Day Four - Part 1 (Pre-game)

Friday, February 13 - all of the boys were dropped off at the Colisee at 8:15am, which provided a good opportunity to watch one of the early morning games between the Capital District Selects and the Swiss Eastern Selects. Both of these teams are in the AA Class - Legare Division (we are in the AA Class-Bolduc Division). The Swiss team won (8-1). It was fun to see the families/fans react when a goal (or in French: but) was scored...the red light would flash and the horn would sound (just like it does at the Shark Tank when the Sharks score) and the Swiss fans would wave the Swiss flag. It is also very interesting to look around the rink, for there are a lot of Quebec residents who actually pay to come in and watch - from 8am until the last game is played. The come in with their coolers of food, their programs (so they can keep track of the scores, the winners & the losers) and all of their collector pins ready to trade and to show.
During this time, several of the kids had the opportunity to have their skates sharpened in preparation for the upcoming game this evening. It was also a good time for Coach Robert to hand out bags of Jr. Sharks pins (10 for each child) - giving them something to trade with the other players. And, boy...did the boys enjoy that, running around the rink to find other teams to trade with. One by one, they would come back to Section 20 (the meeting area) to show eachother the pins they traded a Jr. Shark for. Coach Robert did suggest ways to make sure that they would be able to make their 10 Jr. Sharks pins last for awhile...but we are not sure how many of the boys were listening :).

The Hockey Store Visit
A little after 9am (or so) we loaded up all 19 of us into one van (did you ever want to know how many hockey player + coaches + team dr. + team mgr you could fit in a 12-15 passenger van...well we were able to squeeze in 19 plus pond hockey gear and backpacks). Our destination was the hockey store. Now this hockey store was no hockey-X...it was the Hockey Super Store! Not only did it have sweatshirts, shirts, scarfs, jerseys, hockey socks, etc from every NHL team, but it had every imaginable gear you could ever want. There were bins and bins of hockey stick tape in every color, make and design. If you needed breezers/hockey pants - well, there were 2 aisles. Sticks, skates and a second floor with elbow and shoulder pads.
As the saying goes...it was like being in a candy store. We were not the only team in there - there was one of the Russian team, an Italian team, a team from Mexico and so on. As well as our friends from the LA Selects.

Lunch time at Le Cafe de Hockey...
After our trip to the hockey store was complete, we loaded up the van again and headed to the community center by the Colisee to eat at the Hockey Cafe (I am not sure what to call it...). This is the same place we ate lunch and dinner at yesterday; and it is the place that all the other hockey teams are fed as well. We were the first team there - arriving at 11am this morning. Lunch consisted of speg noodles with some kind of stew on top; cups of lettuce & slaw were available; mashed potatoes, tomatoe soup, and the assortment of fruits and sweets. Dannon yogurt seems to be one of the favorites of all the boys. After a little while, more and more of the team entered the cafeteria - Slovakia, Team England, the Italian team, etc. It gave you the feel of what it might be like at the Olympics when all the teams come together. When the boys were done eating, the trading pins came out and there was some trading that occured before it was time to load up the van again.

Homework and Rest Time
The next activity...time to head to the Palace Royal hotel, where coaches & parents are staying. Here, we got a room where some of the boys actually did some homework. Several showed completed work they had done at the host families. During the homework session - Robert finished some of his Spanish, Kyle worked on his math, Victor his science, Nick his Social Studies, Hiroki did something, Max his reading, and Tyler his religion. Unfortunately, not all the boys remembered to pack & bring their studies, but they will probably get a couple of opportunities to study (tomorrow, they will be staying at their host family's house...so, if your talk to your child you might be able to convience them to do more work).

Around 1:30pm, we divided the boys up between Coach Robert, Coach John, Dr. Marabella and myself for quiet resting time. The boys who are here with me right now (Robert and Jake) - are out! From here, we will wake them up around 3:30 and then gather in the lobby to load up the van and head back to the Cafe de Hockey for an early dinner.

The puck drops at 7:40pm! Let's play Hockey...Go Sharks!