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(Relatively) peaceful at Granville and Robson: But it’s early ...

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

We were standing in line at a certain fast-food establishment in the Main Press Center, and since it wasn’t that long after Canada won gold in men’s hockey, this was a natural question when two female officers joined the queue.

Me: ‘How is it out there?’

Keeper of the peace: ‘We’re about to find out.’

So far, so good.

Very early into what certainly will be a long night (and morning) of celebration, it felt a lot like central Paris after France won the World Cup in 1998. The epicenter of it all -- Granville and Robson ---was packed with chanting, celebrating fans, high-fives going out to friends and strangers of all nationalities.

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Then there was this impromptu, friendly take when someone spotted a police presence up high and it caused a few laughs.

‘Cops on the roof! Cops on the roof!’

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There was another obvious question at one stop along the way to the hub of celebration. Wandered into a Sport Chek store and asked a salesperson how many Sidney Crosby jerseys they had sold in the last hour following his winning goal in overtime.

Apparently they had run out of Crosby jerseys two weeks ago, though it looked like there were plenty of Crosby T-shirts in the store.

Another store worker, Serghei Pirau, didn’t hestitate when asked if he was an Alex Ovechkin or Evgeni Malkin man.

‘I didn’t come to cheer for Russsia,’ said Pirau, who is from Moldova and moved to Vancouver last year.

He hopes Crosby keeps his head on straight, saying: ‘As long as he doesn’t marry a Paris Hilton, so help me God.’

Don’t think Serghei needs to worry about that possibility ...

-- Lisa Dillman, reporting from Vancouver, Canada

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