Day 1 of the Tournament - Dec. 26, 2015

We slept well last night. It is somewhat hot, even though the air is cooler than what we have had. Blankets in Europe seem to be a duvet inside of a cover. With the duvet on, I was too warm, and with it off, I got too cold, but I'm getting used to it. We woke just after 7:00 this morning, and after showering, we decided to head down for breakfast.

It is a nice buffet, once again. Different than in Munich, but still very impressive. Some folks got in from North America last night, and some will be getting in tonight or early tomorrow morning. Once those groups are here, all of our tour will be together. Apparently we have the hotel to ourselves for the duration of the tournament. I'm pretty sure they are happy to have us here, but I'm also sure they will be happy to have the Canadians gone. There are some pretty rowdy people.

We board the busses for the first games at 2:50 this afternoon.

Well, it is time. We are off to the arena where Canada plays their round robin games. There were a few flakes of snow when we went outside, but the skies were mostly clear. It starts to get dark in a short while, so the nights are long in Helsinki.

Helsinki Ice Hall

At the arena, it took a while for us to find our seats. It seems to be a relatively new arena, but either the Finns are generally small and like billy-goats, or we are too wide and unable to climb steep stairs very well. We found the section where we were to sit, but the seat numbering system was strange. In the row we were to sit, the numbers were way off what we had. However, a few seats into the row, the numbers changed to ours (quite a jump between them). We sat in the first row, and there wasn't a lot of room for our feet. Oh well, that's life.

The first game was Switzerland against Sweden. It looked like it was going to be a blow-out. In the end, it was, but the Swiss played the Swedes really hard. There were a few unfortunate 5-minute penalties, one we didn't believe warranted 5 minutes, but the other, clearly should have. The Swedish star player, Nylander who is property of the Leafs, went down with what we think is a concussion. He better learn quickly that you can't skate around looking backwards for the pass. Someone in the NHL will really hurt him if he continues that bad habit.

The final score was 8-3, and I believe that was a realistic score. The Swiss tried hard, but were smaller than the Swedes, and didn't have the greatest of team play systems. There were a few times when the hemmed the Swedes in, but that was after the game was well in hand, and we think the Swedes were looking at getting points, rather than playing defence.

Then, there was an hour and a half break before the Canada - USA game. We walked around the arena, and that is when we noticed it had snowed outside - probably a couple centimetres. All the vendor locations were packed. Lots of beer being sold, and very expensive food, from what we saw. A couple of places were selling popcorn and a soft drink for 10 Euros (about $15 CAD). We didn't look at prices for food but decided we would hold off trying to purchase anything.  Dawn did buy a little Finnish bear, which I think is the mascot for Finland.

The atmosphere was great when the teams came onto the ice. The arena was packed with lots of Canadians, small pockets of Americans, and clumps of other nationalities. It wasn't as boisterous as the tournament in Sweden, but I think there was some trepidation about meeting the US in the first game.

Canada scored first, and that set the crowd off. However, USA scored the next 2 goals, and things got a lot quieter. Then, Strome scored the tying goal and everyone was up and hollering again. The Americans took a 5 minute major for spearing with about 2:20 left in the 2nd period. This looked like the perfect time for our boys to get going. Unfortunately, they didn't score before the end of the period.

When the 3rd period began, we still had 2:40 left of the power play. The Americans played really good defence, and didn't really give the boys a sniff, and they escaped the power play with no scoring. Then it was back and forth until about 6 minutes left. What appeared to be a harmless shot from the point, without any screen, was deflected by our defence, and went into the net. This was pretty deflating for our team, and our crowd, and the place got pretty quiet, except for the noise from the Americans.

Then, with about 2 minutes left, a puck got through our goalie and lay on the ice behind him. The Americans swatted it in the net, and now were up 2 goals. After that, they pretty much hemmed our team in and didn't give them much of an opportunity to get the goalie out until just about 1 minute left. They had some chances, but no luck and the game ended in a defeat for Canada.

Then, we had to find our buses and get back to the hotel. They told us that the buses would leave 15 minutes after the National Anthem, so we were under a time constraint. We made our bus in plenty of time, and then left for the hotel. About half way back to the hotel, our bus leader got a phone call from Rita (Destiny Tours owner) that some people were back at the arena waiting for the bus. So we turned around and went back to get them. I don't think they were from our bus, but we got them anyhow.

It was after 11:00 when we got to the hotel. There wasn't any food that we could afford, so we decided to forego something to eat and go to bed hungry. We need to loose weight anyhow.

A tour tomorrow, and no game, so it is like a day off for us.