Saturday was Team Canada’s off day, and so it was my day to go exploring! I was awake before 6 AM so I killed time getting my groove on to the videos on Euro MTV. This MTV actually played music videos, and I have to admit I became addicted to that Super Sweet Sixteen show! I guess that’s what happens when CNN is the only other channel in English! The problem with their music videos was that songs would repeat every half hour, but it was OK, I learned to love every single one of those six songs!
Around noon I took the train from the airport to central Zurich! I went exploring in all the fun old shops and churches! After walking around town for four hours, I realized how out of shape weeks of uninterrupted studying in front of my computer had made me. My feet have never hurt so much! When I returned back to the hotel, I had planned to head over to the rink and check out the atmosphere for when two non-Canadian teams are facing off. But instead I fell asleep!
For my last day, I switched hotels again. Team Hungary and Team Denmark were staying at this hotel. That was kind of cool because Canada was playing Hungary that night! Team Hungary left for the rink at the same time as I did. All rules and NHL procedures were out the window! And it didn’t stop there! The Arena Zurich-Kloten did not provide any information on which side of the ice was for the home and away teams. So, I decided to sit behind the net on one side of the rink for both games, so that I would at least have Canada on my side for one of the games, as they were away the first night and home the second. Canada was on the opposite side of the ice from me the first night, and it stayed that way for all three preliminary games! This is odd because in a multi-team tournament there is more than one home team. Also, Canada just alternated jerseys every game. That made no sense either because for game one they were away and for the second two games they were home, yet they did not wear the same jersey for games two and three! This made me grumpy!
Canada scored nine unanswered goals and shut out Hungary for the win! Once again, not exactly exciting, but at least I got to cheer a lot! There were hordes of Hungarian fans at the rink, and I actually believe MOST of them travelled the 1000 kms just to come and watch their team lose and bang their drums! They were loving every minute of it too! Back at the hotel, the fans waited in the lobby for the bus to arrive. The team received a continuous standing ovation from all the fans until every single one of the players had retired to their rooms for the night!
The next morning I was back on a plane headed for home. I was unable to get tickets for Canada’s third preliminary game, so I saw no sense in staying longer! I have never been so happy to go home. Normally, I love travelling on my own. It gives me time to reflect, do my own thing, and answer to no one. Maybe it was my lack of cell phone and msn, or the fact that the TV didn’t speak English, or a combination of the two, but I felt really lonely wandering around Zurich on my own! I was actually excited to be facing another long flight. I had planned out all the movies I wanted to watch in flight and everything!
This time I knew the season really was over. After my game in Phoenix, I had this feeling that something was going to come up and that the Coyotes last game of the season wouldn’t actually be my last game! Now I know the season really is over! Phoenix, Toronto, Ottawa, and Buffalo didn’t make playoffs, and Philly and Montreal are both out in the first round, so it is unlikely that I will get any playoff games in! And that is sad. Now I have five months to sit and stew! I am slowly going crazy 1-2-3-4-5-6 switch!
Picture: I’m hiding to the left of the Hungarian goal!
