Day Six

No hockey today, as the team went off to a local winter sports resort, Valcartier, for a fun day of tubing and tobogganing in the snow. Here is the link to the Valcartier website to give you an idea of what they are up to aujourd'hui:

http://www.valcartier.com/glissades-d-hiver/en/

As for me, I stayed behind in town for a Seaway-related meeting with colleagues from Transport Québec. Their office is on the 24th floor of a downtown building with an astounding view of the city:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXH5s6TFSQ

After the meeting, I walked back to my hotel and enjoyed the winter street scenes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNAsRpHeIiY

This evening, I've been invited to the house of Henry's Welcome Family for an evening on the outdoor ice rink in their backyard. I've brought my skates and old wooden stick up here and am looking forward to it!

La Cabane à Sucre - The Sugar Shack

Monday evening, the team and coaches, the parents, and the Welcome Families met at a a local "Sugar Shack" (Cabane à Sucre) for an evening of traditional Québec culture, food, and music. It was an opportunity for the American families to offer thanks and gifts to the Québeçois families for their generous hospitality in hosting our children. It was a wonderful soirée d'amitié.

The Sugar Shack we went to was about an hour north of Quebec City. The weather cooperated to make it feel like a real Québec experience--snow on the ground, cold, and windy. It was a brilliantly clear night sky with a bright crescent moon and multitudes of stars. After we arrived in the bus, we went into the "Cabane" where we were greeted by a true gentihomme Québeçois in a fox-skin hat and wearing a red and black lumberjack jacket. He explained to us the history and intricacies of making maple syrup. Did you know that 80 percent of the maple syrup consumed in the world comes from Québec?

After the 15 minute lecture, we went into another rustic building where we toasted our amis Québeçois, bestowed our gifts on the Welcome Families, and took pictures for our scrapbooks (and blogs ! ). The generosity of spirit displayed by the Welcome Families this week has been nothing short of spectaculaire!

I had the opportunity to talk with Michel, our Welcome Family Capain earlier in the day, and I asked him how he got involved with the Tournoi. He mentioned that he moved to Québec from the city of Trois-Rivières (3 Rivers) about four years ago. He and his wife do not have any children, but they wanted to get involved with the community. Shortly after moving here, he was attending a local car show and there was a display booth there with representatives from the Tournoi. He went to the booth, and said that he and his wife wanted to host Pee-Wees for next year's Tournoi. They took his name and eventually got back to him. He became not just a host, but a Welcome Family Captain. He takes off all week from his job (he owns an insurance company) and even host 3 of our players. He participates in all the communal team events. It's an unbelievable commitment, and this is his fourth year doing it. His first year, he hosted the Pee Wee New Jersey Devils Youth (is there any other kind?) and since then, the Little Caps. The stories of our other Welcome Families are similar; most have been welcoming players for years. Michel confirmed that the Tournoi is a total community experience for Quebec City, and everyone views it as an opportunity to welcome the world to Québec for 10 days and invite them into their culture.

After the gift-giving and photo session, we all went into another traditional building that housed une grande salle à manger, that seated over a hundred people. The room was paneled in pine and on the walls were snow shoes, pelts, etc. We weren't the only visiting hockey team, as about five other teams and their Welcome Families were there. There was a fiddle player who played traditional Québec folk tunes. Here is a link to a short film I took of the fiddler and several of our Little Caps he asked to join him on stage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkFldX7-3eU

The répas traditionel consisted of a real Québeçois "lunch" (déjeuner): vegetable soup, scrambled eggs, sausage, cold ham, beans, meat pie, pork rinds, fried potatoes, crepes with maple syrup, and coffee. Imagine a German beer hall with fiddle music and maple syrup instead of beer and sauerkraut, and you get the idea. It was loud, delicious, and a heck of a lot of fun!

After the dinner and some line dancing (all the Little Caps participated!), we went outside to watch them roll maple syrup lollipops in the snow - a delicacy toute à fait Québeçoise. After that, it was time to say au revoir to our kids who went home with their Familles d'Acceuil. We parents arrived back to the Château around 10pm, knowing that our children were in very good hands.

Feb. 18 - Friendly Match Against the Colorado Avalanche

Today was another jam-packed day, which began with picking up the kids at Le Colisée at 10:00am. At noon today, they played a friendly match against the Colorado Avalanche, which the team lost 3-2. After all the penalties of the last couple of games (and at the end of the regular season), the coaches have instituted a new policy that if a player takes a stupid penalty, they have to miss a shift on the bench. I checked the Tornament website, and the Little Capitals are the most penalized team in their bracket (mon Dieux!). it appears that the coaches' tactic today was partially effective, as the team committed slightly fewer penalties than average (4 rather than 5+).

Max was in goal and he played well despite the outcome. Phip scored one of the goals, and he played another overall very strong game. The Caps really need their Big Guy, and his resurgence is good news for the team. Henry had an excellent game, with a number of good defensive plays and a few offensive rushes. He said after the game that his right skate was getting dull, which limited his effectiveness. Patrick, his Host Family Dad, has graciously agreed to get them sharpened for him tomorrow.

The game was played in a local rink on the northern edge of the city--then Arena Réjean Lemelin. Here a link to a video clip from late in the game, in which you can see Henry falling three times during the shift, but he manages to recover in time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_tvgkRmAW0

Day Five Schedule

Here's our schedule for today:

9:15am – Player pickup: Board Bus
9:30 am – Player pickup: Bus leaves C. Frontenac for Le Colissee
10:00 am – 10:30am – Meet players in section 117; allow for time to watch games a bit or trade pins
10:30am – Board Bus at Le Colisee
10:40am – Bus leaves Le Colisee headed to our game at Arena Rejean Lemilin.
11:00am – 12:15pm – Arrive at Arena Rejean Lemelin & pre game activities
12:15pm – 1:15pm – Game vs. Colorado
2:00pm – Post game & return to hotel (with players)
5:15pm* – Board bus for Lac Beauport
5:30pm* - Bus leaves for Lac Beauport
6:00pm – Arrive at sugar shack
6:30pm – Dinner reservations
9:30pm – (approximate) Leave Lac Beauport / Players head out with billet Family

Caps Win!

The Washington Little Capitals defeated the Quebec Rive-Sud Express tonight by a score of 2-1 at the Arpidrome of Quebec. It was bone-chillingly cold outside tonight as the wind picked up in the late afternoon. The Caps had the last game of the night. Given the cold and the anticipation, it felt like a REAL HOCKEY GAME!

It was not the prettiest of games (the Lil' Caps committed, count 'em, 10 penalties), but the team played with spirit and energy. The lads came out charging, and pressed early, but the first period ended in a draw. After the penalties began to pile up, the Caps eventually went down 1-0 late in the second period, when the Express scored a power-play goal with 3:15 to go in the second period. Up to that the point, the Caps had committed 6 penalties, so it was only a matter of time before they got burned.

Early in the third period, Chance scored for the Caps on a rebound goal in front of the net. The Caps then proceeded to commit another penalty, their seventh of the night. Happily, with 7:22 to go, Henry drew a penalty from the Express. One minute later, on the power play, Phip scored a goal from the point after a nice pass from Daniel. The game was far from over, however, as just 2 minutes later with 4:11 to go, the Caps are called for another (admittedly questionable) penalty. Then with 3:36 to go, Thomas is called for two minor penalties, which meant that the Caps would play the rest of the game short-handed. Of the last 3 minutes of the game, they played 30 seconds of it on a 5-on-3 penalty kill and another 45 seconds on a 5-4 penalty kill, before the Express committed a penalty to make it 4-on-4 (Wphew!). It was a wild and wooly final 3 minutes, but the Lil' Caps managed to hold on for the win!

The one consistently shining light throughout the game was Kayla, whose play was, once again, nothing short of brilliant. Time and again she repelled shots from the Express. At one point late in the third period, she had an amazing sequence of making three saves in a row in quick succession that could have meant the game. As a result of her play, the coaches gave her the game puck.

While it was an "ugly" game given all the penalties, it was also a heck of a lot of fun. The game meant something, the fans were into it, and the game ended in a wild and exciting fashion. What more could you ask for? Almost all of the players' Welcoming Families came to the game, and just about every one of them said it was the first time that they had had one of their teams win a Tournament game. That puts it in perspective for a what a nice achievement it is for the Lil' Caps to have won. As a result of their victory, the Caps will play their next Tournament game on Friday evening.

I managed to take a bit of video of tonight's game. Here are three of those clips:

1) The pre-game warm-up skate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGPSDwx9Zts

2) Phip's goal on the power play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW6Xb32-m28

3) The last 2 minutes of play, with Henry making a key block and forcing the puck to the corner to end the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcft9GJ9bTg

Here are some photos from tonight's game and afterwards:

Le Bonhomme Carnaval

Yesterday, Saturday February 16, marked the end of Quebec City's Winter "Carnaval" celebration. Like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the event marks the beginning of Lent. The symbol of the Carnaval is a ubiquitous jolly fellow called "Le Bonhomme Carnaval. His smiling image is everywhere in town: on the side of buildings, on lampposts, in shop windows, and on hats, gloves, and scarfs worn by the locals.

The Tournoi Internternational de Hockey Pee-Wee de Quebec was founded in 1960 several years after the creation of the Quebec City Winter Carnaval. The Hockey Tournament is actually a charity event to help support the work of the Patro-Roc Amadour foundation, which is part of the Order of St. Vincent de Paul. The Patro Roc-Amadour Foundation runs a comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation facility here in Quebec for children and adolescents. This year's Tournament Program indicates that since 1960 the Tournament has raised $2,133,000 for the foundation. Pas mal!

The winter festival ends with a huge parade that begins outside the walls of old Quebec and winds its way into the heart of old Quebec. Yesterday, I went out for a walk in the late sunny afternoon and the city was a beehive of activity with tourists and locals out in force. There was a real sense of excitement and fun in the air. There is probably no other city in North America that embraces and celebrates winter as "warmly" as Quebec City. It was a joy to walk around the town and see all these smiling people having so much fun in 19-degree weather!

Henry was scheduled to come into town last night with his Quebecois family to watch the parade and say "Bonjour!" to Monsieur Bonhomme Carnaval. What a great way to celebrate your 13th birthday!