A few things I learned at the RBC Cup

I remember sitting on the plane to B.C. thinking back to the regular season and how far off a Dudley Hewitt Cup appearance seemed then, let alone a trip to the RBC Cup. Yet, here the guys were, on a plane to the beautiful Okanagan Valley with a very real shot at being the national champions only days away.

Of course, it didn't shake up that way. I know it's a cliche, but it's true - the boys did put their whole hearts on the ice for those four games, and one or two bounces one way or the other might have written a different story, but it wasn't to be.

So with some time to take into account all that happened on the ice at 2014 RBC Cup, here are a few of the things I thought/learned at the tournament.

1) Anytime someone tells you that Hockey Canada is pure class, believe it. These guys treat you like professionals. After every practice and game they had a table waiting for the boys practically falling over with gatorade, water, energy bars, and all sorts of other food (the ridiculous amount of bagels meant it was absolute heaven for Nick Ursitti).

Each team at the tournament was assigned to a local school, which followed the club through the tournament and a visit was set up where the guys on the team went out to their respective school to meet the kids. The schools also had a banner awaiting each club in the locker room with everyone's name on it (even mine!).

The photographers were exceptional, the organization was first rate (they even had shuttle cars waiting for the teams if they wanted to go somewhere specific around town), and there were volunteers everywhere. Just blown away!

2) Loud, moving busses are not great places for on-camera interviews. Maybe that's obvious to you, but it wasn't for me.

3) The Okanagan Valley is really, really, really nice. And if you go to the Fairfield in Vernon, B.C., you need to try the water slide. It's not your average hotel water slide, this thing is a legit waterpark-calibre one.

4) The top Junior 'A' teams from out west are good, but they are still just junior hockey teams. I don't really know why, but I was kind of expecting monster quasi-professionals on steroids. I was wrong. The eventual champs, the Saskatchewan League champion Yorkton Terriers, got stomped by the Pats in Game 2 and if I'm fully honest, I thought the best team there was actually the Ottawa suburb-based Carleton Place Canadians from the CCHL. As I said before, a bounce here or there and Toronto was certainly good enough to win the tournament (and I'm not saying that due to bias or because I don't want Forch to kill me).

5) But that being said, the fifth thing I learned was simply that there is no easy game, no easy ice, or easy moment at the tournament. What really stood out to me was that you need to bare down and earn every goal. What might be a tap-in before is a goal that you have to almost break your stick on the post to pound in because the other team is going to be desperate to make sure you don't score that goal. I am not suggesting that anybody needs to change their game to win at the RBC, because you win there with your own game like you did for the Dudley or the Buckland; I'm just saying you can't take anything for granted. This may seem obvious, but it really is heightened there.