4 Nations Face-Off Fan Village brings memories alive in Montreal

MONTREAL -- Set up a slapshot across the courtyard from Bell Centre, the 4 Nations Fan Village at Windsor Station was buzzing with hockey fans of all stripes on Saturday.

Braving the snow and cold weather, Vancouver Canucks fan Roy Morgadinho was wearing his Wayne Gretzky 1987 Canada Cup jersey while taking an outdoor break after sampling the indoor portion of the Fan Village. His solo trip from Vancouver to Montreal will continue on to Boston for the championship game Thursday.

“Friday at 2 p.m. I said, ‘I’m gonna go,’” Morgandinho said. “So I started looking for my tickets and my flights. My flights worked out, I got here this morning, my hotel is two blocks away from the Bell Centre. I got tickets to tonight’s game, I’m going, and I got tickets to the final so I’m going to Boston on Monday.”

Morgadinho attended Canada’s 2010 Olympic final win against the United States. Witnessing Sidney Crosby’s "Golden Goal" is a particularly special memory for him, but he pointed to his jersey to reference Gretzky teaming up with Mario Lemieux for the winning goal in the 1987 Canada Cup.

“Being there made it the best experience I’ve ever had,” Morgadinho said. “But I’ll never forget this, Gretzky to Mario. That play is in my mind for the rest of my life.”

Taylor Wesbrock and Jason Greenleaf made their way to Montreal from Maine in a group of four friends, all adorned in USA jerseys.

“It’s been way more positive than we were expecting,” Wesbrock said. “We found a few Americans roaming around the streets saying, ‘Go USA!’ We haven’t got any dirty looks yet.”

The two Boston Bruins fans were looking forward to seeing Charlie McAvoy representing their country and willing to give Bruins captain Brad Marchand a pass for playing for Canada.

Colleen and Don Laros from Cambridge, Ontario, attended the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto and were impressed with the Fan Village vibe before attending the United States-Canada game.

“All the interactive things are pretty cool,” Don Laros said. “I didn’t get to do the casino down there but I got my picture taken, we got our cards done. It was really cool. We got our pictures with the new trophy, which is pretty cool before it’s even been won. I wanted to pick it up but it seemed a little heavy. We just got here and did this walk through and got to check everything out. It’s amazing down here.”

Georges Issa of Montreal tried out his goaltending and puck handling skills at a virtual reality station.

“It was pretty realistic,” Issa said. “It vibrates a bit and you sense what you’re doing.”

Dallas Stars fan Gretchen Gerken made the trip from Texas along with her father Jim and got the opportunity to take her first shot with a puck on ice.

“It moves better than I thought it would,” she said. “I thought there would be a little bit more pushback but it really does slide so easily. And then I had to buy snow shoes so the full Montreal experience.”

The Texan tandem met up with Jim’s sister and brother-in-law, an American-Canadian couple from Vancouver, B.C., who celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary Friday.

Like her brother Jim, Susan LeBlebec was wearing a Mike Eruzione USA jersey. The night before, the group watched "Miracle," the Hollywood version of the United States' iconic gold medal win at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

“I was a teenager at the time but I do consciously remember that game,” LeBlebec said. “I wasn’t as much of a hockey fan necessarily, and I don’t think you had to be during that time. It was just very patriotic. So for Americans to beat the Russians when they hadn’t beaten them in 20 years, that was pretty amazing.”

Wearing a Canada jersey, her husband Bob LeBlebec stood out in the group of four.

“We sit in separate sections,” he joked. “We’ve been through this before. Anything that’s Canada-USA, I mean, it is what it is. We’ve been married for 30 years so we’ve been dealing with it for a few years. She’s a proud American, I’m a proud Canadian.”

Austin Melo had to miss his youth hockey game to make the trip with his parents, Kylie and Jason, from Amherstview, Ontario, to attend the United States-Canada game.

He hit paydirt with the virtual slot machine, which paid off with a Connor McDavid autographed puck.

“I was thinking I would probably get a poster,” Melo said. “I was just crossing my fingers and look what happened.”

The 20-minute wait in line at that station proved particularly worthwhile for one father and son who attended the Fan Village for the experience but did not have tickets for the games. The luck of the draw won them a V.I.P. experience including premium tickets to the United States-Canada game.