"I don't even know what street Canada is on" - Al Capone
Today is Sunday February 28th 2010. I was scheduled to work today, but as fate would have it I would have the day off. What did this mean? This meant I was able to watch the final Olympic event of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics - Team USA versus Team Canada in the hockey gold medal game. It would also happen to be the only event I was able to see. T.V. has all but faded from my daily life/routine in Telluride. This gold medal game today was epic.
I attended the 2010 NHL Winter Classic at Fenway Park back on January 1st. I went with my good friends, Liam Kennedy, Colm Kennedy and Bill Lawler. We each love hockey and that event was one of the greatest sporting events I've had the opportunity to attend. I think Bill, Colm and Liam would agree. Boston won that game in overtime and Fenway park went nuts. I think Liam tackled me on concrete when they won. Maybe I'll post some pictures of that Winter Classic game in my post tomorrow. Anyway, the point of me telling you this is that at the conclusion of the Winter Classic, the PA announced the Team USA members for the 2010 Olympic team. If you did not gather it from the actual Olympic games, they had a young and very talented team. Fenway Park would go nuts when they announced that goalie Tim Thomas (of University of Vermont fame) was one of three goalies selected for Team USA. Other Bruins ironically would make Team Canada as well, but Fenway Park would erupt when Thomas' selection was announced. It was great.
Onto the gold medal game. Quite simply this game was monumental. Not only did it pit the two North American teams against each other and not only did it pit the Olympic host nation in the final, but it also put on the ice some of the greatest players in the world. Sorry to Alexander Ovechkin that Russia did not make it because he is the best player in the world. So one would wonder; with the US down a goal (score was 2-1 Canada favor), 90 seconds left in the game and the US pulls their goalie to gain an extra attacker, would the US pull of this miracle? Of course they could as we do have several miracle type stories in our Olympic resume i.e. Lake Placid's "Miracle on Ice". This certainly was not even near the upset of that Lake Placid Miracle, but the emotion was a close second. The last 90 seconds of the game was fast paced. The U.S., with the extra attacker, was putting some pressure in the Canadian zone. With 24 seconds left in regulation, Team USA player Zach Parise scores the tying goal. Can you believe it!!! The people in this video (where I watched the game) could not http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoWsCTKNQVw . And all of that craziness was after Team USA found themselves down 2-0 in the second period. In that second period, with 7 minutes and 16 seconds remaining in the period, a deflection goal by Ryan Kesler made this potential lop-sided Candian victory into a battle. Here is the crowd reaction to Team USA's first goal that made it 2-1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcLjyHwUvwY
Thank you to Brown Dog Pizza for 1) being a bar in Telluride with an east coast feel (one of its owners is from Boston), and 2) for having plenty of tv's so that viewing of this great game was easy for all.
Alrighty. So the last piece of this has to do with the somewhat comical quote that I chose for today. It's a fairly universal thought (even by Canadians) that Canada is the lesser recognized of the North American land. I am sure there are plenty of documented reasons why, including Mr. Capone's thinking in today's quote. My recollection of what made Canada, well Canada, was the then exchange rate of the U.S. dollar compared to the Canadian dollar. Today's exchange rate is nearly equal.....each U.S. dollar is about equal to each Canadian dollar. Sad but true. Eight years ago this was not the case. A U.S. dollar then got you 1.60 Canadian dollars. Certain costs (food in particular) being equal, Canadian money seemed like play money when you went to cities like Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto. Vancouver too, but I had not been there until 2009...when things were still favorable, but not 1.60 favorable (it was like 1.22). It's hilarious how when you go to another country, with differing forms of currency, how all of it seems like play money. The emotion of throwing down a U.S. dollar bill is powerful. Then you go to throw down a Euro and it seems like monopoly money. It's not that you don't care about spending, but you care less. I suppose some of it may have to do with vacationing, but it's just a different emotion spending a currency you know little about. Side note - Some of the currencies out there actual feel like you are holding monopoly money!
Anyway Canada is a unique country. Maybe Mr. Capone was referencing the fact that nearly 75% of Canada's population lives within 90 miles of the U.S. border. Let me say that again....three quarters of Canada's (the whole country) population lives within 90 miles (an hour and fifteen minute drive) from our U.S. border. I think that's an alarming stat. Then again more than half of Canada is constantly frozen. I like Canada. I think British Columbia has some of the most scenic island territory and coastline in the world. I guess for all the superiority that the U.S. holds to Canada (except hockey...and peace) it was a cool thing for the host Olympic country to win gold in the sport they pride themselves on the most. It pained me to see the U.S. lose, but something about that game told me that Team USA put together the best run of any nations Olympic team and barely came up short. The players should be proud. Our country definitely should be proud. And I don't mean to take anything away from all the other Olympic events and athletes. I just did not see any other events from the Olympics so I cannot really comment. Although my last comment will be a moment of sorrow for the young Georgian luge athlete who lost his life. He did so on a morning practice run the day of the opening Olympic ceremonies. That was horrible and I cannot imagine what his family and the entire Republic of Georgia are going through.
Sorry to end on a somber note. Things like that impact us all in some way, big or small. Hope everyone is doing well and good night from Telluride.
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