When pigs fly . . .

Terry Frei posits the ultimate "what-if" for when the NHL returns: Quiet! The commissioner is stepping to the podium. A hush settles over the crowd at the Air Canada Centre, and hockey fans around the world anxiously wait. "With the first pick of the 2005 NHL Re-Launch draft," the commissioner intones, "the New York Rangers select Jarome Iginla." For a moment, the conspiracy theorists who wondered about the, ahem, propriety of the weighted draft-order lottery that led to the Rangers' obtaining the top pick are shouted down. To be fair, it is just a coincidence (well, at least we think so) that Iginla's choice by the Rangers comes on the 20th anniversary of the Knicks' drafting of Patrick Ewing following another lottery that raised eyebrows. And the NHL's Re-Launch is on. Meanwhile, TSN's Bob McKenzie checks in with a more reality-based version of what will happen in about a month or so: This just in, the Toronto Maple Leafs have won the lottery and will pick first overall in the 2005 draft. Sidney Crosby, welcome to T.O. Just one problem for the Leaf Nation, though. This 2005 draft to which we refer is only a mock draft, but if you believe in kismet or fate or whatever, it was the Leafs' ping-pong ball that rolled out of the mock lottery for the mock draft.