Bantam, 2017-2018, AA (Barrie Minor Hockey)

Today was our first and only Wednesday in Sweden and we did our best to make it memorable day before we fly home to reality tomorrow.  We went to the Nobel piece prize museum this morning then spent the remainder of our time in Stockholm's old town.    In the late afternoon we travelled to a town called Tyreso and played the Tyreso-Hanvikens.  Our team saved the best till last and after 2 good nights of sleep our kids played the best first period we've played in a long time.   We took the game to them from puck drop and never let up.   We outskated, out hit, outshoot, and out scored them ...

Our day started out with a tour of the Vasa war ship museum which was very impressive.  Sweden built a huge warship back in the 17th century and it sailed for a total of 20 minutes before it sank.  It was found and brought up from the Baltic Sea floor in 1960 and restored.  We also took a bus tour of Stockholm and saw some very interesting sites. We played the 4th game of our tour tonight against a team called Jarna.  To be honest it was a sloppy game for us as the team hadn't recovered from a few non curfew nights prior.  We lost 4-3 in a shootout but we did take the play to Jarna ...

We said goodbye to Helsinki today and travelled via cruise ship overnight to Stockholm, Sweden.  It was a quiet night aboard the ship as many caught up on some well needed sleep.   More to come tomorrow as we land in Stockholm and embark on the 2nd leg of our trip.

Today was a none hockey and with a tour and New Year eve feativites.  We catch the boat over to Sweden tomorrow. Happy News year eve from 7 hours away...   May the hockey gods be good to you.

The kids, and I would suggest some parents, had the opportunity to sleep in and recharge the batteries today as we had an early afternoon game against the Helsinki ViikingIT hockey team.      This team is coached by an ex-NHL hockey player by the name of Juha Lind.  The ViikingIT hockey club is actually made up of 49 players and yes all 49 practice together at the same time.  They focus most of their attention on the skills of the game and very little on systems during practice.  They where vary gracious hosts and a pleasure to meet and play against.