We start the second half of this crazy tour in the closest NHL city to our home. Vancouver stuns me every time I come here, it so beautiful. Ben and I were here last February for the Olympics, to see Apolo Ohno's final olympic races, his record breaking skate.
This is a short, hockey only trip. We came straight through from Denver, and one of us has to work in the morning. We arrived in time to see the fading light as we drove downtown, with the mountains behind, and Grouse Mountain lit up for local skiing. A stunning skyline. |
This game has been on our list with a bullet. Philadelphia and Vancouver have the 3rd and 4th highest point totals in the league at this point of the season.
Our high hopes did not materialize. The Canucks haven't beaten the Flyers on their home ice since 1989 and the Philadelphia fans in attendance let everyone know it. That 21 year streak went up in a hail of pucks into the Flyers' net. Philadelphia goalie Brian Boucher was yanked early in the 2nd period after giving up 4 goals, and his replacement Sergei Bobrovsky gave up a couple more. The Canucks goalie, fan favorite Roberto Luongo, was excellent. The Sedin twins were awesome. Daniel, the scorer, gets a lot of hockey press. We thought Henrik, the playmaker, was the quiet star of the team. We love coming to hockey games in Canada. Turn on your hotel TV and you don't get the latest pro basketball player arrested for drug or weapons possession, you get hockey. On the screens at our pre-game pizza joint we don't get blowhard ex-football players in ties talking to each other, we get hockey! And the games are packed and rowdy. |
Strange thing we saw: The person called to the Horizon gate named Hai Yu.