THE CROWD

Before the Canada game, we headed down the street from the E Center to grab some lunch. There're several restaurants in walking distance and we waited for a few - but the crowds and waits were too long. Though, we did run into announcer Gary Thorne and a friend of mine ran into Gary Bettman (Bettman was supposedly very friendly).

After lunch, we headed back down the street to get into the arena. Wow - it was two hours before gametime and the energy was electric on the street. Hordes of Canadian fans in jerseys, waving flags and banners, faces painted, screaming and shouting.

Canada is only a day's drive away from Salt Lake City, so a lot of Canadian fans made the trek to see if Canada could win their first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years.

As we entered the arena, there was a small but vocal contingent of Sweden fans. Hard to miss in their yellow jerseys and waving their blue and yellow flags. There were a couple guys in viking horns, which were pretty cool. There was also a large group of Sweden fans singing Bob Marley songs - particularly the "wuy-yuy-yuy" part from "Buffalo Soldier".

We got to our seats. All around us were Canadian fans with painted faces and CBC signs. Because ticket ushers were pretty lax about letting us take pictures and because we'd gotten there early enough, a few of us took up a prime viewing spot to watch warm-ups from behind Canada's bench. From there, we waited - someone would shout out, "I just saw Hitch!" whenever assistant coach Ken Hitchcock would peer out from the runway leading to the locker room.

Team Sweden came out first in their home yellow jerseys. A smattering of cheers - a handful of boos.

Then right in front of us, Curtis Joseph led Team Canada onto the ice. The place just erupted - all those mellow, easy-going Canadian guys who I was talking hockey with just went nuts. Thousands of people cheering and screaming as loud as their voices would let them.

Except me.

I was STUNNED. These were all the superstars of the NHL that I'd had on posters on my wall when I was in high school and college - Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux, and Rob Blake.... check, check, check, and check. And they were all skating in front of me ON THE SAME TEAM.

After I shook off my awe, I started snapping pictures. It became futile to try and take pictures of my favorite players. I just pointed the camera in a general direction and snapped away - any picture I took was going to have a future NHL hall-of-famer in it.

After I got my pictures, I moved aside so other guys could move in and get their chance to gawk.

The insane thing, of course, was that I got very few pictures of Team Sweden's warm-up. And that Swedish team was stacked with talent, as well.

This was going to be a great game.

THE GAME

Canada dominated the start of the game - buzzing like crazy in the early minutes. They capped it off with a one-time blast from Rob Blake to take the 1-0 lead. The crowd was into it and it looked like Canada was going to roll.

Reality set in just a few minutes later. Daniel Alfredsson grabbed the puck, skated into his own zone, then spun around and zipped a 100 foot saucer pass right onto the stick of a streaking Mats Sundin. Sundin skated in on a breakaway on Toronto Maple Leaf teammate Curtis Joseph and scored to tie the game.

A hush fell over the crowd. Not only was the Canadian momentum taken away on a pass that would be a two-line offsides pass under NHL rules but perfectly legal under international rules - but that was one @#$# great pass.

The rest of the first period belonged to Canada, but they couldn't solve goalie Tommy Salo. Salo played extremely well. Between periods, I heard at least a few Edmonton Oiler fans lamenting, "Why can't Salo do that when he's wearing an Oiler uniform?" In the second period, Sweden took over - beating Curtis Joseph with four goals and limiting Canada to only three shots on goal. Joseph looked very shaky and it didn't take long for the Canadian fans to get on CuJo.

In the third period, Canada finally beat Tommy Salo - but by then it was too late. All the energy had gone out of the Canadian crowd - they'd come to watch the greatest hockey team that their country had ever assembled and that greatest team every assembled gotten whupped in their first game. By the end, the only real sound in the arena were the happy Swedish fans... singing "wuy-yuy-yuy".

• NHL.com Recap

After the game was over, a group of us walked to grab dinner in the nearby area. Most of the restaurants were packed, but we found a place to relax at the local Denny's. After dinner, we walked back to the E Center for the next game.

While crossing the street, we passed an upbeat Ed Belfour. I couldn't believe it was him because I'd never seen Belfour smile before - the stories about Ed Belfour being honored to represent Canada were true. He walked into an Italian restaurant down the street from the arena - we found out later that the entire Team Canada ate there after the game.

But it was back to the E Center - for the last game of my trip.

                        1ST  2ND  3RD     TOTAL
                        ---  ---  ---     -----
    CANADA               1    0    1        2
    SWEDEN               1    4    0        5  FINAL

    GOAL SCORING:

      1ST PRD: CAN - ROB BLAKE 1 (MICHAEL PECA, THEOREN FLEURY) 2:37
               SWE - MATS SUNDIN 1 (DANIEL ALFREDSSON) 5:30
      Penalties-
               Mats Sundin, Swe (holding), 11:31.         
               
               
      2ND PRD: SWE - NICKLAS SUNDSTROM 1 (MICHAEL NYLANDER, MATS NASLUND) 6:06
      		   SWE - MATS SUNDIN 2 (DANIEL ALFREDSSON, NICKLAS LIDSTROM) 10:42
      		   SWE - KENNY JONSSON 1 (HENRIK ZETTERBERG) 11:47
      		   SWE - (PP) ULF DAHLEN 1 (NICKLAS SUNDSTROM, MATS SUNDIN) 15:58
      Penalties-
               Al Macinnis, Can (high sticking), 15:18.
                              
               
      3RD PRD: CAN - ERIC BREWER 1 (OWEN NOLAN) 15:39
      Penalties-
               Frederik Olausson, Swe (Delay of game), 0:27; 
               Marcus Ragnarsson, Swe (tripping), 7:16.


   POWER-PLAY CONVERSIONS: CAN - 0 OF 3, SWE - 1 OF 1.

   SHOTS ON GOAL:       1ST  2ND  3RD     TOTAL
                        ---  ---  ---     -----
                  CAN   15    3   17       35
                  SWE   10   11    4       25

         GOALIES: CAN - CURTIS JOSEPH
                  SWE - TOMMY SALO

       OFFICIALS: REF - Larue
                  LIN - Schachte, Kulakov.

             ATT: 8,484