I have been looking forward to this game for a LONG time. Although we didn’t win any tickets in the lottery, we wanted to make sure we made it out to a few Olympic events so we didn’t pass up this once in a lifetime event. Of course, the one event we REALLY wanted to make it to was Men’s Team Canada Hockey… and here we are.

We got fabulous seats at Canada Hockey Place (a.k.a GM Place) and were literally Row 2 right behind the broadcasters. We got all ready for the game… we had our two signs, our flag, our face tattoos, and of course our jerseys.

It was seriously crazy trying to get into the stadium. There was a huge lineup of people, but fortunately we were at the very front. They made people wait for 2 hours before they could get into the stadium as the USA-SUI game had finished and they needed to clear people out and clean up. It was a long wait, and I was quite afraid someone was going to get trampled… but security and the volunteers kept it under control. They even split the group into two groups as you can see in the photos here.

The crowd went absolutely WILD when Team Canada stepped onto the ice. People were beyond excited to see our Vancouver Canucks goaltender Robert Luongo get the nod to be the starting goalie for Team Canada today. He looked relaxed, confident, and made some amazing saves throughout the game.

Here’s a shot of our amazing coaching staff with Mike Babcock and Ken Hitchcock, and one of our goalies, Brodeur.

Norway played great… they were fast and had some great goaltending… but not enough to stop Canada.

Allan and I were super stoked to be there as you can see from our excited faces here.

Jerome Iginla was a big fan favourite… he played extremely well… hitting, checking, shooting, passing… he played with a lot of heart last night.

Sidney Crosby also had a great game and I was surprised and impressed to see how tough he was playing, and with a lot of jump. I have a lot more photos on my Flickr stream.

Wayne Gretzky got a huge cheer when they showed him on the big screen. He says he’ll be around watching the games as long as Team Canada is playing.

Also spotted, Donald Sutherland, the two female goalies from Team Canada Women’s, my coworkers watching from a box, and a hilarious sign.

Chris Pronger had a great game as well and played solid defence against Norway. He loves to patrol the blue line.

Canada put a lot of pucks in the net, but here’s another one… we ended up winning 8-0. Sid congratulates Iggy as he gets a Hat Trick! A lot of hats were thrown on the ice.

There was lots of celebrating throughout the night.

It was rad to see the CTV broadcast happening at the other end of the rink. They actually have a collapsible “stage” that pops up and folds down in one minute so that they don’t disturb the view of the fans.

And to cap off a perfect night, we ran into the Director of Snowboarding for Canada, Christian Hrab, outside BC Place. He was proud to see his team up on the podium, especially to see Mike Robertson get the Silver Medal for Canada. He gave us free tickets to see the Victory Ceremony that night! Thanks Christian! Thank you for being so generous… loving the Canadian spirit around the Olympics!

And yep, we ended up watching the Barenaked Ladies perform live at BC Place from fantastic floor seats. I’m a huge fan (I even have their Christmas album), and I teared up a few times listening to them play some of my favourites. Allan and I ended up singing the songs all the way home and cheering ourselves hoarse at all the fans out in the city downtown. It was an incredible night, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Last night was the single greatest, most meaningful moment to me in Canucks history. My favourite player, my hero, my captain, and my role model had his #16 lifted to the skies and retired forever. So many people have had so many amazing things to say about Trevor Linden over the past week, so I’ll try not to be too repetitive here.

You can read this post about how Trevor Linden and the Canucks have been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. I got the chance to meet Trevor a couple years ago, and I can honestly say that he is just as kind and handsome in person as everyone’s made him out to be. Thanks for taking the time to sign my jersey, Trevor. You always had time for the fans.

Despite my best efforts to get tickets on Ticketmaster for this game, there weren’t any available even when they were advertised to go on sale. So I ended up having to buy them from scalpers back in September. It was worth every penny. I could only afford to go to one game this year, and this was THE game. I thought the #16 pins they were handing out at the gates at GM Place were a nice touch. I’m going to treasure mine forever.

GM Place really lit up nicely with the old Canucks colours. I still miss the old jerseys and the old colours. We were sitting 3 rows from the ice to the right of the goalies and it was a great view.

Linden imagery was everywhere, including the sides of the stadium.

Gino Odjick and other teammates showed up to pay tribute to Linden, but I cheered the loudest for Gino.

All the current Canucks players were wearing #16 jerseys for the ceremony and the warm up. What a cool sight to see.

Linden was given a Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing gift from his teammates. All I can say is… JEALOUS!!!!!!!!

Linden’s speech was incredible. What a stand up, classy guy. He somehow managed to make a night all about him, to a night all about his friends, family and fans. Somehow he turned around the spotlight on him, to a thank you to everyone around him. I was misty-eyed the whole night, but the tears started forming near the end of his speech. I have to admit I was really bawling by the time his number was being raised to the rafters.

There ceremony ended, and I’m sure many others like myself found it hard to switch over to the fast-paced rough hockey game that ensued. It was great to see the Canucks beat the Oilers, but my heart and mind was somewhere else.

I decided to go festive and wore Canucks Christmas stockings (with the feet cut out of them) as leggings.

I wore my Linden jersey (that I custom added a ‘C’ for Captain to). I’ve never seen so many Linden jerseys at GM Place EVER! The coolest ones were the old ones from his Junior years.

Face off…

Canuck players stand up and look out over the bench at an exciting fight taking place.

I took this photo of Burrows for Amy

This shot was taken right before the goal. Shame I wasn’t able to get the actual goal, but it’s a neat action shot.

GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a good win for the Canucks over the Oilers. What a great night overall. The folks at GM Place did a great job organizing the night… making the fans feel special and putting together something really memorable for Linden.

After the game, I stood and looked at Trevor’s number in the rafters for a while. Hanging beside Stan Smyl’s and the Canadian flag. I’m so proud to be fan of the greatest player to ever wear a Canucks jersey, and I will always cherish the memory of seeing his number raised.

I miss having Trevor to cheer for. I will always be a Canucks fan, but I can’t help but feel like it’s a little different now. I can’t help but feel a little empty without #16 on the ice.

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In other news, the Canucks just signed Mats Sundin. I’m not stoked. I want a good Canadian player to join the Canucks. But if he helps us get the Cup, that’d be great, but I’m still not a Sundin fan. Darn, why couldn’t you have gone with Naslund to the Rangers?! He’s basically retired. He was a Leafs captain. There’s no real educated reason why I don’t want him on the Canucks. It just doesn’t feel right. Isn’t this a step backwards? Doesn’t it feels like we just got rid of a Naslund-like character? *sigh* Didn’t we already go through this with Messier? I know there will be a lot of opposing opinions… Anyway. From Linden to Sundin. Times are definitely a’changing’.

So, on days like today where there is just too much to write about, I’m just going to do a roundup/summary of all the interesting ones.

SNOW IN WHISTLER!

That’s right, it is ALREADY snowing at Whistler. In September. Sweet! I am told they’ve already got 6 cm of snow. The countdown on the Whistler Blackcomb site says 64 days until the lifts start running again and serving up fresh pow to the public. And on December 12th, the Peak to Peak Gondola will open up… it’s going to be incredible. Too bad it’s going to cost some $$$. If you are interested in checking in on the progress there, you can check out the Peak2Peak Construction Blog.

I can’t wait. Let’s hope that Cypress and the other local mountains are getting some snow too. Speaking of Cypress… Early Bird ticket sales end in 7 days on Sept 30, so get your credit card out ASAP if you are planning on buying a form of a season’s pass this year at any of the local mountains.

VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is “officially” starting on September 25th this year, running till October 10th. Be sure to check it out. I found the online film guide super useful for checking out which films are playing this year. Going to the VIFF films are a great way to meet people and expand your horizon in terms of cinema.  Are you going to any films? If so, which ones?

MY VANCOUVER CANUCKS PRE-SEASON RAMBLINGS

So much to talk about in terms of the Canucks.. can you believe it’s only the pre-season so far?

The New Horn: Yes, the Canucks got a new sound system this year… and part of that was a new “goal horn”. If you guys remember the horn from previous years, it was actually pretty quiet. This year they replaced it. The good news — it’s much louder. The bad news — it sounds like a BC Ferries horn. LOL! What do you think of the new horn?

The New NHL Rules: There are a couple new NHL rules… let’s get them out of the way now. Rule 76.2: The first face-off at the beginning of a power play will take place in the defending zone of the team that committed the foul. Awesome, I think it’s great and should make power plays more exciting. Rule 81.1: “Any contact between opposing players while pursuing the puck on an icing must be for the sole purpose of playing the puck and not for eliminating the opponent from playing the puck. Unnecessary or dangerous contact could result in penalties being assessed to the offending player.” Meh. I suppose this just seems to push further in the direction of no-touch icing (which I’m not sure I like). It’s great for ending those brutal injuries in icing battles, but I really don’t want to see any less hussle to the puck than there already is. Rule 85.5: If a puck is shot off the goal frame, post, or crossbar, any subsequent face-off will remain in the end zone where the puck went out of play. Nothing big here. What I want to know is… when are they going to change that AWFUL delay of game penalty when a player accidentally shoots it out of the rink?

The First Two Pre-Season Games: So far so good! 2-0. It’s only the preseason, but there’s lots of be excited about. Personally, I’m trying to find a new favourite since my Linden is gone, but I think it’ll take a few games for that. How about Hodgson, Hansen, and Grabner? I’m pretty impressed so far! Also, Kesler had a great game last night. I was happy to see he was using his wheels. I also really liked how Hordichuk went to the net. Demitra… so far unimpressive, but hey… it’s only been two games.

Anything else going on in the West Coast I should know about?