Have I mentioned how good it feels to be back in Canada?  I have to say that everyone here at home has been fantastic to us so far, and they have gone above and beyond the call of duty to make us feel at home. 

Yesterday we went as a team to visit the office of our primary team sponsor, Teck.  They had a very warm welcome for us and we were able to meet many of the people that work there.  Our favorite part of the visit though, was definitely seeing the Vancouver 2010 Olympic medals they had put out on display for us. 

Shortly after that we had a media event at our hotel where a good number of journalists came to attend a short press conference, followed by interviews with players and coaches.

At this event Canon Canada was introduced as a new sponsor of the CSA. They quickly won the players over by very generously giving each member of the team a new Canon camera!  It was a fantastic gesture and caught us all a little off guard.

The good times kept rolling when we found out that our coach, our  incredible manager, and the people at Teck had somehow managed to get us tickets to the Vancouver Canucks game!  I don’t know how they managed this, but everyone was ecstatic at the gesture.

First though, we had some business to take care of.  We spent the day running positional meetings, team meetings and physio treatments prior to our training session in the afternoon.  As a squad we have covered all the major issues at this point. Now it’s all about little touch ups and making sure we are all on the exact same page.

Training itself went well. It was our first look at the stadium and it seems that it will be a fantastic place to play.  It has a roof (which is especially good, given that it snowed yesterday), but it is still a little chilly in there.  All the better for us though, as it’s not very likely that the central American countries we are competing against will be used to the cold.  It has even been suggested by a few players that we just play with the roof open: The colder the better!

After our recovery/refueling/treatment after training we headed to Roger’s arena for the Canucks vs LA Kings hockey game. What a treat!  This was by far one of the coolest things we have gotten to do as a national team.  We spent most of the second period right behind the glass behind LA’s goal.  We were up-close for a tying goal by the Vancouver Canucks, up close for a fight (won by Vancouver) and up close for some good hits.  It was a fantastic view! 

Part way through the period the Vancouver Club projected the Women's National team up on the big screen to advertise our tournament, and we got a rousing cheer from the crowd.  After all this excitement we headed off to our different seats to enjoy the rest of the game.

  Vancouver ended up losing in shoot-outs, but I don’t think too many of us really cared about the score too much, as we were all blown away by the experience.

To finish, I will just briefly say that I had a great time watching the game with Karina.  Karina is not exactly a hockey fan, and I feel I just have to embarrass her by mentioning a collection of her many classic comments during the game.

1.     “Overtime" (followed by pk’s as she calls them) is made up of two 5-minute quarters”

2.     Karina yelling “bluuuuuuue” after Luongo makes a save

3.     “where’s Trevor Lindon?”