So back to work today… and what happens, but the Russians have been scheduled to come to our venue for a practice. It’s also the last day of the games of the Women’s tournament so we have lots to do. In addition, we’ve lost a team member – Keith, one of our supervisors – tore his retina and is out until he gets surgery. A pretty scary moment for him and us.
We tried to keep it quiet as to what men’s team was coming to the rink, but it didn’t take very long for the word to get out that the Russians were coming. So I was assigned to the front door – hold it open as the team came into the rink and Fran had the inside the rink door. For the most part, the blue jackets don’t bother the athletes in our venue, we don’t really watch the practices and cameras are at a minimum until today.
It was also interesting to note about what we needed to change now that men were in the building. They were using our practice ice and a couple of temporary changerooms in rink b. But the team went into action with cleaning the rooms, the hallway leading to the rooms, getting towels, and drinks out to the area. Re-surfaced the ice twice before they arrived and swept and mopped the hallways.
Team Russia arrived on their bus, fully dressed. The goalies had everything on and the rest of the team had everything but helmets, gloves and skates. They pulled out their individual equipment out of the bus and came into the rink. Their entrance was just below the workforce break room that has glass windows (big ones). So the blue jacket force lined the windows for entry and took pictures and then every window into the rink was lined with more staff. Our Sid team was in the rink lined against the wall.
The team only practiced for about 45 minutes but man, I can tell you that they are big men and can shoot hard. Scared the daylights out of me and the other blue jackets standing on the back wall. I would have thought that the men would hit the net more often. Krista said that it reminder her of tyke hockey where she had to get dressed in the car on the way to the rink or before leaving for the rink. There’s some photos in the gallery from today.
My excitement from the Russian team was seeing Tretiak… I didn’t know who Malkin was or even Ochevkin but I knew who Tretiak was and he looks great. He’s a very tall man so I can really understand how he was such a good goalie. One of the goalies on his way out (complete with skates on) actually hit his head on the door – they take up a lot of space in that net.
Well, that’s likely the closest we will get to the men’s athletes so I hope you enjoy the gallery tonight. There’s also some pictures of our staff while we were waiting.
Tomorrow we are into the home stretch – I only have four shifts left and there’s only six days left at our venue. It seems like the time has gone by quickly but it’s been good. Last night walking around the town, was one of the amazing moments – it reminded me of walking around Germany when we were there for the World Cup. Everyone was so happy. Singing O Canada. There’s amazing free shows going on all the time and for those marketing gurus, we also came across the best ads we’ve seen. At night, Nike projects it’s Force Fate ads on the sides of the white buildings. Krista and I were mesmerized for quite some time…. (the pictures are in yesterday’s gallery)
The best part of my day – seeing Tretiak and having birthday cake as it was Yuni’s birthday.
The worse part of my day – forgetting that Team Canada played today and not leaving early enough to watch the game – but we did get the end of the third and the shoot out – thanks to Barb for keeping me up to date via bb.
