I was extremely excited for today's event. We got tickets to go see the Canada Celebrates Hockey and the Military event at the Colliseum in Edmonton. The event consisted of the Canadian Men's and Women's Olympic Hockey Gold Medal teams and the Canadian under 18 Girls World Champions. It also was a tribute to the Canadian Military and the difference that they are making acround the world and especially in Afghanistan. I was really looking forward to seeing some of my hockey heros, which includes the Men's Gold Medal Executive Director, Steve Yzerman. He is my favourite hockey player of all time. I grew up watching him because a relative of mine played with him and then coached him with the Detroit Red Wings. I have met him before in passing but I was still looking forward to seeing him again. Anyway, the event was at kind of a weird time. It was at 5:30 so I had to leave work early (I changed my schedule that day from my usual 9-5 to 8am-4pm). That was the first thing that I thought was weird about the event. The next thing was that hardly anyone was there. It was put on by hockey Canada and eventhough they obviously had to contact the players awhile ago to get them all to Edmonton for today, the event itself only started getting promoted in the last few weeks. I only heard about it 2 weeks ago. The was only a few thousand people, which in the Colliseum looks like about 100 people because it is so big. I felt sort of embarrassed for the players and the military that more people did not show up to honor them. But with the timing and poor promotion it is no wonder. People from out of town can't come to an event on a Monday at 5:30pm. My next disappointment from the event was the fact that they didn't introduce all of the players individually. They introduced some of the key players, the captains, the game winning goal scorers for each team etc. but for the rest of them they just said "here are your Olympic Gold medal forwards" and then the forwards would walk out, they did the same for the defence. I thought that was kind of a poor way to introduce them. They all did such a great job that they deserve to hear their individual names cheered for. Anyway, here are some pics from the event.
This is the stage they had some local bands play before and after the presentations.
They let everyone go stand along the "aisle" where the players walked in. We decided not to because the line up was about 10 people deep on each side and we wouldn't be able to see anything anyway. At least in our seats we could see it on the big screen.
Hockey Canada Sign. Notice all of the empty bleachers?!?!
The white tunnel is where the players walked out on to the field from.
Part of the marching band. They did a great job.
These are the cadets bringing out the huge Canadian flag.
Our Men's Team Captain, Scott Niedermayer, he rode in on that tank. Our Women's Team Captain, Hayley Wickenheiser, also rode in on a tank but she was on the other side of the field.
There he is still on the tank.
The only mounted military troup left in Canada is from Edmonton. They try to preserve the tradition of the mounted military. I loved the horses. They were so well behaved!
After the interviews and presentations to the players people got to tour the military vehicles that were around the stadium.
My hero, Steve Yzerman, on the big screen.
You can sort of see how they had the players sitting on the stage. They had all three teams on there and they called up a few notable players/coaching staff for interviews.
They also interviewed some of the high ranking military personnel about the effect that the gold medals had on morale for our troups in Afghanistan.
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