Coffee and beer were each flowing as bleary-eyed fans in Western Canada tuned in to the breakfast-time Olympic hockey semifinal against Finland.
The Games in northern Italy are happening eight time zones ahead of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and nine hours ahead for folk in British Columbia.
It’s been the same situation to other Olympic Games over the past decade, held halfway world wide in Paris, France (2024), Beijing, China (2022), Tokyo, Japan (2020) and Pyeongchang, South Korea (2018).
On the Shark Club Sports Bar and Grill in Vancouver, the 7:40 a.m. puck drop didn’t deter greater than 100 fans from absorbing the motion and watching Canada win the match 3-2.
There have been servings of breakfast tacos, home fries, eggs and bacon, alongside coffee, Guinness and mimosas.
Simon Marshall only arrived in Canada the night before from Australia but managed to select up a Canada jersey to observe the match.
He was jet-lagged and admitted he was still learning the finer points of the sport.
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“I watched ‘Mighty Geese,’ 1, 2 and three for the second time recently, just to teach myself,” said Marshall, who noted he typically just follows the Summer Games.
“I’m only a sport lover, so I’m attempting to embrace the Winter Olympics.”
Malik Dhami and John Cookson, who were sipping coffee, not beer, on the Vancouver bar said despite the early hour, it was vital to share the fan experience.
“Sure, we could watch it within the 4 partitions of our own homes,” explained Dhami. “As a Canadian, you’ve got to return out.”
“We were just in search of a spot that might have the sport on and would have it loud,” Cookson said.
General manager Murray Saunders said town prolonged the bar’s liquor licence for the Olympics and it could possibly be serving beer as early as 5:30 a.m. for Sunday’s pre-dawn men’s final.
“It’s cheering on Canada,” Saunders said about why people got here to his bar so early on Friday.
He said the Vancouver Goldeneyes hockey team was within the packed bar on Thursday to observe the “amazing” Canada-U.S. women’s final, and the bar is already fully booked for the boys’s final this weekend.
At Kelly’s Pub in downtown Edmonton, Amelia Carruthers said watching a game at home “doesn’t have the identical camaraderie.”
“You’ve gotten these fans here cheering and groaning and it’s fun,” she said, after ordering breakfast together with her daughter Chloe Paré.
“The tater tots are amazing,” she added, saying she was a bit of stunned that others were ordering beer.
At a close-by table, Schyla Courtorielle sat with a friend and her dad, who was working on a laptop.
“We will plug in and have the sport on within the background while still working,” said Courtorielle, adding she had taken in loads of early morning Olympic hockey to date.
“We start with breakfast and tea, and once we’ve some food in our system, then we’ll move to the booze,” she said.
Like watching hockey at a bar at night, the breakfast show had fans on their feet at times, with the Shark Club crowd singing a round of Stompin’ Tom Connor’s The Hockey Song after Canada’s win.
Hockey fans will do all of it yet again this weekend: the puck drops on Sunday’s gold medal match at 5 a.m. PT/8 a.m. ET.
— With files from Karen Bartko, Global News
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