Cry me a river

It's been an awful drought--much longer than a player of my skill level should have to weather (get it? drought/weather?), but finally the cards went my way and I won a poker tourney today. I swear the number of times I am ahead in a hand only to be called outrageously by players with nothing but hope, only to lose it on the river is statistically impossible...exponentially, statistically impossible. There is something else at play. After months of pain-staking investigation, intense scrutiny, thorough examination, in-depth computer analysis, and losing tens of dollars, it turns out there's a simple explanation:

What's just below Gold?

National disgrace. This is the reality that every Canadian national hockey team (not to be confused with Canadian NHL team, who have been a national disgrace for longer than I care to remember) must contend with every time they step on the ice. Despite the tremendous pressure, team after team--junior, Olympic, World and women's teams keep coming through with the goods. The current World Junior Hockey tourney is no exception.

The Canadian machine has sputtered on the way here--they allowed the Americans to build a 3-goal lead on New Year's Eve, but fought back to win 7-4 and then in an even more remarkable match this past Saturday night, the boys scored on Russia with five second left in regulation to send it into overtime, where the Canadians won in a shoot-out.

So, tonight they go for Gold for the fifth time in as many tournaments. They face a very talented and determined Swedish team and it should prove to be a highly exciting and entertaining game. And once again, nothing less than Gold is acceptable.