -- as we left the Olympics Closing ceremony. We had gone right from the arena after filing our stories to BC Place for the big close-out to the Games. But at just before midnight, the celebration continued.
For me, one moment summed things up pretty nicely. Several of the streets downtown were blocked off and full of fans in full celebration. As we came to one popular intersection, there was a full-fledged street hockey game going on -- five on five and they even had their own nets. We stopped for several minutes to watch as fireworks shot into the sky from several blocks over. It was almost midnight and these guys were playing under lamplight in the middle of a downtown that was packed with people still delirious from the victory -- it was one of those moments that made me stop and say, "Now this is why Canada won the gold medal.."
For me, one moment summed things up pretty nicely. Several of the streets downtown were blocked off and full of fans in full celebration. As we came to one popular intersection, there was a full-fledged street hockey game going on -- five on five and they even had their own nets. We stopped for several minutes to watch as fireworks shot into the sky from several blocks over. It was almost midnight and these guys were playing under lamplight in the middle of a downtown that was packed with people still delirious from the victory -- it was one of those moments that made me stop and say, "Now this is why Canada won the gold medal.."
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