Snapshots.
1) Surrounded by Canadiens fans, it's 50-50 with Canucks fans in the stands, in my millionaires section. It's all very civil and polite, everyone takes it in stride when a fan cheers for the other team. It's not like when Bruins fans infest an arena.
2) Guy on my left, Ken, gym teacher, Habs fan, accompanied with his wife, a 'nucklehead. Still they make it work. There's hope for the Middle East.
3) Mom with her two teenage daughters behind us, all in Habs regalia. One daughter declares she's going to try to not swear. She bats .300 or so. Still, great to have them in our section.
4) Beers is expensive, like $15.50 for two. We almost consider not purchasing any.
5) Teeny-boppers scream loudest for P.K. Subban, Alex Galchenyuk, Lars Eller, Carey Price, and Brendan Gallagher. Travis Moen and Josh Gorges and Andrei Markov, not so much.
6) Smart phones are awesome. We're in Section 314, my friend Slinky is in Section 304, we meet up between the first and second period. Guy Fabi is unaccounted for though.
7) How did that goal go in on Roberto Luongo? One minute I'm being a blowhard talking with Ken, then the puck is between Roberto's skates and trickling in over the goal line. The Arena scoreboard, usually pretty trusty, fails to show us a replay.
8) How did that puck go in on Roberto Luongo? Kind of floated in from the blue line, off Josh Gorges' stick, the teenyboppers had enough time to text four OMG's and two LOL's by the time the puck rested in the top corner. Lu was serenaded with some lusty "Luuuuuuuuu" 's, some by Habs fans, some by Canucks fans.
9) How good was Carey Price. He did what we want him to do. No matter what, or how, stop pucks. Again, the Jumbotron refused to cooperate, but did he stop that puck with the shaft of his stick, that he just happened to drop? I have to watch this again on cbc.ca .
10) The Olè chant (damn keyboard in the guest room, can't get the accents right) is really loud when the home fans apathetically surrender.
11) I crack up what's left of my section when, halfway through the third, I exclaim: "Where'd all these empty seats come from?" It's an exodus of Canucks fans, trying to beat traffic, leaving us to our fun.
12) Man P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov are good together, it's almost unfair to all the others.
13) #22 and #33 from Vancouver are pretty good too. You kind of notice when they're on, things get bottled up in the Canadiens end more than usual.
14) Actual hockey noticed: two lines had a lefty and righty who could take draws, one combo being Daniel Briere and Lars Eller, the other being Ryan White and Michael Bournival. This was pointed out to seatmates, when a draw was happening in one corner as opposed to another in the defensive zone. Some heads sagely nodded at this observation. Teenyboppers regarded fount of this observation with modestly less contempt.
15) I feel really bad for the Canucks. Henrik and Daniel and ... who? Mike Santorelli?! It's really slim pickings. We worry about how to mix and match our three pretty good lines, and who sits when George Parros plays on the fourth line. They have the twins, a somnolent Ryan Kesler, an injured Alex Burrows, then a whole bunch of forwards you never heard of, for good reason. On the drive in, TEAM 1040 made much noise about the return to action of Zach Kassian, but they must have been mistaken, for he did not play. Didn't see him. Must be a clerical error.
16) Still listening to TEAM 1040, almost drove my truck into Howe Sound when they described Josh Gorges as "6'1", 200 lbs, not that big but plays big, huge, hits everything, is a leader for his team, good Kelowna kid...."
Someone fire up the rumour machine, we might be able to steal Ryan Kesler and/or Kevin Bieksa from them...
17) The Cambie for after-game libations. Someone needs to do something about the clientele mix. Some of these girls in there, I was old enough to be their older brother.
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