Gold Christmas!!
Well, Burl Ives may not like the title, but I certainly did this year! Since it's been awhile between now and my last post, I thought I'd combine my photos from Christmas and the World Junior Hockey Championships.
The WJHC was held in Pardubice this year, which, for those of you who remember, is about 20 minutes away from Hradec Kralove. For the Czechs who read this (and any others), the WJHC is the most anticipated international hockey tournament of the year for Canadians. We love our junior hockey like we love complaining...and we DO love complaining. Imagine my glee when I discovered that the tickets only cost $10 here -- and that's not for just one game either, but two! For the equivalent of $75, both Niky and I had tickets to almost every game in Pardubice for the whole tournament. Unfortunately for the Nik, the Czech Republic got knocked out of medal contention pretty early in the tournament (getting shut out by Canada 3-0 on the first night didn't help). In any event, despite a round robin loss to the very strong Swedish team, and a very harrowing third period in the Final Round against those same Swedes, Canada persevered to win their 4th consecutive WJHC Gold! There were about 5,000 Canadians in attendance for all of the games here -- it was an absolutely incredible experience, and the timing and price of this event couldn't have been more perfect for me. I'm happy that I was able to experience such a thing...if any of you think you saw me on TV, you probably did.
Anyway, onto the pictures!
CHRISTMAS:
Our little tree in our flat
Niky and her sister Andrea
Niky and her Dad
HOCKEY TOURNAMENT:
Our boys warm up before the game against Slovakia
My friend Jiří, caught with the evidence in his hand!
Getting ready for Sweden (round-robin)
During the warm-up before the Canada-Denmark game a puck came flying up into the stands and almost hit both Niky and me...I thought I had dropped my camera.
Leaving after the warm-up
Coming out to play against Denmark
One of the Danish players is interviewed after the game.
That's a huge flag!
Niky, the Kanaďanka
A couple of players from Team Russia sitting in front of us
The TSN booth..I should have asked if they had any Tim Hortons!
The boys celebrate after beating the USA in the semi-finals
Jiří is approved by the Canadian fans.
O Canada, after winning the gold
Shaking hands with the very good Swedish team
Billowing the giant flag
The Canadian juniors celebrate with the rowdy section of Canadian fans....great fan support at this tournament!
The juniors come over to our side...
...and give us a closer look at the cup too
What a great tournament, and great memories for me.
The WJHC was held in Pardubice this year, which, for those of you who remember, is about 20 minutes away from Hradec Kralove. For the Czechs who read this (and any others), the WJHC is the most anticipated international hockey tournament of the year for Canadians. We love our junior hockey like we love complaining...and we DO love complaining. Imagine my glee when I discovered that the tickets only cost $10 here -- and that's not for just one game either, but two! For the equivalent of $75, both Niky and I had tickets to almost every game in Pardubice for the whole tournament. Unfortunately for the Nik, the Czech Republic got knocked out of medal contention pretty early in the tournament (getting shut out by Canada 3-0 on the first night didn't help). In any event, despite a round robin loss to the very strong Swedish team, and a very harrowing third period in the Final Round against those same Swedes, Canada persevered to win their 4th consecutive WJHC Gold! There were about 5,000 Canadians in attendance for all of the games here -- it was an absolutely incredible experience, and the timing and price of this event couldn't have been more perfect for me. I'm happy that I was able to experience such a thing...if any of you think you saw me on TV, you probably did.
Anyway, onto the pictures!
CHRISTMAS:
Our little tree in our flat
Niky and her sister Andrea
Niky and her DadHOCKEY TOURNAMENT:
Our boys warm up before the game against Slovakia
My friend Jiří, caught with the evidence in his hand!
Getting ready for Sweden (round-robin)
During the warm-up before the Canada-Denmark game a puck came flying up into the stands and almost hit both Niky and me...I thought I had dropped my camera.
Leaving after the warm-up
Coming out to play against Denmark
One of the Danish players is interviewed after the game.
That's a huge flag!
Niky, the Kanaďanka
A couple of players from Team Russia sitting in front of us
The TSN booth..I should have asked if they had any Tim Hortons!
The boys celebrate after beating the USA in the semi-finals
Jiří is approved by the Canadian fans.
O Canada, after winning the gold
Shaking hands with the very good Swedish team
Billowing the giant flag
The Canadian juniors celebrate with the rowdy section of Canadian fans....great fan support at this tournament!
The juniors come over to our side...
...and give us a closer look at the cup too
What a great tournament, and great memories for me.
posted by gulldogg at 12:33 p.m.
3 Comments:
That's *so* awesome.
Did you challenge Pierre Maguire to a fight?
Hi Jeff;
glad to see you're up & running again. I watched the Canadian games to see if I could see you, but didn't. I know that was a thrill for you being able to see Canadian hockey.
Hi to Nikki.
Love, grandma
VERY cool.
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