Let me start by saying I love Molson Canadian. I remember that as soon as - but not a second before - my friends and I turned 18, we shoved Molsons in the snowbank at the outdoor rink for between shifts. A basement full of people singing Pennywise - Bro Hymn around a keg of Molson Canadian was a staple of my early adulthood. And the Molson Canadian Passport Locked Beer Fridge here at the Canada House in Sochi is nothing short of brilliant. All my friends back home care about is if this magical fridge exists; they have insisted I seek it out. Had I instead announced the birth of a firstborn child on Facebook, I think it would have received about 10% as many "likes" as the pic I posted of me with the fridge (see said pic in the slideshow below).
But even Molson would agree there is nothing more Canadian than giving credit where credit is due, and in the first week of the Olympics, Molson has played much more the role of the idyllic superstar than the humble, unsung, block-slapshots-with-my-face type player Canadians identify themselves with. This week Molson Canadian tapped in a beautiful back-door feed and got all the credit. At Shnarped we always ask, "but who dug the puck out the corner?"
Time for some facts and fallacies:
- The Passport fridge sits inside the Sochi Canada House, which permits only people with a passport who know an athlete inside
- The fridge only has a few empty specialty bottles inside, and only operates from 5 p.m. - 6 p.m. (it does open with a Canadian passport, though)
- The kicker - there is actually no Molson Canadian beer in the Canada House whatsoever! It got stuck at the border
No beer at the Canada House? Sounds devastating, right? But when a star player goes down in the third period, what happens in Canada? Someone else steps up. And here in Sochi those "someones" have been Emma and Eryn (pictured below).
These two young heroes - volunteers who blush at the term and insist they are but cogs in the well-oiled machine that is "Team Canada House" - stand at the bar next to the deserted passport fridge and serve free beer and wine to the stressed-out families of our nation's greatest athletes. I'm not sure what type of diplomatic chess-match played out behind the scenes or the political fallout sure to come as a result (note the Putin appearance), but Canadians here drink Heineken and Miller Genuine Draft.
And this was not the only time these girls have come through in the clutch. After traveling 40 hours and getting dropped off in a random Russian neighbourhood with no map, Russian currency, credit card, or power in my cell phone, I stepped outside my apartment, quivered for a few moments, and almost immediately ran into Emma and Eryn. They quickly taught me bus routes and pointed me to a cash machine before rushing off to the next emergency.
So hail to Emma and Eryn, true unsung heroes serving Canadians exactly what we want: free booze (which I'm sure is paid for by Molson Canadian, so thanks eh!).