The International Hockey Project: Il y a 25 ans

Monday, March 19th, 1984: At the Pittsburgh airport, everyone met and we had a smooth departure and flight to New York. At New York (Kennedy), we met up with the rest of the team. We got pins to put on our jacket that said 'USA' and we ate dinner before leaving. Dinner in NY cost $7 for a sandwich, milk and dessert! Oh well. We left at about 7pm. We first flew to Montreal. On the way, I got out my backgammon board and was about ready to play when Scott J___ kicked it off my tray onto the floor. So I didn't even get to play it once before I lost a piece. By the way, in Kennedy, we saw Ted Turner, the guy from Atlanta who owns the Braves! After we left Montreal, we ate dinner and saw James Bond in 'Never Say Never Again.' I had to buy earphones to hear the movie but I ended up going to sleep instead. After the movie it was about 2:00am Pittsburgh time. However, it was just sunrise in the time zone we were in and 9:00am in Helsinki. As a result we were all like zombies all day today. Flying in I got a look at Finland's geography: it is very flat but most of it is covered with tons of pine tree forests and lakes. It is not very inhabited outside of the city.
Next, we went to our hotel. The cars in Finland are all small and some are very funny looking (they look like cartoons). After we checked into our room, Mark D__ and I went to the bank and exchanged some money. We walked around a little bit and went into a few stores. Prices here seem to be generally low. They seem to be a bit behind in music. I saw a lot of old David Bowie but not 'Let's Dance' or Michael Jackson but I did hear someone playing 'Flashdance.'

We had a game at 5:00pm which we won 5-4 despite a 2-0 deficit after the first period. I scored our first goal when Mark took a shot that bounced off my facemask into the net. The team we played was big and were generally good skaters but they didn't check that much. The rink we played in was huge and well-lighted with tons of advertisements painted on the boards and in the stands. All of their players had long hair and like many Fins, you could tell they they were Scandinavian. We ate dinner at the hotel and I was so exhausted I slept a few hours before Mark and I walked down the road to a little takeout place to grab a bite. It is funny having people around who can't talk English, which makes it a challenge when buying something, although most of the people in Finland know some English. They keep backwards score here -- they start at 0:00 and move up. We played 20-minute periods.