That dog has a puffy tail.

Hockey Canada News:
In the final scrimmage of the Canada under 18 prospect camp team Red defeated team White 5:3 to go undefeated in the tournament. Guess what else exciting happened today? Ol' Man Randell (Halifax Mooseheads) got a goal - wooooohoooo. If I was there I would have cheered just like that, or I would have given him golf claps because my Ol' Man and I are classy, classy people.

Steven Anthony of the Saint John Sea Dogs had an assist for team Red. With the close of their training camp Hockey Canada has decided which 22 players will be on the roster for the 2008 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka tournament. Sadly, neither of our Q goalies made the cut. If either Olivier or Maxime need cookies and a shoulder to cry on they know where they can find me.


This is where I go mental:
So who did make it? Sadly, not many of our Q boys survived the cut. Only two remain, one of which is my 'imaginary' and possibly impossible gigantic offspring Simon Bellavance-Despres (Sea Dogs), who is listed on Hockey Canada's website at 6'4", 210lbs (although a recent article in the Telegraph Journal put him at 6'3", 215lbs) . Awwww is my baby still growing? I will settle for nothing less than 6'5"!!! Every day he makes it more and more difficult for me to re-wombinate him.

I can picture myself as one of those crazy hockey parents. He probably made the team because my "other personality" called and threatened to kill someone from the selection committee. Simon's parents still have not signed any legal change of guardianship papers for me - what up Mrs Bellavance and Mr Despres?

I tells y'all - look at baby Simon - LOOK AT HIM - LOVE HIM (that is an order)!!! Now look at quasi- grown up Simon and his awesome eyebrows. Now, get in your kitchen and bake them both cookies - we must celebrate!!! Wait, did I just set the women's movement back 30 years? Does it help if I tell you that I will likely never marry, have real children or share a joint bank account?

Defenceman Hubert Labrie (Gatineau) also managed to get selected. It is quite unusual for two defencemen from the Q to be selected for an international tournament and yet we contribute no goalies or forwards - especially when we are a league known for the awesome power of our goalies and forwards.

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The NHL has a few more prospects write-ups including a report for Buffalo featuring defencemen TJ Brennan (Fog Devils/ Montreal Jr) and former PEI Rocketeer Marc-Andre Gragnani. The Dallas Stars prospect report features import defenceman Ivan Vishnevskiy of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.

NHL.com also have another feature on Jakub Voracek. It reads basically the same as the article from 'the hockeyscene' that I posted a few days ago and it is written by the same author.

In things I have just recently discovered news: former Quebec Remparts goaltender Kevin Desfosses was invited to the Ottawa Senators development camp, where the boys learned how to cook (now we know what was wrong with Ottawa this season). That camp was in June, thus I am a mental hobo and not very good at my fictional job of stalking goaltenders. Evidence that Desfosses was in Ottawa is available here.