If you’ve ever played a game of pick-up hockey, you know that some poor kid always ends up getting picked last. Sometimes, though, that person can surprise people with their unknown ability.

That happened on January 16 in the CHL Top Prospects Games in Halifax. Laurent Dauphin was the last replacement added to the roster after Hunter Shinkaruk couldn’t play because of the flu.

No matter. Dauphin has skills and had averaged more than a point per game with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. After the game, he said he wanted to show that he belonged.

He had a rough start to the game as he was decked with a clean open-ice hit just 20 seconds in the game. Ticked off, he came back on his next shift and set up his team’s first goal. He later added a goal to make it 2-0 and had two other good scoring chances as he earned player-of-the-game honours for Team Orr, which won 3-0.

After filing my story for The Canadian Press, I was musing over the game and Dauphin’s effort made me think of that old Canadian Tire commercial featuring Albert.

I mentioned it to a couple of colleagues and one of them, Neate Sager, ran with it. The Yahoo blogger who compiles the CHL blog Buzzing The Net, converted it into a nice post. Yes, I bet Don Cherry wished he had a guy like Dauphin on is team.

Well played, Neate. Well played.