Today was a bad day to be in an American hockey rink while being a Sidney Crosby fan!  Most everyone knows I have become a hockey fanatic and while the Reading Royals (the ECHL minor league hockey team for whom I have season tickets) are affiliates of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins, my favorite NHL team is the Pittsburgh Penguins.  I have several Penguins jerseys (among them Sidney Crosby) and I wear a Penguins jacket, a Penguins watch, and a Penguins backpack.  This being my hockey attire, I usually show up to Royals games with that on so it is well documented that I'm a Penguins and Crosby fan.

Well tonight the Reading Royals took on the Johnstown Chiefs and they had the Olympic game on the televisions in the concourse of the stadium.  So we'd run down to check on the score of the USA vs. Canada gold medal game.  And oh what a game it was.  When Canada scored their second goal in the second period to make it 2-0 I thought it was over.  But Team USA with their tenacity never gave up and scored a goal in the second to make it 2-1.  The score remained with seconds to go in the third and final period when the USA pulled their goalie to bring on an extra attacker, a strategy that worked out as the US scored to tie the game up.  Next came over-time and it truly was any team's game.  So we got news in the stadium that Canada scored to win the game and the gold medal. 

We, being Americans and hockey fans, were sad to hear that Team USA lost but then the news came that none other than Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal.  Well needless to say I got a lot of teasing since I'm a Crosby fan. 

All in all, I am quite disappointed that team USA did not win but they got the silver medal and they have absolutely NOTHING to be ashamed of.  Listening to analysts from the beginning, no one predicted the US would get this far let alone beating Canada in the preliminaries and giving Canada a run for their money in the finals.  As a fan, I have to be happy for Crosby that he scored the winning goal for his country.  Hopefully that luck will continue when he returns to Pittsburgh and the NHL season starts up again.  I want the Pens to go all the way and take home Lord Stanley for the second straight year.  But I still would have preferred the USA to win.

The Royals did prevail beating Johnstown 4-3 so the day was not a complete hockey loss.  Now the Olympics are over and I can go back to cheering for the Penguins and watching my Center Ice package each and every night.

Have a great week everyone!