 The SnowSeekers Olympic crew – Doc Pow, Mark Sereda, Brandon Boucher, and Rick MacDonnell – celebrate a seminal moment in Canadian hockey history. RICK MACDONNELL/SnowSeekers |
RICK MACDONNELL
- Feb. 28/10
Without a doubt, one of the top three moments of my life.
I can't recall a time where I've felt such euphoria, such uninhibited joy. I hugged more strangers in the last hour than I have in my entire life. My hands are red from the high fives I've given. My throat is run raw from the screaming I've done.
GO CANADA GO!
I've never been so glad to be 25, else I would have taken a heart attack. Those first few moments of overtime were taxing, to say the least.
The entire SnowSeekers crew was holed up in Merlin's since 10 a.m. this morning. The doors didn't open 'til 11a.m. By the time we were allowed inside, the lineup was at least 200 strong (it stretched back to Monk's Grill).
Luckily, we had the foresight to get there early enough to reserve some prime real estate
"I'd hate to be one of the poor souls who thought they'd get in here at Noon," said Jon Vaughn of Margaree, Nova Scotia. " It's the men's hockey gold medal game, for Christ's sake. If you're not prepared to wait five hours to see this, then you don't deserve to."
For weeks, the pundits have said that if the men's hockey team didn't win gold, the Games would be a failure. As if that pressure wasn't enough, Canada went into their game against the United States one gold shy of the Olympic record for most gold medals in one Olympic Games.
 These three guys didn't even know one another. The atmosphere was just that jovial. RICK MACDONNELL/SnowSeekers |
In one fell swoop Team Canada satisfied the hopes and dreams of an entire nation, and set an Olympic record in the process.
Golden goal
I can't even imagine what it was like to be inside B.C. Place as the crowd of 18,000 strong belted out GO CANADA GO. When Cole Harbour's own Sidney Crosby scored the game winning goal, the crowd at Merlin's went off.
Cheers and chest-bumps went on for the next 10 minutes, all throughout the medal presentation ceremony.
It couldn't have been a more fitting end to an amazing Olympic Games. Canada's golden boy, Sidney Crosby scored to win it in overtime against the best goalie in the world – Ryan Miller.
It's hard to imagine that a little more than two weeks ago, the public was crying for the first gold medal on Canadian soil. Now, we've set the record for not only the most golds on home soil (eclipsing the U.S.A.'s record of 10), but we've set the record for most golds ever at the winter Olympic games (14).
Whistler, along with Vancouver, has played host to one of the greatest Games in Olympic history (winter or summer). Without a doubt, we've raised the bar for future Games.
Sochi's got some work to do.
For a more visceral portrayal of Crosby's Golden Goal, check out this video.