Three periods, quirky rules, and a sold out Calgary Saddledome. Yes, Thusday night was Team Canada's Olympic Hockey Orientation Camp scrimmage! Possibly the single most important glorified practice in this country's history. But hey, it's hockey in August, and I was pretty thrilled to watch it. Or rather, some of it...

1. CTV's epic fail. If you couldn't buy tickets to the Red vs. White event, our hockey-mad country had a solution for you: livestreaming. A widescreen broadcast with professional cameramen, no play-by-play, and sometimes even video. See, the CTV feed was pretty good for about 10 minutes or so until word got out that it existed, and suddenly video disappeared. There was audio, but then no audio and only video, and then nothing at all. Some time passed, and it all came back, and then we lost audio, and so forth. As Pension Plan Puppets' main man PPP put it on Twitter: "This is why the Internet can't have nice things."

2. Intermission. I have to admit, sledgehockey players are pretty amazing. Those guys are intense, incredible athletes, and made a fantastic intermission show. Well, at least they did for the people actually at the rink. I'm guessing the cameraman went to go get a beer, because for the entire intermission the camera did not move. The PA announcer made it sound really exciting, and the crowd was into it, and all I got to see were sledgehockey players ripping past centre ice for 8 minutes. Thanks, CTV.

3. Staaled. Jordan Staal managed the impossible: he got a penalty for running the goalie in a scrimmage match. Towards the end of the first period, Jordan lunged himself at Roberto Luongo and got called for interference. Jordan obviously knows he's a longshot to make the team, so what better way to get noticed than by running your country's likely number one goaltender? Mike Babcock must be thrilled.

4. The unsung hero. There was an elderly gentleman with white hair and a light blue sweater who opened the door in one of the penalty boxes, and he can now tell his grandchildren about the time he opened the door for Sidney Crosby and then corrected the Penguins' captain on proper penalty box etiquette; specifically that Crosby had entered the wrong box. The unnamed man's most memorable moment, for me at least, came when Jay Bouwmeester entered the penalty box. The man opened the gate as usual only to have Bouwmeester shove the door aside while enter, knocking the poor man into the boards. No word on if Bouwmeester has to write a letter of apology.

5. Did I mention this was a scrimmage? Seriously, this was ridiculous. The amount of press coverage hyping up this scrimmage was unreal. CTV, while failing on streaming, had a reporter outside the Saddledome on the Vancouver evening news. He talked about how important the scrimmage was, how excited the fans were, and how wonderful it all was. The whole time he was on there was a splitscreen with him on the left and the scrimmage on the right. They interviewed a reporter who wasn't even allowed into the building. Did you know that people paid $40-80 for tickets to a scrimmage? When do training camps open?