Loui, Loui

well, shoot - he played for Boston once

I don’t mind the Vancouver Canucks. I’m not a raving fan, but I’m not violently opposed to the team, either. “St Trevor of Linden” and all that. I’m not crazy about their general manager, but that’s because he was a) with the Bruins organization before coming to Vancouver and b) he brought over Brandon Sutter from Pittsburgh, who might actually be an okay guy, but, let’s face it, he’s a Sutter.

My hockey pool policy is no secret: I won’t pick players from a team I dislike. I tend to pick former Flyers as well as member of the current roster, for all the good it’s done. This year, I decided to take a chance with Loui Eriksson, who joined Vancouver in the off season. Earmarked to play on the top line with the Twedes, Daniel and Henrik, Loui seems likely to score a whack of points off the twins’ combined genius, thus garnering a whack of points for Ruthie’s Rebels.

Besides, he’s kind of cute.

The Canucks’ home opener was against Calgary. In my list of “go, teams”, Canucks trump Flames, and I wanted to see how Loui would do in a match that really counted. (He got points in a preseason game, but they don’t count in the pool.) First period, a delayed penalty is called against Calgary. The Vancouver goalie streaks for the bench to get the extra man on to stretch the advantage. Loui has the puck. He also has three Flames buzzing him, so he sends a blind pass behind him, hoping his defenceman catches it.

Only the defenceman misses. He flings himself forward in a heroic attempt to knock the rubber disc off course, misses again, and the puck sails merrily into the empty net.

“Dear God,” I blurt, sickened. “Oh, dear God.”

Calgary 1 – Vancouver 0.

They gave credit to the last Flame who touched the puck. I might have been upset that it didn’t count in my pool total, but I was ill for Loui. The new guy, acquired to score goals, and in his first real game, he puts it into his own net. I’ve seen it before, many times. I’ve seen bad bounces beat a goalie from 200 feet and I’ve seen “deflections off their own man” galore, but none of them are easy to take—not even when my team benefits.

Which mine didn’t, this time.

Oh, Loui.