Countdown to Vancouver 2010 Olympics: 11 days; 3 hours; 23 minutes
Days until departure to Vancouver/Whistler: 7 days
To: Nick
Part of the thrill of going to Vancouver 2010 is the fact that I get to be closer to my favourite overall Olympic event: Hockey. I'm a hockey addict. I live, breathe and pretty much devour what I can of that sport. My friends see it as a part of my character, this love for the game, and I won't exactly deny it as truth either.
How deep am I into the game? I've gotten involved in different levels of the sport. So rather than sitting on a couch watching an endless amounts of NHL games played by millionaires (which lately has involved many, many frustrating evenings when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs) I instead try to get inside the heart of what makes hockey a part of the Canadian spirit.
Which is what I did on Hockey Day in Canada.
I opened the first hour of the day playing shinny hockey with a bunch of guys at midnight in Markham.
Playing shinny at midnight on Fridays is something I do every week with the boyfriend. And some would say that the fact I do it regularity makes the event lose significance when celebrating the winter sport. I disagree. I don't play every Friday night because I have to. I do it because I love it. I play regularly, basically killing my Friday nights, because I enjoy playing hockey. And I always get a thrill in improving my game on these nights.
Hey, I had three breakaways that evening.
At 11 AM that morning, I was at the Ricoh Coliseum in downtown Toronto. I was volunteering with the Rogers TV production crew in order to bring Toronto viewers live-to-air coverage of the Rochester Americans at Toronto Marlies AHL game at 4 PM. I was the camera operator for the high-wide follow/host & intermission camera for the production.
This camera angle one of my favourites to operate at hockey games. It's an overhead perspective that gives you a unique view of the game, allowing you to see how critical plays form and are executed. It's primary use is for replays, but in this game, they incorporated a seemingly new feature with the camera. During the intermissions, they actually used the camera view to break down and analyze the creation and formation of a play that led to a Rochester goal during the first and second period. I've never seen the Marlies production crew do this before, and it thrilled me how professional the segment subsequently appeared as a result. Did you get to see it on Channel 10?
As for the score, the Marlies got shut out in that game. 2-0 was the final score as the Rochester goalie received his first win since November of 2009.
He played well, but I can't help but feel that it was an easy shutout, in that the Marlies played flat from about the second half of the first period onward. There was very little energy present with this Marlies team, and it was disappointing to watch. And far from exciting, at least as far as hockey games go.
But that's not all.
Right after that, I hopped a bus to Varsity Arena to cover and report on the University of Toronto Varsity Blues Men's Hockey team against the RMC Paladins game at 7:30 PM. It was the final leg in my hockey pilgrimage for the day.
Man, was I ever wrong. What I witnessed that evening was and is what I believe to have been the best hockey game in Toronto.
(Especially given that the Toronto Maple Leafs were at that time blowing a 3-0 lead they had built up against the Vancouver Canucks, eventually folding 5-3)
First of all, the RMC Paladins kept the game close at 2-0 with the aid of some spectacular goaltending. Using their size to frustrate the smaller Blues team, Toronto fell into some serious penalty trouble, committing some 3 fouls in less than 2 minutes, resulting in a near 3 minute five-on-three. They largely killed them, but the inevitable did come as RMC got on the board with their first goal of the game on the powerplay soon after.
And then they smelled blood. The Varsity Blues were weak and they took advantage of it.
The tying goal came in the third period in what was a bit of a controversial play. The RMC Paladins was banging away at the puck at the side of the net as the goalie tried to keep it out. The whistle blew, and the puck was across the line. At first the referee waived off the goal, but when RMC inquired, him and his linesmen conferenced for a few minutes. Keep in mind, there are no video replays at the OUA level and normally the referee's original call would stand.
It didn't this time. He would declare it a goal (much to the irritation of the Varsity Blues) and the face-off went to center ice. Suddenly, we had the bonafide, high octane hockey game that I've been craving to see live in awhile. And the game went back and forth.
Overtime. There was a minute left in the game. The Varsity Blues' top player and a top 5 scorer in the OUA Byron Elliot had the puck on his stick in the offensive zone. He's been unusually quiet in this game, mainly because every time he stepped on the ice, there was someone from RMC waiting to basically sit on his shoulder. They spent most of the game man-handling him.
There's a mad scramble in front of the RMC net. The goalies is down. The defenders are jostling to gain positioning. Suddenly the whistle is blown. I thought it was for a smothered puck, and then I realized the net was off its moorings. But there isn't Blues player realistically near where the net lost its footing.
The referee ruled that RMC intentionally shoved the net off its moorings in order to get a whistle and prevent a chance on net. This meant that Toronto was entitled for a penalty shot. And the guy who would take the shot would be the last guy who had the puck: Byron Elliot.
RMC was not happy with the call. They pleaded their case to the referee, likely imploring them that the player did it unintentionally, that he tripped on his own skates. It was to little avail.
And Elliot would play the evening's hero that night. The Blues won the game in an almost cinematic fashion, on a penalty shot in the dying seconds of overtime, 3-2.
It was the kind of game that would remind anyone who's miserably witnessing their favourite professional hockey team implode at all angles, why we devote as much time as we do for the sport. It is unpredictable. It is surprising.
And it is Canadian.
Cheers!
Grace
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