Maple Leafs vs. Flames at the Air Canada Centre

Juha had decided to surprise me, or let's just say he couldn't wait anymore, and bought us tickets to a NHL game last Saturday. He had found some standing tickets for only 25 dollars per ticket and couldn't resist the temptation. He already wanted to see a NHL game last time we visited Toronto, but the prices of the tickets were sooo high, that we decided not to go. Since we have been living here Juha has been checking the NHL ticket website quite often, but most of the tickets were sold for 200-300 dollars. So finally on Saturday, it was his lucky day :) An adjunct benefit was the fact that the Flames has three Finnish players on its team: Kiprusoff, Olli Jokinen and Niklas Hagman.

We went on time to the Air Canada Centre, where you could see thousands of Maple Leafs and Flames fans. Almost everyone had a jersey, cap or something else from the fan shop, which looked really nice. We had standing tickets and we were not really expecting much of it, but when we found our places they might have been the best places in the whole stadium.  We were standing behind the top row of seats and had a good view over the whole rink.

And of course the world is a small place... next to us were three Finnish guys watching the game.

We have heard that the Leafs fans are not the most enthusiastic fans, but still it was quite a show. It felt quite amazing to be in a stadium with 19 000 people, especially when they were singing their national anthem, O Canada. During every break there was some entertainment and the time went by very fast. However, the beverage and food prices were ridiculously expensive. For a medium beer you had to pay 9 dollars, so we were sticking to Timmy's coffee and chocolate drink.

Kiprusoff #34

Olli Jokinen #13

Jokinen almost made a goal

Hagman #10

Go Flames Go!

It was a good game. The Flames made immediately two goals during the first 15 minutes, but then the Leafs made three goals and the Flames were not able to make it an even anymore.

All in all, it was a really nice experience and Juha is already longing for a next time... Well actually, me as well :)