Czech Hockey Part 1 - Party In Prague

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No games today or yesterday so slow day, time for a story. So I went to the Czech Republic for a few days as a requirement of my MBA program. (Hire me?) It just happened to be during one of the biggest games in Czech sports history. It was the 2010 World Hockey Championships. They were playing the heavily favored Russia who had players like Ovetchkin and Varlamov and were supposed to beat CZ easy. So this is the part 1 of the recap I wrote a few years ago...i purposely kept in the negative Caps stuff so u can see my transformation

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Still on the first night of our trip and the excitement was far from over. Tonight the Czech hockey team would be playing the hated arch rival Russians for the championship. Hoards and hoards of crazy fans headed towards the city center where bands played and giant low definition televisions were set up. Thousands of people packed into the square in Czech colors.

The beer was flowing and a woman with a mustache was singing American songs on stage, and soon the hockey game had begun. Before we even knew what was happening the crowd went insane. Fireballs burst into the air, giant smoke rings billowed out of the center of the crowd. Something was on fire. Everyone jumped up and down and cheered. Apparently the Czech team had scored a goal within 10 seconds of the start. It was something I will never experience or ever see in American sports.

During the game I constantly went up to purchase beers. 5 22oz Beers for 200 Crowns. ($10) While they did not card or ID anyone, at one point some 10 year olds were trying to get me to buy them some beers. I guess maybe they were just a bit too young, but I was sure they could have just ordered their own. (I did not buy them by the way).
The Czech team was led by Czech hero and God Jaromir Jagr. Hundreds of people with Jagr jerseys everywhere. On the Russian team was Ovetchkin and Varlamov from the local Washington Chokitals (Capitals). It was very interesting to watch people boo Ovetchkin with a hatred in their eyes, much stronger than Penguins fans. The chants were not nice either and made "you suck" look not so classless. Interestingly enough we were watching with a Russian, who watched his team losing while fans chanted "Russian Pigs!" for 3 hours.

Malkin sucked as usual for Russia and as Ovie normally does, he did nothing to help the favored Russians win, and with a little help from Vokoun in net the Czech Republic was now world champions. Flags flew, fires were lit, kisses & hugs all around..But again, things were not over yet...

This was apparently one of the biggest games in the history of hockey, and you can read about the upset in the news report from AOL News which has the following quote. "From start to finish, the goalie of the NHL's Florida Panthers [Vokoun] stood alone as the most valuable player on the ice. Time and time again, he turned the Russians away."

Part II Up Next...