Loss for us-Win for Canada

We knew we were in tough facing the high powered offense of Rouen last night, but we were hoping the new year would bring us some much needed luck!  We lost 6-2 at home to start off the month of January and it was the direct result of defensive breakdowns. In fact, 5 of the 6 goals were 2 on 1 tap ins, and the other went off the foot of Fabien Leroy. 

Our next test will be a week from today against Mont Blanc in St. Gervais. I will be sure to buy a post card from this place as it bears my family name!  Then we play on Tuesday in Morzine, both game are in the Alps and a few nights stay would be a huge benefit, rather than making two trips up there on the bus. We still do not have any confirmation if we will be able to stay over night in the Alps for a few days, but with the way our team is rolling right now, struggling to score goals and making glaring defensive mistakes, we could use this trip to try and bond a bit and come together as a team to get out of this funk.

Both Mont Blanc and Morzine are below us in the standings, and with the high altitude playing a role, it is always tough to win up there.  Last season we were able to beat Mont Blanc in overtime but really took one on the chin in Morzine losing by at least 5 goals.  

On another note, for any Canadian, Christmas time means vacation, presents, spiced rum and egg nog, but possibly most important is the World Junior Hockey Championships!!!  Last night after our tough loss, I was getting ready for bed when I realized the Canada/Russia Semi Final game was just starting.  I tuned in on the online scoreboard for a bit but could not get any audio to work. The teams were going back and forth trading goals. As the game continued, I was not sure if my roommate and fellow Canadian, Ryan Caicco was sleeping or not....

So instead of going down 1 flight of stairs to his room to check, I remained in my bed like a corps and just signed on to MSN Messenger to see if he was online. He was but did not know the game was on.  I gave him the link and he was listening to it live on TSN immediately and at that point it was the 3rd period and tied 4-4, so I decided to get my butt out of bed and go down to his room to listen in with him. As soon as I got down there, Russia scored with just over 2 minutes remaining. SHIT!!!  So here we are, sitting on the floor in his room, huddled around his laptop with a blank screen and the voice of Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire telling us that Canada has now pulled their goalie and time is ticking down. This scene here in France must replicate what it was like for many people in the 40s and 50s listening on the radio to Foster Hewitt's play-by-play on Hockey Night in Canada..."Hello Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland" (note- Newfoundland was a British Colony, before joining Canada in 1949) But everybody knows that right?

Anyways, there we are time is ticking down, 10, 9, 8, 7, then Gord Miller's voice starts racing, John Tavares wins a battle along the boards and sends a backhand to the net, it is blocked by a Russian defenseman, but then quickly scooped up and deposited into the back of the net by Jordan Eberle. "TIE GAME!!!!" Only 5 seconds left.  I immediately jumped up, having no idea what to do, I raced over to Caicco's neatly made bed and did a flip and landed on it, jumped back up for a standard two handed high five with my fellow compatriot. Did I mention it was 4am in France??? 

The game goes into overtime and Ryan and I are dying because we cannot watch it. "Wait, I have a plan!" I call my dad and have him sign into Skype, so now I have him on the web cam in Windsor, and having him manipulate his Macbook so that his camera will face the TV screen in my parents basement. PERFECT!!!  This is as close to home as I've been since last April.  So now we are watching the game live, and the overtime ends after 10 minutes and we are heading for a shootout.  Holy crap, this is out of control, it is now 4:30am, 3 of our roommates are asleep and we are just going nuts (roommate's nationalities are as follows: Finnish, French, American- all are out of the tournament).  

As this blog entry is getting long, I will sum it up as this... Canada scored on their first 2 shots in the shootout to seal the victory and head for a gold medal showdown with Team Sweden. A rematch of last year's gold medal game, which I missed as I was in the hospital getting my teeth taken care of from that errant puck that so perfectly crushed 8 of my teeth. 

Only fitting to mention the TSN Turning Point. TSN chose the game tying goal with 5 seconds left to play, but my TSN (France) Turning Point was my dad setting up his computer so we could watch the overtime and shootout! Thanks Dad

GO CANADA GO