Olympics in Milan: - Heading to the USA vs Canada Gold medal game!

This blog post is slightly different than most of the others from here in Milan, in that, this blog post is less about the photos and more about the moment.

I am sitting in my hotel room, preparing to leave for the Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena for the last time. I will be getting there about 2 1/2 hours early to make sure I get a good shooting location, on the correct side of the rink (where we shoot twice) and with the clearest plexiglass.

The plexiglass has gotten pretty beat up over the last couple of weeks, and the amount of clean spots has diminished. Over the plast couple of weeks I have gotten to the rink really early and asked the maintenance people to come polish the glass in front of my spot. That gives me a slightly better chance of getting sharper images.

These guys have been really great in trying to keep the glass as clean as possible, but many of the marks are too deep and can not be buffed out. 

This is a gold medal game and the anticipation is through the roof. I heard yesterday that ticket prices are going as high as $12,000 per seat. That is CRAZY! In the history of the Olympics, the US has never had both the women and men win gold medals in the same year. The men have not won a gold medal since 1980. Will that happen today?

The men had their last practice yesterday and they are ready to go. 

So I sit here at my little desk and write this blog post with a lot of anticipation. Even though this is another huge game for the team, I am a little less nervous than I was for the women's game. Not about the team, the opponents, or the outcome, but more about me capturing good shots for them. I have been doing this for almost 3 weeks now and now I just need to do what I have been doing. (Note: Since writing this paragraph and the time I got to the rink to post this - the nerve levels are way up!)

I am not an inherently superstitious person, but when it comes to hockey, I have that in me. I know that when I am playing a game, I would never say something to my goalie like "Hey, you have a shutout going" or anything like that. That is just not allowed in this sport. For the first game, the men entered from the wrong tunnel for warmups and they have continued that all the way through. I received a new jacket from the team yesterday, but I am not going to wear that because when I wear my older one, we have not lost. I keep my little seat cushion with logo facing the same way. I am somewhat embarrassed to tell of of you that I have even used the same urinal in the bathroom since day one. When things are going right, you just don't mess with that! This is the first game where the US team is considered the visitor, and so their bench is on the other side. I will be shooting on the opposite side of the rink. I don't even like that!

For those of you who will be watching, I hope we are treated to another amazing game, even half as exciting as the women's finals. 

One last event from these Games, and one last chance to capture history!

I will see you all on the glass.

Please excuse any typos. Normally I try to proofread everything before I post, but here at the Olympics, time is a commodity. I definitely miss some things. :)

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