Hockey Afternoon in Shenzhen

Hello My Dear Great Ones,

Never in a million years would I have thought that my Calgary Flames would come to Shenzhen, CHINA and play a game against the Boston Bruins.  Before Shenzhen I had seen the Flames play live in only two other rinks.  The old Stampede Corral, remember that, and the Saddledome.  Now I can say I have also seem them at the Universiade rink in Shenzhen.  Although it was just a preseason game it was still fun to see my heros live.  It was also fun to watch the game with Celia, who I have slowly indoctrinated into becoming a Flames fan, and also several guys from my ball hockey league plus colleagues from school.  The game itself was a promotion to inspire the Chinese to play the great game of hockey, but oh boy, based on the fact that 90 percent of the fans at Shenzhen were Canadian expats who came over from neighboring Hong Kong this may take a while.  Better idea is to build some rinks up in north China, provide cheap skates, and get kids playing, coached by Canadian expats.  As for the game between the Flames and Bruins my team totally dominated the guys from Boston.  Yet their goalie was amazing and held them in.  The Bruins went up three nothing early and the Flames spent the rest of the game trying to tie it.  And finally they did in the last minute of the third after the Bruins got two penalties and were shorthanded two men.  The Flames pulled their goalie and so it was a six on three man advantage.  Never seen that before.  Wow.  The game went into overtime and a shootout.  Sadly my heros lost in the shootout.  Dang.   Anyway here are a few impressions of a great day:

 It was super hot outside of the funky looking arena where the game took place.

 Some hockey icons were on display near the arena:  The Stanley Cup....

 ... and Lanny Mcdonld!

 Lanny was busy signing a million autographs.

 Gretzky jerseys were everywhere.  Boo...

 Flames warming up...

 The budding new Flames fan!

 Not Gretzky...ugh

 The Hanson brothers showed up too.

And just to remind us that we were still in China, there was a heavy military presence and the food and concessions were abysmal.  No beer and nachos?  Are you serious?  And they ran out of what little food they had and their outrageous luke warm, diluted, flavored soda water by the first intermission.  Laughable!!!!

Still was a great time and hockey is the best sport in the world!

These guys succumbed to the heat.

Taking a few shots near the rink.

Have a great week everyone!

Love adios and ping on!

Dirk