Cowhide and Rubber

Vacationers bring their own travel mugs because the glasses they serve drinks in are pathetically tiny. The wife packed my Coach's Corner mug to embarass me. Turns out it was quite appropriate!

Yes, it’s true. For a couple hours in late February, The Royal Decameron Salinitas resort in El Salvador became a hockey-tempest-in-a-teapot. Not soccer, not beisbol. Hockey. Ice hockey. Thousands of miles from home and with nothing to worry about except for when to start drinking, Canadians would not be denied the opportunity to root on their hockey team in the Gold Medal Game this past Sunday.

When my wife and I first booked our honeymoon, we knew that it would be during the second week of the Olympics. I knew that I’d miss a potential gold medal game, unless the resort carried Terra TV (they didn’t), or unless something could be rigged using the internet. Apparently I was not the only one thinking about this, and thank goodness for that!

It was quite the scene. A guy fired up his laptop in the lobby (the only place on the resort with wi-fi) to stream the game, and as you might imagine, he soon enough had a small crowd gathered around him. Whether or not he intended to watch the game by himself was quite beyond his control. As the crowd grew around him, the lobby became more and more packed with sunburnt, hockey-starved Canadian fans. In a move to accomodate the growing horde, and liberate the lobby for business purposes, the hotel staff offered to open up a conference room for us.

What a stroke of genuis! The laptop was connected to a projector and speaker. 56 chairs were soon laid out and it was standing room only by the time the puck dropped on the overtime session. I never took count, but there had to be at least 70 people in the room when Crosby beat Miller.

It was funny to watch word spread poolside as the game progressed, finally resulting in a mass exodus from the pool and bar once it was known that the game was going in to overtime. A small stampede of soaked swimmers and sunbathers put aside their vacation plans and put their National pride on the line. The fact that Team USA tied the game with only seconds to spare served to only extend the party and get more people involved. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the good vibes from El Salvador is what pushed Canada over the edge, because that game could have really gone either way.

All was not perfect, however, as the video kept freezing on us…especially frustrating when the video chokes just as Crosby picks up the puck and gets ready to score the winner. There was a brief moment of confusion because although the video froze, the audio only skipped a short beat. When it kicked back in again, all we could hear was the crowd in Vancouver going insane. Naturally, we followed suit as everyone in the room knew what had just happened.

Here’s a video that I shot in the seconds after Crosby won the game. It’s in a darkened room, so you won’t see as much bedlam as I did (hopefully you’ll hear it), but you will see around the 13 second mark where the video froze prior to the goal, which left us momentarily dazed and confused:

Of course, being in El Salvador, there’s no point in hanging out in a darkened room, so we disconnected and headed back to the bar. The celebrations continued, and I’d be willing to bet that what ensued was the only rendition of ‘O Canada’ ever sung in El Salvador:

Talk about some unforgettable hockey memories! I was sure that I would have to log on to the internet after the fact to find out the result, but as it turns out, it ended up being one of the most amazing experiences. Afterall, how many of you got to see Canada win the Gold Medal in a wet bathing suit and in 35°C/95°F sunshine?

By the way, if you’re looking to get away, I can’t recommend the Royal Decameron Salinitas enough. Over the course of a week, I was injured, sick and sunburnt, and still had the best trip ever. I can’t give a better review than that!