Seventh-place beer league team offers to represent Canada at Olympics

When the NHL decided it would be skipping the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang, there was a great deal of hand-wringing and mourning from hockey fans everywhere.

Without the game’s greatest stars in attendance – with the possible exception of Alex Ovechkin – it’s much harder to get excited for Olympic hockey, which is the highlight of the Games for many. Beyond it generally being a bummer, there’s also the issue of which players will go, especially for countries like Canada that have all their best players in the NHL.

Instead of sitting on his hands and whining about this issue, intrepid Canadian patriot Kyle Kemp decided to do something about it. The Calgary resident decided to throw his hat into the ring to represent his country along with his beer league hockey team the “Canadian Citizens”.

Kemp’s well-crafted offer included a number of funny tidbits. For one the team is a seventh-place squad in the ninth division of their league. Assuming that each division has at least eight teams and the divisions correspond to the level of play, we are talking about the 71st-best team in the “Winsport Canada Hockey League”.

He also includes some interesting drills such as the “winded from walking to the ice” and serves up some merchandizing suggestions based on his team’s leaf logo.

Despite the fact they appear to be an objectively bad hockey team, the Citizens seem like a solid representation of what Canada’s about and would likely be strong representatives for the country abroad – and their enthusiasm is undeniable. That might change for Pat the goalie if he has to square up to an Ovechkin one-timer, but for now here’s hoping Hockey Canada gives the Citizens the consideration they so richly deserve.