Pavel Datsyuk skate urination video was prank show hoax

In “Ocean’s Eleven,” the only way the crew could successfully steal $150 million was to get past the most sophisticated security system in the world. And to do so (spoilers!), the key facet of their plan was to recreate Terry Benedict’s vault in a warehouse, as part of an elaborate ruse for the casino cameras.

Filming an American hockey “fan” urinating into Pavel Datsyuk’s skate might not be on the level of knocking over the Bellagio, the Mirage and the MGM Grand on a fight night, but it turns out they have one striking similarity: Taking a secure place, building a copy of it somewhere else, and pulling off a heist.

In the case of the hockey “fan” video, it was stealing headlines across the globe when the it went viral.

Please recall back in May at the IIHF world championships, when a portly fan named Mike in a Team USA Matt Hendricks jersey danced around the Team Russia locker room around with a giant emoji featuring painted on his belly. He then walked over to what appeared to be the locker of Russian captain Pavel Datsyuk, and appeared to urinate inside the former Detroit Red Wing star’s skate.

All the while, the man filming this pee-natration of the Russian locker room offered panicked commentary.

Media in North America, Russia and the world covered the video, even if much of that coverage was of the debunking variety. But it’s only recently that the truth finally came out about the Datsyuk Pee Skate video:

It was an elaborate, “Nathan For You” level prank perpetrated by Kazma Kazmitch, a Czech comedian who hosts the Internet series “One Man Show.”

The prank was revealed this week in this video, which shows how they pulled off the hoax.

First, they actually did enter the Russian locker room past security, just long enough to get the video they needed to recreate the room as a set. They used computer mapping to get the specs, and then constructed a partial locker room set, including the player stalls.

After that, they needed to figure out what the prank would be. According to Kazmitch, they took inspiration from the rotund Columbus Blue Jackets fans that danced at games and decided a fat American with a painted belly would fit the role.

So Kazmitch went shopping, picking up all the international gear he needed from tournament shops.

As for the “urination,” there’s a brief moment in which Kazmitch reveals that it was a water bottle with a hole sliced in the top of the cap. (Someone’s beaten a drug test or two in his time!)

So there you go: The “American” fan who “peed” in “Pavel Datsyuk’s” skates was just an actor on a set with a leaky water bottle.

We all sorta knew it was fake. But honestly, none of us thought it was this spectacularly fake, did we?

(s/t reader Lukas Flidr)

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.