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).

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.

Can you guess the current NHL scoring leader this season? If you said Henrik Sedin, you are right. Vancouver Canucks fans have known for awhile how special the #2 & #3 overall picks in the 1999 entry draft are, now the rest of the league is noticing.
 
An injury earlier this season put twin brother Daniel on the shelf, or else its quite concievable that the wonder-twins could be 1st & 2nd in league scoring right now. With Henrik leading the way, Daniel is 21st in league scoring. Considering he missed 18 games, thats pretty impressive. Just how incredible is it? He is the only player in the top 120 in league scoring to have played less than 40 games so far this season, it truly tells you how amazing these two are. 
 
They are a lethal 1-2 punch that make plays happen by wearing down defenders with an incredible puck cycling gameplan that leaves defenders running around never sure where they should be. When they are teamed with a go to the net & wait type player, they are even more lethal. Their ability to make plays in tight quarters thru seemingly impossible spaces has made mediocre scorers into snipers simply by being on the ice with them.
 
Already with an Olympic Gold each in 2006 primarily as support players, Daniel & Henrik are looking to repeat on their adopted home turf of Vancouver where they play for the NHL club team the Canucks. Now seen as probably 2/3 of the 1st line for the Swedes Dan & Hank will be expected to perform at a higher level than last Olympics that saw them both get only 4 pts each in 8 gp each.
 
Although Daniel is primarily the goal scorer of the two, its recently been noted that Henrilk can score himself, as he currently is tied for the lead on his team in goals this season in the absence of his brother for part of it. 
 
If Team Sweden wins any type of medal, the Sedin twins will definitely need to step up and deliver. If this season is any sign, they are certainly ready to do that.