More Olympic Hockey!

Sugar’s Olympic Picks – lets win that money back

Sweden (-2) vs Switzerland (L)

When you’ve got a guy named  Johnny Oduya (sound it out) on the blue line, you know things are looking solid. For real though, Sweden’s defense is arguably the best out of the national teams.  Niklas Kronwall and Erik Karlsson are the power of the Swedish defense as well as two of the best, if not THE best, defensemen in the NHL.  Sweden only has one player who is not a member of an NHL club.  Switzerland on the other hand has only 9 NHL players, 2 of which are goalies.  Out of the remaining 7, we’re looking at 2 who are regular contributors to their respective NHL clubs.  These 2 are: Damien Brunner of the Devils, a natural goal scorer with average skating ability; and Nino Niederreiter of the Wild, besides the fact that his name is fucking awesome he has good passing ability and is a great skater.  Sweden will undoubtedly expose each and every hole in this slice of Swiss.  Trust me, take Sweden (-2) and it’ll “Oduya” just fine.

Sugar’s Pick: Sweden (-2)

Canada (-4.5) vs Austria (WINNER!)

In their Olympic debut today Team Canada looked discombobulated to say the least.  With Mike “I’m a fuckin’ psycho” Babcock behind the bench, expect to see a different Canadian team tomorrow.  Austria has 3 NHL players. Two of which belong to the trash bin of the NHL known as the New York Islanders.  The only name you might recognize is forward Thomas Vanek (Islanders).  The bottom line here is that even if Team Canada drops acid and dances to Russian house music all night at Ovechkin’s Castle (because you know he has a castle somewhere in Russia) Canada  is still going to light Austria up for 8+ goals.  Take the Canucks (-4.5)  and let me know if you got any info on Ovi’s castle situation.

Sugar’s Pick: Canada (-4.5)   

Why NHL Player Count Matters

First off I would like to claim this statistic (if it hasn’t already been done) as my baby.  The NPC as I will be calling it from here on out, is a very straightforward statistic (none o’that algebraic nonsense here folks).  The NPC is a straight up count of how many NHL players a respective team has on their roster.  Why is this meaningful? Because the NHL is the fucking best; and if you need me to explain why this is important you need to find a new god damn hobby.  No this is not another “yeah ‘Murica all the way! We’re the fuckin’ best ever in the history of everything ever” line of nonsense.  Every serious hockey player in the world yearns for an NHL opportunity.  The NHL has scouts in every country that has hockey players and they are always looking for players good enough to play in “The Show”.  From a common sense standpoint; would you rather make $100,000 a year playing European professional hockey, or make a MINIMUM of $525,000 playing with the big boys in the NHL? In my picks I reference NPC a lot because these are the best players on earth. End of story.