Olympic Hockey

Yesterday was a lot of fun. We stopped working at 1:00 pm (any day that happens is a good day in my mind) and started celebrating. The entire office was going to watch one of the Olympic Hockey games! We had food and drink brought into the office, former employees started to arrive and we even let Greg up on the roof again.

When the time arrived, we all walked over from the office to the stadium (about a fifteen minute walk) and started waiting in line. At one point I turned around and took a picture of the people still behind me - this is after going through the security checkpoints - you can see them in the background. It was going to be a busy place!

In order to fit in everybody we ended up having two separate box suites - I had only been in a suite at a hockey game once before. It's definitely the best way to watch a game. Each suite has a kitchen area and private bathroom at the back. That saved a lot of lineups and running around between periods, for sure. Anticipation was building with just about everyone as we arrived, the view of the rink was fantastic and the beer, well somehow we managed to keep it flowing.

The stadium was pretty full and unlike the games with Canada as one of the teams, the colours were pretty evenly split between the blue and yellow of Sweden and the black, red and yellow of Germany. In our booths we had supporters for both teams. It was a bit of contrast though from the sea of red and white for Team Canada games.

Eventually the game was over - it was a great game to watch. Definitely not a blowout, Germany did a great job holding back the stronger team from Sweden. However, when it was over the Swedes skated off with the win.

From the arena, we headed over to Irish House - one of the many pavilions around town. Thanks to some great connections we were all able to enter a VIP area that was above the main floor.

We continued to party here until the night ended. Such a memorable day, just about everything worked out better than planned. If anyone doubts Vancouver's enthusiasm over the Games here, they are blind, deaf or just plain not here. I have never seen this town so enthused to party over anything like this before.

The net result? I'm even more excited now for the rest of the Olympic sporting events, but especially the rest of the hockey games. Go Team Canada! Go for Gold on home ice!