Drafting fun.

So much is being made of the "mystery" behind the upcoming NHL draft this weekend.

Oh god, we don't know for sure who will go number one? Oh the humanity!

Some mystery... fact: the top two players play two different positions equally as well. Not every year can have a Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin. In fact the draft is usually more likely to have an Angelo Espisito instead.

In the stretch run towards the end of the season when the Ottawa Senators had a chance to lose their way to the best draft pick, everyone was calling it the Tavares Derby. I don't think it was ever the Tavares Derby. Back then I thought that the Senators would've taken Victor Hedman...because they needed a puck-moving defenseman after letting Zdeno Chara AND Wade Redden leave.

Of course this was before Dany "I just signed a long-term contract with this team but now i don't want to play with them anymore" Heatley decided to say "i don't want to play with you anymore" so maybe it would've taken a turn for a Tavares Derby afterall. Because maybe they could've gotten a puck-moving defenseman in the trade for Heatley. if, if, if. and, and, and.

The reason we don't know who is going number one, is because the New York Islanders are terrible. They are so terribly bad that they need both a scorer and a puck-moving defenseman. And possibly a whole new team. Oh yah, and they have Garth Snow as a GM so it's even possible that he won't take either Tavares or Hedman, and take someone ranked 13th... and then he'll sign said draft pick to a ONE HUNDRED YEAR CONTRACT!

So just sit back, stop freakin out whether Hedman or Tavares will go first, because really i'm sure they both have their fingers crossed that the Islanders don't pick them.

Canada Russia.

Well Canada now knows they will face Russia, after the Russians won their quarterfinal game against the Czechs.

This game is so hard to call. I would put it in favour of Canada, since Russia was blown out 5-0 by Sweden and they had to play an extra game yesterday while Canada could rest.

But then again, it seems anything is possible in this tournament. And being the favourites really means nothing. (see: USA vs Slovakia)

I'd say the only safe bet is John Tavares being a monster.

I almost lost my mind.

...When the USA got their third goal to make it 3-0.

And I thought Pat Quinn was going to lose his mind too.

But then it started to turn around. Almost exclusively on the shoulders of John Tavares. The next monster.

During the Winter Classic this afternoon, Don Cherry did point out something really interesting. He showed Jim O'Brien hot-dogging to the Canadian bench after he scored the third American goal. Woke the sleeping bulldog. And man did that bulldog bite. Canada had the game tied before the first period was over.

The choice to play Dustin Tokarski in nets over Chet Pickard, to me, was a little curious. Considering he sat for the past two and was coming into Canada's biggest test of the tournament so far, cold. He couldn't be blamed for most of the goals, but it probably didn't help that he hadn't played since Boxing Day. He did recover and made a number of specatacular saves in a really close game until the two empty netters at the end of the game.

And so that sends Canada directly to the Semi-Finals, they await the winner of the Russia-Czech Republic quarter-final. While the United States plays Slovakia tomorrow. Slovakia picked off Finland in a shootout last night, so after flying high, the Americans should not take the Slovaks for granted.

One down.

And how.

Canada started the 2009 World Juniors with a bang yesterday. Taking down the Czech Republic 8-1. John Tavares led the way with two goals and a helper, but the other six goals came from six other players. That's one round robin game down.

But the real test won't come until New Year's Eve when Canada faces the USA, since the next victims are Kazakhstan (really?) on Sunday 4:30 AST, and Germany on Monday 8:30 AST.

"Borat put Kazakhstan on the map and now Kazakhstan will try to put Kazakhstan on the map..." - TSN anchor Bryan Mudryk.

And the United States looked great yesterday (although it was against Germany), but they will be the team to beat for Canada. Barring some monumental upset, the two teams will face off twice before Canada can get its hands on a medal. So Canada does have a bit of a tough road. It's definitely hard when you don't have a little adversity to keep your team sharp.

But hey, so far my only complaint is that i'm not IN Ottawa. Can't win em all I guess.