One of the various random encounters during the Olympics was of 2 Olympic silver medal winning Ice Dance competitors who arent each others partners. Random.

Charlie White, the silver medal winner (with his partner Meryl Davis) at the 2010 Olympics in Ice Dance was seen out & about with another Olympic Ice Dance competitor, and former Olympic silver medalist in the same sport, Tanith Belbin (a Canadian who is competing for the U.S.A. & sporting their flag on her cheek....Shame on you Ms.Belbin tsk tsk tsk).

The couple were spotted strolling thru the courtyard near where the Olympic Village entrance/exit was. They clearly were in a hurry, as they speed walked thru a throng of unaware people on their way to their destination. That destination, a U.S.A. hockey game.

Even though clearly in a hurry, the couple stopped long enough to sign a handful of autographs (although Charlie was pretty impatient once the requests seemed to run out for his autograph) on their way to the event.

Charlie White was nice, although a bit impatient. Perhaps being a former hockey player himself, he was more eager to get to the game. Tanith Belbin was incredibly nice, perhaps to a fault as she signed severla photos for 1 person, then several more for the next, all while her boyfriend tried to encourage her to get going.

If you live under a rock, you might not have heard. But Team Canada won the Gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver in Hockey....TWICE.

See, both our teams won. The womens team doing it the evening of February 25th in a spectacular 2-0 victory over their arch nemesis from the U.S.A. While the men matched the feat in even more dramatic fashion the afternoon of the 28th defeating the same country as the women did, in Overtime off the stick of Sidney Crosby.

No surprise to anyone, both squads celebrated heavily. The teams were rewarded with large bottles of Molson Canadian.

The womens team opted to celebrate inside Molson House for a couple hours after arriving from their on ice celebrating. They then took the party off the grounds to a local bar (Metropole) that 3/4 of the team went to on foot thru the streets of the downtown eastside lead by musician Tyler Stewart of The Barenaked Ladies like some pied piper. Constantly stopping to make sure the rest of the crew caught up, Stewart lead teammates, staff, friends & others on a 6 or 7 block walk from the Molson house to the bar. They partied there till after I left at 3:30 AM.

Then mens team had a more random & scattered celebration. Many members of the team with family opted to go celebrate privately with them, while others stayed in Molson House till late in the evening. Others left the Molson house to go celebrate other places, namely the Roxy night club where several members of the team & their friends were seen celebrating till closing.

Of course, free drinks wasnt all these athletes were given. Large shiny keepsakes were also awarded to them, and most sported them proudly as they returned & left the Molson House. Below is a few pics of them & their brand new Gold medals.

PS- to a certain member of 1 of our teams who was concerned on where & how the photo was going to be used....see, this is the only place you are seeing this photo...like I told you (unless someone re-posts it with my tag still on it).

I am still recovering, more than 48 hours after the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC, Canada ended. My body still aches a litt. My feet no longer hurt at least. I still need more sleep. Compared to how I felt 24 hrs after the Olympics ended, this is a massive upgrade. My body was completely running on empty, my feet were in considerable pain & I was just waking up from my first sleep since the games had officially ended.

Yet, a part of me wishes it was still going on. The city was incredible for the past couple weeks and the athletic competition in this town will never be matched again.

Of course, I am just as thankful its over. For me, it wasnt just 17 days long. Its been 17 days of hounding competitions, a week of hounding competitors coming into town before that, weeks of getting prepared before the Olympics before that & years of impatient waiting for this to get here before that. Its literally eaten up the better part of this decade in my life.

For me, the joy of it all was balanced out with stress, annoyance & pain. I had fun at times, but other times I loathed the games existence. For each moment of celebrating a Canadian victory, or meeting a new cool athlete, or chatting with people I havent seen in awhile, or ever before, there was the nuisances. 

-Like not being able to eat at my favorite places because of the line ups & inflated menu prices for the Olympic cash grab competition.
-There was the absolutely brutal translink service, who if transportation was an Olympic event, would get a DNF.
-There was the overzealous volunteers & security guards who think their title as "Olympic volunteers" gave them a legal right to put their hands on me & tell me what to do. Some of them should have been choked till their faces were as blue as the jackets they were given. Somehow, I controlled myself enough to not do this even once. Several occasions I gave a variety of choice words, and even more often I just simply waved my hand at them like "go away you unimportant gnat" & did what I wanted anyways.

These things, were not part of the enjoyable Olympic experience that was supposed to be had. Neither was having SIX wannabe Mounties in VPD jackets telling several people they werent allowed to stand in a PUBLIC PLACE with no reason while they sat on horses that probably were more competent than the mountie school rejects riding them. The kicker for me had to be when 3 cops (not a single one being from Vancouver) came up to me at Brittania Ice Rink & told me I couldnt touch THE FENCE!!!! Yes, thats right, the....fucking....FENCE. Not just any fence either, the 3rd outer layer of fencing. Thats right, they had THREE FENCES.  I was told the fence had a sensor on it that detected I had touched it...and it took THREE TAX PAYER PAID ARMED COPS to tell me not to touch the 3rd outer layer of fencing at a damn practice rink. Yes, this is the Vancouver I was living in for a month.

When I asked them why I couldnt touch the 3rd outer layer of a fence that was keeping me about 50-100 feet from the athletes, no word of a lie, one of them (from Calgary, a terrorist threat hotbed obviously, why else would they hire him for such an important job) actually used the reasoning "they blew up a bomb in '96".... which I responded "uhh, yeah. In Atlanta, fucking Georgia 14 years ago". After I stared at him for a minute or so blankly assuming the logic of that comment would eventually sink in he replied that they had to assure things were safe yada yada yada. At that time, I pushed the limits of getting arrested & suggested that if I actually meant to do harm, I could have stabbed several dozen athletes by now downtown. Where was the security there? They really didnt have a reasonable answer for that other than to say "you shouldnt say things like that' which I replied with more blank stares. What were they going to do, arrest me for pointing out logic? Yes, the overkill of police were keeping the state of the art.....err.....uhh...33 year old arena with seating for maybe 300 people under 24/7 watch behind 3 layers of fencing. Why? Because a public park in 1996 had a bomb go off. Maybe you shoulda had the security at one of the dozens of public gathering areas instead then? Might have seemed like a better use of at least 1 or 2 of those fences....certainly a better use of some of the no less than 11 cops I counted there. Priorities at these games were to say the least, ass backwards. Ok, I am ranting a bit here...back on track.

From an autographing standpoint, it was so-so. Some wonderful times, some downright dreadful times. The weather, which in Vancouver in February usually consists of rain, or showers, or a light drizzle had a shockingly large amount of SUNSHINE thru the early part of it & the end.

My favorite autographing ventures were
-Getting various athletes coming in at the airport upon arrivals, like Lindsey Vonn, Team Canada womens hockey team & Alex Ovechkin.
-Getting Team Canada mens & womens team multiple times at Hockey House,
-Snagging Peter Forsberg almost daily.
-Getting to go for a few of the other womens hockey teams.
-Of course, last but not least, getting Stephen Colbert during the Colbert Report filmings.

My least favorite moments.
-Constantly missing people by a few minutes.
-No cover outside the athletes village when it rained,
-Anything to do with Team Canada staff members 
-Anything to do with Alex Radulov or Jaromir Jagr, who both were downright jerks here, including Radulov threatening to kill one out of town hound after their last loss.

My favorite non-hounding memories clearly include
 -Watching the Team Canada mens & womens hockey team win their Gold medals in our building. I watched the womens game in a McDonalds restaraunt since all the bars were full nearby, while I managed (after getting up really damn early) to get a spot at a bar downtown to watch the mens game, just 1 block from the arena.
-Being at the Finland Bronze medal womens hockey win over Sweden.
-Being invited by someone to go into the Team Canada womens celebration party (actually declined for multiple reasons..mostly my feet were in considerable discomfort),
-Chatting with different athletes & staff & hearing them continually say how much they liked the city...
-And of course, getting to see a bit of The Colbert Report.

My least enjoyable non-hounding parts of it.
-My feet. They hurt a LOT the last few days. Had to buy new insoles for my shoes once, they last two days before hurting again. I had worn thru the heel part that quick. 
-The lack of sleep. The last week or so of the games, I was finally getting some normal sleep, but at the cost of not hounding the mornings.
-The frustration of having to go to C over to L, across to E, over to Q, down to F, thru to X just to get from point A to point B. Nothing was ever a simple straight logical line.
-The continual "can I help you" people. There ware FAR too many people doing this job. Easily 10 times a day someone would ask me if they could help me...at a place I have been a thousand times before. Maybe just ask people if they truly look lost next time. I applaud your enthusiasm for trying to help, but more often than not, you were a nuisance to regulars.

In the end, it was an adventure that despite the negative points I am glad to have witnessed & been a part of. Nothing else I have ever done, nor will ever do again was as incredible, demanding, challenging & interesting as this. Going for the Canucks in a couple weeks will seem quite dull in comparison.

I will come up with a best & worst list for the Olympics soon. once I have compiled all the data I can, sorted it & have time to post it.

The day the majority of athletes left, there was not a lot of sightings since they had a special terminal set up for athletes to be hurried thru to their flights.

Most athletes used the VIP treatment to avoid the excessively long lines most others had to endure. But not all did.

One of those who came thru the terminal was Canadian skeleton Olympic Gold Medal winner, Jon Montgomery.

Like most of you, I had no idea who Jon Montgomery was before the games. But after his victory & more notably, his celebeation thru the streets of Whistler with a pitcher of beer in hand, I became aware of him.

When he came into the terminal he was rocking a pair of shades, so I wasnt sure if he would be cool or high on himself. Turns out, he was quite cool. he happily signed multiple items, and chatted breifly with us about his win & his celebration.

Afterwards, he was approached by a mom & daughter. The mom asked if her daughter could get a photo with him, he happily oliged & asked the girl if she wanted to touch his medal. She nodded in approval & he let her hold it, which she replied with an awestruck "wow" as he smiled on.

After he was done posing with the girl, I asked him if he could show us the medal, he did & then went on his way.

Congratulations Jon Montgomery. You deserve it.

One of the cool things about the Olympics is that you will meet people & at the time not realize how big of a deal it is till later on.

I have probably seen dozens of athletes pass me, unaware that they are something big in their country, or their sport. Funny enough, it happened to me with Canadians.

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir won the 2010 Winter Olympics gold medals in Ice Dancing. Clearly a sport I dont follow & have no idea how its scored. But I knew by the attention the pair recieved upon arriving in Vancouver they must be special.

I watched them get interviewed & sign autographs afterwards, and these two youngsters (Virtue 20, Moir 22) were happy to sign & were pleasant in their interviews. Even with the Team Canada personnel squawking at them to get going, the pair graciously signed until nothing was left for them to sign.

When I heard they had won the Gold, I instantly thought "good for them, they deserve it". Even though I know nothing about their competition, I know they are good people. So to me, they deserve the success.

I didnt at the time think of doing a blog on them, because frankly, I didnt know much about them. But now that they have won, I felt I should at least post a few of the pics I got of them that day for you all to enjoy.

Last week, talk show/comedian host Stephen Colbert brought his incredibly popular show, "The Colbert Report" to Vancouver, BC during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
 
His shows were set up after a minor scuffle broke out between Colbert, and the people of BC over his reference to Canadians as "syrup suckers" & "ice holes" on his program when he was trashing us for not letting the U.S. Speed Skating team (which Colbert is a major sponsor of, with the help of his fans known as "Colbert Nation" thru a donation campaign) have ample time to practice on the new Richmond Oval rink prior to the Olympics.
 
Stephen set up an impromptu stage in the middle of Creekside Park, just off to the side of Science World (currently Sochi World for the Olympics) & did segments for several shows (airing this week in Canada on CTV & The Comedy Network. As well in the U.S. on Comedy Central) infront of an often rabid audience of 4 to 6 thousand fans & onlookers.
 
I of course am a huge fan of his show, unfortunately I saw very little of the performances because it did directly interfere with my work. I did catch a few minutes at the end of his first day & listened to most of his 2nd day opening. But for the first part, the episodes airing this week are all but a mystery to me since I didnt really get to see them, but I certainly did hound them.
 
The first day Mr. Colbert showed up at about 10:15 AM, being driven in a tinted out minivan. Security drove him up as close to the walkway they had constructed as they could. Still being 50 or so feet away, Colbert had to walk thru a swarm of fans, overzealous security & of course 5-8 autograph hounds. Not once did Stephen seem bothered by the near mob like situation, happily signing & walking, signing some more, walking some more. He was clearly a class act. Once inside he stayed in a tented off area to rehearse his lines & then came out to do his shows. Next time I would see him would be after the show when I returned looking for more.
 
After the show he was hurried thru by the security, but did sign 2 autographs along the rail of the pathway they had created. Both were for hounds, 1 of them being for me. I was pleased with my opening day totals of 3.
 
Next day I returned with fresh new photos from the day before performance. I was pretty hopeful to strike Colbert hounding Gold again. But this time he didnt sign before his show. Instead hurrying right in & going to his tent. He then went to the stage & did his opening performance. When he came off in between performances, I noticed the wooden plank type set up they had constructed behind the stage so that he didnt have to walk in the swamp like mosh pit the park had become. It mainly was a few feet away from the fence, except right in the corner I was in, where it bottlenecked. So I had hope I might get his attention coming back. Sure enough, he walked out of the tent to go do his next bit, I asked him to sign, and he did it without hesitation, then hurried off to the stage. 

A little later he did the same thing, going to his tent & upon his return came right back to the spot where I was standing. Now more people were eager to try & get an autograph from him. The attention getter of the group, a fan who asked Stephen to sign an actual baby. Stephen smiled & replied in partial laughter "I cant sign a baby" as he chuckled for a second or two afterwards to the suggestion. He willingly did signin 3-4 autographs for the people there, including me again, then proceeded to do his show.

 After his show was over, he did a massive impromptu autograph session all the way around the stage side, along the back & out the walk way. I got 2 more in this massive scrum. I was pretty pleased with the final numbers, 7 Colbert autographs over 2 days.

 Stephen Colbert will certainly be a medalist at the 2010 Winter Olympics, in the sports of autograph signing & good public relations.

Last night, my country came within 1 shot  of weeding out the bandwagon "I only cheer for them because its popular/they will win" crowd & the true fans.

The IIHF 7th ranked Swiss team, made up of a variety of guys who couldnt get in the NHL if they begged, and a few who saw limited action in the NHL over the years, and 2 current NHLers Mark Streit & Jonas Hiller took the most hyped hockey team since the group from Mighty Ducks 2 or 3 (which one was it they represented USA in against hockey gods Iceland?) to extra rounds in a shootout to decide a winner.

In the end, Canada did in fact win...but it felt so much like a loss I am sure the guys look at the standings in the paper & get confused when they dont see a 1 in the L column. They certainly dont think they won.

Sidney Crosby, the more pure raw talent player Canada has in the end bailed out the team, and the countries hospitals from having an overflow of heart attack cases.

In 2006, Switzerland beat Canada at the Olympics as well. Of course, we all call that the "bad" Canada team, so its not as shocking. But the current team is unstoppable, so amazing that they should give the medals to them just for arriving in the city. Yet 4 years later, it was nearly the same result.

There is no denying that in a 7 game series, Canada would eventually win it fairly handily. But in a 1 game winner take all format that the Olympics has, Canada needs to bring their A game every single night, because other countries will & are most certainly looking to use Canada as a status symbol to build their countries programs around.

Its not panic time yet. I am sure this will be more of a character building excersize for Canada than a mental defeat....hopefully. For Switzerland right now, its vital they dont get too cocky & start to feel they can do this every night. They COULD do it, but they still need to think "we're hoping for a major upset here". Because if they DO start believing they are that good every day,  they might find themselves on the end of a similar fate against Norway on Saturday.

Canada fans are right now claiming "yeah, but Hiller played amazing...without him..." so what that he played amazing. Every underdog usually gets amazing goaltending. The reality still is that Canada gave up 2 goals, including 1 laser beam shot that would beat goalies 98%. So Switzerland definitely has talent, do not discount them offensively.  Just imagine that team in 4 years with Nino Niederreiter on it. Switzerland is certainly a team all the big guns are aware of now. 

Switzerland is a country the big guns certainly are aware of now. They wont be surprising anyone with a strong performance now. The teams know they need to be on their game with them, or potentially fall to the same fate as Canada, where your hopes ride on a 1 on 1 shooter vs goalie competition to decide the winner of a team sport.

On the same night, and even more shocking than the Canada outcome. Slovakia, the 9th ranked IIHF team beat Russia, the 1st ranked team in a shootout. I am less shocked than some. Their 9th place ranking is a bit off to me. I mean here is a team with a stud goalie in Jaroslav Halak, a Norris Trophy winner in Zdeno Chara, and offensive skill out the ying yang with Gaborik, Hossa brothers, Pavol Demitra, Palffy & Satan. They SHOULD be higher ranked than 9th. But still, beating Russia is an upset.

Like Canada, the collective Russian fanbase right now has to be wondering what went wrong. The team, like Canada, will probably not come into a game taking their opponent so lightly again. No team with Alex Ovechkin on it will have that type of performance more than once in a while at best. Ovi wont let it happen again.

Last nights games might have paved the way for the Gold medal final. Russia Vs Canada. Because those two teams have now had reality checks that the other elite teams havent had yet. (although Swedes only winning 2-0 over Germany is a bit close for their liking I am sure).

One thing is for sure. Switzerland has already made their Olympics worth while, and so has Slovakia. While nothing short of a Gold for Canada and Russia will soothe the lasting sting of last nights games now.

So far since the Olympic athletes have been arriving, its been a slim trickle of identifiable faces & a lot of "I think they might be an athlete" blank stares from us.

But Sunday, the party really started up for the majority of the hounds. A group of generally 5-8 of us that had been out all week for other athletes, were suddenly dwarfed by the never less than 15 and as many as 70 fans, lookie-loos & just arriving hounds from other locales. They were all there because the glut of NHL players were coming for the Olympic games came thru Vancouver's YVR airport.

The media was there. There was lots of Canadian, American, Swedish, Finnish & even a couple Asian media personnel around.

Things really started for us, Saturday late night when Peter Forsberg & various other European based Team Sweden players & the Belarus team came in.  Foppa was an incredibly willing signer, very talkative & quite personable. For those hounds (myself not being 1, I was on a different mission at the time) that were there from the time he got into the publics sight, reports of 5 & 6  autographs per person were boasted. Even for my friends & I, who showed up to the party very late (literaly as he was heading out the door to the security area that you cant get them in) we managed 2 each. It was then off to rest up for Sunday.

Sunday morning I slept in, and missed a terrific signing session by Finnish star Miikka Kiprusoff. One of the locals pulled 10 items out of the scrum. Team Canada superstar Jarome Iginla was less receptive to signing and did maybe 10 total from all reports I heard for the crowd of about 20 people at the time. Jeff Carter, who came as a hopeful replacement signed for the hounds before getting the punt by Team Canada the next day.

By the time I arrived in the early afternoon more than a dozen players had come thru, some signing, some being rushed thru the protected Olympics only doors to awaiting vehicles well away from the public. When I arrived everyone was getting prepped for Alex Ovechkin, probably the greatest hockey player there is currently playing. A couple guys came out before him like Thomas Greiss & Joe Pavelski from the Sharks, then came the Washington Capitals posse. Nick Backstrom came over and signed quite a few, most people leaving with more than 1 item, while the other Alex, Alexander Semin ignored the crowd, along with Semyon Varlamov. Alex Ovechkin however did sign, barely. A crowd of 50 or so waiting fans & lookie-loos anxiously begged him to sign, and he scribbled his rushed minimal effort autograph on 4-5 items, I was lucky enough to get one. Sure it looks like crap, but I still value a BAD Ovi at $50. Which last time I looked is better than NO Ovi at $0

After that scrum we hurried over to the domestic arrivals to grab a flight with a couple Bruins on it. David Krejci, who signed only 1 per person got the crowd of 20-30 people warmed up. Then Patrice Bergeron, Team Canada member, came thru & the crowd seemed to double out of nowhere. I was watching for Marco Sturm who saw the crowd swarm his NHL team mate & he took the chance to try & leave. I went over for him & got 2, only 2 other people got him before he slipped out the door.  As I got him I jokingly said "waited for Patrice to go before you made your move eh?" which he replied with a smirk "hehe, yeah". The crowd around Patrice was so thick I had time to get over to him & snag an autograph before he was rushed out by security & overzealous volunteers who pushed people around. It then was noted Eric Staal was trying to sneak away as well, but was nabbed by a few from the crowd before his handler declared he was done & shooed him away.

A couple small scrums for guys like Dan Boyle for Team Canada and Jonathan Quick for Team USA filled the dull hours in between, but for the mostpart, the mid-evening was slow.

Reports that Martin Brodeur & other Devils had slipped in nearly undetected surfaced which was met with disappointment by some & acceptance by others more experienced in hounding large events where you understand you cant be everywhere at once.

Next was Pavel Datsuk who was greeted by a pile of collectors, dealers & fans on the international side. Myself & a couple others who were late in reacting only got 1, while most got 2 or 3. While the crowd followed him outside hoping to crack him on signing again, we noticed other players coming out in the security area. We rushed over to the fence, which for some reason had been moved up maybe 75-100 feet on Sunday, making access to them more possible. Valtteri Filppula and others came out, came over to do interviews for Finnish TV & then signed willingly. I got 4 from Valtteri, before collecting my things & moving on to look for more. A handful of other Finnish guys including Joni Pitkanen, Jere Lehtinen & Tuomo Ruutu also came in around that time as well. My luck wasnt as good with them. Mainly because looking for items when your carrying 1500+ items can be time consuming. It certainly cost me more than a few times. Pitkanen & Lehtinen both signed but I didnt have the time to get into my stuff, get back into the moshpit of hounds & get them.

A series of bad decisions lead to me being shut out for a couple hours, even with players coming in. I chose to sit on Russian goalie Evgeni Nabokov for awhile thinking with only a couple of us still waiting, he would surely sign. But after 45 mins of him sitting talking to a fairly fat puckbunny, he ignored all autograph requests & left. While I was there getting kicked in the balls by Nabby, Team Anaheim came in (minus the Canadian guys). Selanne signed a few, Koivu signed some & the others got away either without being asked, or with Team USA personnel wooshing them thru the crowd.

A late night flight with a handful of Boston Bruins came in & I thought afterwards my luck was turning around....but I again made a foolish choice it seemed. I got in & nabbed 3 Zdeno Chara autographs, 2 Tim Thomas along with 2 Miroslav Satan autographs. Generally getting 5 autographs from the most recent major trophy winners liek Chara (Norris) & Thomas (Vezina) would seem like a great score, but they came at the price of missing more Red Wings players in Lidstrom & Zetterberg. At least I got SOMETHING this time, but I still felt a bit disappointed that the 2 Miro Satan autographs I waited an extra 5-8 mins to get might have cost me the 2 Wings stars.

There was 1 final group of the night. A large group that included a lot fo east coast guys. On the flight were New York Rangers stars Henrik Lundqvist & Marian Gaborik. Along with New York Islanders Swiss star Mark Streit, a few other various guys from the Tampa Lightning & other Rangers All in all, about 8 to 10 players. I came out of the whole debacle with 2 Marian Gaborik autographs and 2 Mark Streit autographs. Most of them didnt even come over, and Lundqvist signed maybe 4 autographs for the 20 or so people waiting at 1 AM before walking back to the vehicle that was picking him up & leaving.

That was the end of the NHL arrival main day. A small handful of guys arrived early Monday morning, most notably Daniel Alfredsson. He signed willingly for the fans that went out.

A lot of the Canadian Olympians did not come thru because private charters were picking them up at meeting locations & taking them in to our smaller airport in Abbotsford (about an hour away) along with a few other non-Canadian Olympic team guys. With no decent access, and lots of uncertainty on who exactly would be on them, we never took the gamble to head out there..which probably was for the best, but we'll never know. With a star studded line up that came thru including the likes of Crosby, Fleury, Malkin, Getzlaf, Perry, Kane, Toews, Seabrook, Keith, Nash and many more on them, it might have been worth the gamble to go out & try. But the uncertainty deterred anyone from trying.

For someone that is just barely 19 years old, Patrick Chan sure knows how to handle himself under pressure.

A World skating championship silver medalist in 2009, Chan has 3 Canadian championships already under his belt. After meeting him, I can see why. He exudes incredible confidence.

He showed up to YVR for the 2010 Winter Olympics with a throng of media there that might have been second to none for a solo athlete yet. Approximately 20 media members from television, radio & print were there waiting, and Patrick gave them what they were looking for. He spoke candidly & confidently. Suggesting a gold was a realistic goal if he just skated his program cleanly. Hard to believe the way he managed himself he was only 19.

When the media scrum was over, myself and several other autograph hounds & fans asked him to sign autographs, which he did quite willingly. However, his fire breathing baren spinster handler with him (a common theme with Team Canada staff of all sports it seems) violently squawked at him to only sign one & constantly was saying "you already got one" to myself & others. Patrick himself did not seem concerned by the autograph requests, which is the frustrating part. When nobody volunteers decide they are going to save the world by preventing autographs from being signed. Good work squawking troll, the world is a safer place now because of you.

In any case, he was quite accomodating & personable. Certainly gave me the impression that the pressure that likely is on him to perform here in Vancouver will not get to him.

Today was MY official start of the Olympics as far as competitions go. Today was the day hockey started playing competitive games. The women took to the ice today for the first ever womens Olympic hockey games to be played in the country that nearly singlehandedly built the sport, Canada.

An early day game between strong medal contender & 2006 Silver medal winners, Sweden & the top ranked country not in the commonly perceived "big 4" (Canada, USA, Sweden & Finland) Switzerland which is the 5th ranked IIHF team, ended with the Swedes winning 3-0 on the back of a Kim Martin shutout.  The #3 & #5 ranked teams played a competitive game. Florence Schelling, the goalie for Switzerland kept them close, despite facing more than double the shots of her counterpart Martin. Sweden goals by Danijela Rundqvist (1st goal of the Olympics), Tina Enstrom & Erica Uden Johansson paved the way for the 3-0 victory. Sweden starts off with a respectable 3-0 victory, and Switzerland shows they can be taken seriously. It was a good result for both sides.

In the later game, the Canadian womens team (2 the defending time Olympic Gold medalists) took on the IIHF 15th ranked (only 8 teams in the tournament remember) team from Slovakia. The final score was 18-0. The haters of Womens hockey had lots of fuel for their fire with this result. The argument that womens hockey isnt competitive to have a tournmanet always rings out when Canada faces the bottom seeded teams. A score of 16-0 vs Italy last Olympics had people crying "why bother, its just going to be Canada vs USA as usual, theres no one else.", they claimed its not a fair sport to have an Olympic medal in because no one outside of 2 countries has a chance. Demands to have it taken out of the games were even suggested....of course, the fact that Sweden shocked the world & stole the silver medal was ignored by the "experts" who had openly criticized the sport as being a 2 team competition.

These same critics plead utter ignorance when you point out that mens hockey had the very same (in fact worse) hiccups on its road to respectability. No one talks about the combined 132-3 that Canada won the 1924 Olympic gold medal with. Nor the scores of 33-0 over Switzerland & 30-0 over Czechoslovakia. Canada even beat Sweden 22-0 in that tournament. The silver medalists USA won games by 22-0 & 19-0, ontop of their defeat of Sweden by a score of 20-0 in the medal rounds. EVERY country that lost by these absurd scores, with the exception of Belgium, has won Olympic medals since then, including gold medals for Sweden & the Czech Republic.  Would those countries have ever won anything if the same naysayers now existed then whining that it wasnt a fair competition?? Perhaps. But more likely, no. You do infact learn from defeats like that. If for no other reason than to make sure you never lose that bad again, you become better. Eventually, you become competitive, and eventually, you become Olympic champions. I wont suggest Slovakia WILL win a gold medal ever, but they are on the right road to

Since the last Olympics theres been a few mild upsets, Finland beating the U.S. a couple times here & there, including a game just this past summer here in Vancouver at a prep tournament for the Olympics. Sweden beat Canada in a game. Is it LIKELY the U.S.A. & Canada will meet in the finals here in Vancouver? YES, very likely. No one will dispute that in the womens hockey world, not even the Swedes and Finns. They know they will need their A games to topple either of the powerhouses. That being said, history has shown it can happen, and it is happening a little more often now. 

Sure, 18-0 is not a fun game to watch if you arent a fan of the team winning.  Right now, the Slovak girls probably feel a bit gutted, but that feeling will pass. But they also now know what it takes to be the best. They now have a barometer to gauge their development level on. They have never had that level of competition before. They can now tell the rest of the world that they have played in the Olympics. They can tell the rest of the world they have competed against Olympic champions. Odds are, most of you that will read this will never be able to say that.  I am quite positive if you polled the 21 girls on the Slovak team on whether or not they would do it again knowing the outcome, it would be an overwhelming 21-0 vote in favour of taking that chance again. For most or all of them, they might never get to face the greatest womens hockey players again, they may not get to the Olympics again. I'm pretty confident they will take an 18-0 loss to a powerhouse elite defending Olympic champion squad for no other reason than to say "we played the best there is. We might not of won, but we at least got to compete against them. " Its more than a lot of other countries can say at this point.

And isnt that really what the Olympics is about? Experiences?