"Welcome To Canada Hockey Place."

Empty your pockets.
Open your coats ...
and have bags ready for inspection.

Prohibited:
...Pepper Spray
...Public incitement of hatred
...willful promotion of hatred

Through security about 11:15. Official Hockey Programs vendor says he's sold approximately 2000 of them himself.

11:30 and I'm the only one in Suite 214.

Taylor and Ryan eventually walk in.

Canada Hockey Place - the exterior. Aqueous reflections off of the mirror.



Russian pin trader. Everyone's looking to make a buck.



How much accreditation do you have? Venue = CHP = Canada Hockey Place; Access Codes: IH = Ice Hockey, IN = All Indoor Sport Venues, Infinity Symbol = All Sport Venues, ALL = All Sport Venues (No Prime Access though), Ticket holders.



Gotta love the Swiss. Neutrality, even with the wave.

Either the Norwegians (Norvége, French) cheer louder or there are more of them here. My suitemates pitch on a six-pack of Ricards, enjoy it throughout the game. When people see you writing and asking questions they ask, "Are you a journalist?"

"Yes."

"Excellent."

Goes on selling 50/50 Raffle Tickets.

But the essence is the discussion on what's bringing us all together today. The simple answer: VANOC. Tickets; connections through higher-ups, people who know. "Friends with halfpipe credentials, helping them out, World Cup Events, accreditation in general. Working for VANOC for 1 1/2 years helps too."

One suitemate (another Aussie) is a carpenter, Sam, he's from Melbourne. Work picked up for him with people who wanted to spend money renovating their suites for a "sense of security" and to up the costs of their sublet.

Seeing the Games in Sydney (2004) helped too.
"It just hit me at Christmas" one says. The Games had finally begun to arrive after all that time. "In Sydney, we heard all the hype, the pros and cons, and a lot of good things came of it."

Including, in their perspective, a greater sense of Canadian pride.
"Pride had been lacking - in the last few weeks - flags, colors - it's good to see."

The Swiss win; a great game with overtime. I wonder about the human collective conscious and the energy of sport...



I wanna ride ... the Olympic ... Zamboni. Even they must wear the Smurf Suit.

A weak, to most standards, sounding horn ends the warmup period. Team 2010 collects the pucks, two zambonis go, above is one.

The lens which you see the majority of the action.



Canadian Merchant as Sochi 2014 looms for its moment in the background; taking over the Science Centre.



The sun sets on the beach -- with hundreds of impromptu inukshuks assembled by visitors.



The shine of the Olympics wears off quickly in some parts of Vancouver ... I'm heading southbound on Main Street.

Visions of Vancouver's Main Street tomorrow.