Canada vs USA

On Thursday, Sep 03, I made it to GM Place via Skytrain to watch the Canada Cup game. A few fans were on the Skytrain with Canada t-shirts. No die-hard fans with flags and noise-making equipment. At 6:30 pm lines had formed to get into GM Place - if you had a bag or backpack, you had to step in front of a table and security checked them out. I guess this was for sneaking in booze.
One outside wall of the building features a 3 story graphics of Canucks team captain Luongo - it's huge, you can't miss it!
Inside GM Place, lines formed to buy pizza and beer. On the second level, there's an Olympic training event in progress in one of the club
areas. As I look ahead, who is coming out: John Furlong, head of VANOC. He's accompanied by 2 VIP's (looks like) and they seem to be in a hurry.
I find my seat inside the arena - the lights are super bright.
The 2 teams are skating to the ice - no singing of the national anthems? I find that strange.
The game begins - very little chanting or flag waving. I wonder - if this series was held in the States if the fans would have been as subdued as this crowd. Basically, the 3 periods were plaid without much fanfare - the only big crowd response was for the 2 goals Canada scored.
By the way, the game ended 4:2 for USA - they were the stronger and sharper team (this time).