I woke up at 6am in my compartment. It was not the best sleep I’ve ever had, due to being used to a larger mattress, however it was pretty good. At 8am, I went into the dining car for breakfast.

It consisted of a bread and butter pudding and sausages with berry jam and maple syrup. Along with a couple of cups of coffee. Very well cooked. Then I then headed back to my compartment and packed up for detraining in Montreal at 10am.

I ended up catching a taxi to my hotel even though it was only 6 blocks, due to the difficulty in managing all my bags in the snow. I’m staying in the Hotel Espresso on downtown Montreal.

After checking in I went for a walk with the intention of purchasing a UV filter for one of my camera lenses. A gentleman asked me if I would like to buy a ticket for the hockey. Then another did. By the time I got one block, I had been offered tickets from 4 men. So I looked around to see where I thought the hockey stadium would be and headed over. It was the Bell Centre, the home of the Montreal Canadiennes. One of the staff advised me that there was a women’s hockey game on during the day and it wasn’t too expensive. So I found the box office and bought myself a ticket. There was a men’s hockey game on in the evening so I bought one for that game too. For the men’s game, I had a choice of a front row seat for $440 or one about 20 rows up for $140. I bought the cheaper seat. For the women’s game, all tickets were $15.I bought a lunch of hot dog, fries and lemonade and headed in to prepare for the game. The hot dog was about half the size of the ones we have, but the rest was normal.

Cameras are banned from the stadium, but smart phones with cameras aren’t. This is a photograph of the stadium’s ice rink from my seat. This photo shows a bunch of ankle biters who skated over any then sat with the women on their bench when they came out a few minutes later.

The game of ice hockey plays for 3 periods of 20 minutes each, but the clock stops for various infringements, penalties and dropping of the puck by the referee / umpire (there are 4 of them), with a 17 minute break between each of the periods. Just enough time to head out, grab a beer, and get back to your seat. There are 5 field players and one goalie on each team on the ice at any one time, and they change over any time there is a stoppage. Herewith a photo of the crowd for the women’s game. Great to see so many people (and kids especially) attending the game.

Here’s a photo of the game itself.

Les Canadiennes ended up defeating the Calgary Infernos 1-0. It was a great game, especially since it was my first. Interestingly enough, there was no goalie on the ice for the visiting team for around the last 20 seconds of the game. So they had 6 playing on the ice. Interesting.

It was pretty cold and windy when I left the stadium, so I rested a while in my hotel room, then rugged up with my gloves, scarf and woollen hat, and headed back to the stadium for the men’s game.

For the men’s game, Les (Montreal) Canadiennes were playing the Colorado Avalanche. The ceremony started at 7pm with everyone standing for the USA National Anthem followed by the Canadian Anthem (with flags projected onto the ice).

The game started off strongly for the Montreal team, getting 5 goals in the first 9 minutes of the game. Two of the goals were propelled from behind the rear of the net and flicked into the goals by another player. This is difficult for the goalie to see and set up for The other goals (there were 6 in the first period) seemed to be due to the goalie for the Colorado not getting into position and dropping down early enough. I know little about the game, but was really impressed with both goalies from the women’s game, and think they were the best players in the game, constantly deflecting and stopping the puck from many angles.

In the second period, the Montreal team scored three goals and the Avalanche one goal. The final goal for Montreal in that period was scored with 0.1 of a second left in the period, and so had to go for review. The crowd were very animated when the screen showed the final second in slow motion. In the third period, Montreal scored one goal and the Avalanche nil, so the game ended 10-1. It was a great game overall, except there was one big brawl with about three minutes to go, after a Montreal play pushed over a Colorado player against the wall.

When there is a serious incident / penalty in the game, it seems that the offending player gets 2 minutes off the ice, meaning that there are 4 field players against 5. So the team with the lesser players goes directly into defence mode.

In all, it was a great game and I was glad I had stumbled onto it. Although I still have to buy my filter for my camera! Anyway, I headed home and had a Pumpkin Spice Kahlua before I went to bed.