Funny what an Olympic draft will do to even the most seasoned poolie.
I had a draft for my Olympic hockey pool tonight. I managed to print out the Olympic rosters just before the draft. However, I forgot to grab player statistics of any kind and I didn't bother to check up on injuries. Needless to say, I was unprepared.
However, if I was unprepared, my buddy (let's call him "Greg") was downright clueless. Now normally, Greg is no chump. He brings his laptop to our regular season draft. He arrives early to get the good seat. He's got his name on the Golden Lamb (the coveted pool trophy).
This guy knows his NHL players.
But take those same NHL players, organize them onto national teams, throw them into an international tournament, and Greg becomes as hopeless as an Edmonton Oilers winning streak.
To see what I mean, let's fast forward to my draft's third round. Greg's done well picking up Nabokov and Semin, but now the choices are getting non-trivial.
Greg, looking for a d-man, proudly announces "I'll take Mike Green, Team Canada".
There's an awkward pause in the pub while everyone frantically tries to make sense of the pick. Does he know something? Who's injured? What did I miss? Finally, I say "Um, he's not on the Canadian team Greg."
"What do you mean, he's not on the team? He's the league's leading defensemen!"
The table bursts out laughing.
Apparently, Greg's preparation for the pool consisted of printing off the leading scorers in the NHL and assigning a nationality to them. To heck with official rosters, if they've got lots of points, they must have made the team!
Steve Yzerman he is not.
Lucky for Greg, I didn't want to go home and enter Green into the Armchair Pools Olympic database. So I lobbied to let redo his pick and after some discussion, it was agreed that Greg could pick again.
"Ok, fine." says Greg, I'm not taking a defenseman. I take Martin St Louis. Team Canada."
This is a true story.
If you want to watch Greg's Olympic pool go up in flames, it will be on public display at the Bleating Lamb Olympic Pool public page. I'll post the link once the pool is running.
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