Boxing Day 2009 – we arrived to a very cold, very sunny beautiful Saskatoon sunrise (OK the sun was up but just barely). No wind to speak of, quite pleasant considering the temperature (and not a lot of snow to speak of either).
We checked into the Delta Bessborough and it’s right downtown by the river. Very nice and the people at the hotel have been terrific.
Before heading over to the rink, we walked about downtown for a bit. Saw the old Eaton building right across from the Birks building. Must have been quite the downtown core 50 years ago.
Downtown Saskatoon...before Game 1
Game 1 – Canada absolutely routed the Latvians. It was quite embarrassing but our boys played beautifully and kept their heads screwed on straight and we only took one nasty penalty (well deserved too). Score was 16 to 0 and shots on net were 66 to 10. We we’re shocked at either how well our boys played or how poorly Latvia played. Still not sure which.
We headed over to “WorldFest” to catch some dinner and to try and find “green” Hockey Canada jerseys. Had dinner, no luck with the jerseys.
Game 2 – Slovak came out strong and we thought within the first 5 minutes that they were going to gut the Americans. The Americans finally woke up and the Slovak’s seemed to shrink and stop playing hard like they started. Nasty stuff everywhere abound and the refs seemed to only penalize the Slovaks. Needless to say the Americans won handily even though the crowd was clearly rooting for the Slovaks.
Headed back to the hotel – it was a very long first day. Public transportation for the tournament seems to be working well however, they should be breathalyzing the fans and making the drunks walk home 🙂
the world of jim 
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