Montréal Canadiens lose big at the Draft Lottery.

Rushed thoughts as we all watched the NHL Draft Lottery show on Hockey Night in Canada.

–You could build a pretty decent team with those execs in attendance. Ron Francis centering Brendan Shanahan and Trevor Linden would be a great line. Even with pluggers like Don Sweeney and Marc Bergevin on defence, they’d lay waste to any beer league.

–Brian Burke not even putting up a pretense of wearing a tie. That guy can spin a yarn though.

–Strombo’s knowledge of hockey isn’t quite as encyclopedic as let’s say a Ron McLean or James Duthie, and it shows when he asks Trevor Linden what it felt like to see Brian Burke engineer the trades to draft the Sedin brothers. Trevor awkwardly replies: “Well, uh, I wasn’t a Canuck at the time, I’d been traded, but…”

At least it wasn’t Burkie, the guy sitting right across from him, who’d traded him, it was the much-loathed Mike Keenan.

–Oh, I was mistaken, Burkie’s tie peeks out from beneath his jacket lapel. He really needs to get fitted shirts. If he feels a need to pop that top button, he needs to go up a shirt size.

Or have a salad once in a while.

–Goddammit, Gary Bettman’s hand is right on the lottery gizmo, his thumb is literally on the scale. I have a bad feeling about this…

–I’m guessing they’re counting down from #14, so I’ve got fingers crossed we see the Bruins announced first. If they don’t, it’s a debacle.

–Yes!!!

–Ottawa gets a Yes! from me too. And the low-shot teams coming out are all good news. Colorado so far.

–And the dream dies at #9. We stick there.

At least we didn’t fall any spots.

–No Oilers at Top 3, so that’s good.

–Boo Sportsnet for your commercial break before the Top 3.

–Stupid Leafs assured of Top 2.

–Scratch that, they’re #1. I hope Auston Matthews turns out to be Patrick Stefan, or Alexandre Daigle.

–Okay, let’s trade down and draft Julien Gauthier.