Postcard: Toronto's Distillery District

TORONTO -- Greetings again.
Before spending most of the evening at Air Canada Centre for the first two games of the World Cup of Hockey 2016, I braved the elements with NHL.com Columnist Dave Stubbs and headed back to the Scotiabank World Cup of Hockey Fan Village.
After being there Friday night, how could we not return?

The scene Friday was incredible. A close-to-capacity crowd of 13,486 saw performances by The Killers, Sam Roberts Band and Daya. All 184 players in tournament took the Pepsi Live Main Stage as well.
I watched from the Molson Canadian Hockey House, and while there, some of my colleagues spotted a guy wearing a Mike Babcock mask. Turns out he was promoting a product called Babsocks, which are red socks featuring an image of Babcock, the coach of Team Canada and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Here is a picture of the socks, courtesy of NHL.com Columnist Nick Cotsonika:

On our trip Saturday to the Fan Village, Dave and I went back to what is now my favorite part of Toronto -- The Distillery District. It's a walking area with brick buildings and walkways, featuring plenty of bars, restaurants and shops. What I love about it is it doesn't have a touristy feel about it, rather a very relaxed atmosphere.
It was a quick trip as the rain picked up. I knew it was time to go when Stubbs said the dark "had bad intentions."
I tried poutine again Friday night - this time with beef brisket mixed in -- much to the dismay of LNH.com Senior Managing Editor Arpon Basu, who keeps telling me the place for real poutine is his home city of Montreal.
The games are about to start. Should be fun.