Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers
Rogers Arena; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
7.00pm; December 26 2011
Vancouver def. Edmonton 3-5.
It's been a heck of a long day - twenty-four hours and then some.
It started at 2.30pm, December 26 in Kingsford Smith International Airport in Sydney, Australia and it ended in the Sandman Hotel, across the road from Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I don't even want to consider how many miles we've flown to get to where we are now: ready to collapse and get a solid ten hours of sleep.
We left Sydney at 2.30pm on December 26 and, thanks to the craziness of the International Dateline, arrived in Los Angeles, California shortly at 9.30am on the same day! We had about a little less than five hours to kill at LAX before a mid-afternoon flight north, across the USA-Canada border to Vancouver, BC, home of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, and a charming, exciting city.
The Air Canada shuttle from LA arrived into Vancouver at 5.00pm and it was then a mad dash to get the hire car, get to the hotel, dump our gear , pick up our tickets and get across the road to Rogers Arena, where our favourite Canadian waited on our arrival with bated breath, and where, also, Canada won men's and women's Olympic Gold twenty two months ago, and into our seats for a 7.00pm face-off. We actually had an amazingly smooth run from the airport, with no one on the roads, and were at the hotel just on 6.00pm.
Being back at a rink has made me indescribably happy. Aside from AFL, hockey is the sport I love most in the world, and not being able to watch live games as regularly as I watch live AFL is a real killer. It does, however, make me especially grateful to be at a game when I am.
There's nothing like being at a hockey game, when the arena is full. You hear the anthem that sends shivers down your spine regardless of where you come from, and that roof-lifting roar as the last note fades. Then the puck drop, which elicits a roar by itself. When you hear the collision of two big men against the glass, the scrape of a sharpened blade on ice, the crisp sound of a fast pass, the red lamp lighting up when the puck goes into the net...it's hard to find a more exciting sports environment.
There was so much star power on both sides tonight: the ridiculously talented twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Roberto Luongo for Vancouver and the kids, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle for Edmonton and the game, a classic NHL rivalry, didn't disappoint. On the day after Christmas, all feelings of peace and goodwill seemed to have been thrown out the window. This was a tough, fast game of hockey; the best kind.
The Nuge, as they call him up here, is just as good as advertised (and will only get better with age and experience; a scary thought) and most worthy of being the first overall pick in April's draft. You can definitely see what Tom Renney, a former Rangers coach, is trying to build. He's gotten steady goalie performances to back up a strong defensive unit and a rising offensive force, and it seems that the Oilers are definitely on the rise and may be amongst the league's elite sooner or later.
For Vancouver, the Sedin boys, given just a slither of space to work their magic, can skate rings around anyone and the sense is that whenever a Sedin is on the ice, there's always the potential for a big, game-defining play. They are a joy to watch, every single shift. The crowd loves Roberto Luongo...well, this week, anyway. You get the feeling that his well-documented big-game collapses are always lingering. Roberto might be gone if he has another bad playoff performance.
It was Vancouver's night tonight, the two-goal victory set up by an amazing first period where they out-shot the Oilers 13-5 and led 3-0 on a two-spotter from Andrew Ebbets. The Sedin brothers seemed to have the puck on a string. It was an amazing display of puck handling and passing, each goal a work of solid-gold art.
How good is my life at the moment? Friday night I'm watching a Twenty-Twenty Big Bash League cricket game in Sydney and on Monday night I'm on the other side of the world, a little tired, but very pleased to be at a hockey game. And there was an epic Christmas Eve meal and a great Christmas Day with friends and family in between that. There's absolutely no complaints from me this evening!
It was Vancouver's night tonight, the two-goal victory set up by an amazing first period where they out-shot the Oilers 13-5 and led 3-0 on a two-spotter from Andrew Ebbets. The Sedin brothers seemed to have the puck on a string. It was an amazing display of puck handling and passing, each goal a work of solid-gold art.
How good is my life at the moment? Friday night I'm watching a Twenty-Twenty Big Bash League cricket game in Sydney and on Monday night I'm on the other side of the world, a little tired, but very pleased to be at a hockey game. And there was an epic Christmas Eve meal and a great Christmas Day with friends and family in between that. There's absolutely no complaints from me this evening!
It's been a heck of a day and we wouldn't have travelled like crazy to get up here for anything other than a hockey game, I don't think. Being in Canada is great. Every man and his dog loves hockey and wants to talk hockey. The World Junior Championships are on as well, the traditional post-Christmas tournament up here, so it's pretty much hockey overload.
Just as I like it!!
