I don’t know if any of you realized, but there was no Team 1260 NationDraft update last week.  "Why?" you ask?  Well, there’s a bit of a story there.  Mostly it involves heavy drinking, a 7 hour road trip and a hockey tournament in small town Saskatchewan with our goalie eventually exclaiming his drunken desire to ride a buffalo.

For a bit of backstory, you should know that our team has won this tournament for the past three years in a row.  We have become a dynasty of sorts in the tournament.  We often draw comparisons to the NHL’s Detroit RedWings with our winning ways, stifling defence and presicion puck control game.  Leading up to this tournament our goal was to make it four in a row.  A "Fourpeat", if you will.   

We have a good team and a fantastic goaltender so the plan seemed solid.  At least that was the plan heading into the weekend.  Our extended weekend started out on the wrong foot on Friday morning when we learned that we would be short three of our regulars in the tournament due to their employers being dicks and not giving them the time off.  Even though it was clearly booked on the work schedule MONTHS ahead of time.  Jerkfaces.   

It was shortly after learning this unfortunate news that we all decided "Let’s just do it for fun this year." This new mantra of playing for fun was revisited multiple times during the 7 hour journey, almost as if to sell it to ourselves that losing would be ok.  But after losing the first game of the tournament due to a completely pinned goaltender and having only six skaters, we decided that losing is for losers and there can be no excuses for losing (even if you have 6 skaters and your goalie can’t stand up without the aid of the net for support).   

With our newly re-minted winning attitude, a few cups of coffee for our goalie and a couple of local pickups, we somehow won our next three games and eeked out a B-side championship.  Winning feels good…even if it’s second place.

Now, about that NationDraft Update…

Speaking of winning and it’s feel goodness, how about that "Sage11" character and his/her continued dominance on top of the NationDraft standings.  Impressive showing.  Very impressive.  "Wiltonclan" is 3 points back in second place.  The race between these two comes down to who will finish out the season better, Rick Nash or Niklas Backstrom as that appears to be the only difference between Sage11 and Wiltonclan’s teams.  Sage11 picked that one skated deker Rick Nash and Wiltonclan decided to go with Backstrom.  It should make for an exciting points battle.

 164. Cobra Kai 275 -27

Eric Staal is sidelined with an upper body injury.  That shouldn’t be of much concern to the pool as he hasn’t really done much this season so far.

Simon Gagne is shelved with a groin injury and is sidelined indefinitely.

Since we last looked at the old NationDraft a few big name point getting Russians have come back into action.  Malkin is back from his sore shoulder after missing seven games, Kovalchuck and his broken foot only took six games to return and Ovechkin and his shoulder returned after missing six games.  

Sheldon souray also returned this past week after missing 16 games due to a concussion.  Hopefully that translates into some points soon, for both the NationDraft and our beloved hockey ensemble.

Daniel Sedin is very close to returning from his broken foot.  He could see action this weekend.

Marc Savard is also on the verge of lacing ’em up and not a moment too soon as far as scoring in Boston is concerned.

This has been TB’s NationDraft Roundup as of November 19th, 2009.

Stay hydrated,
Minister Towel Boy