Same old problem, same old whining bitch, brand new heartbreak.

If you do not like blog posts based on rants and speculation then it is probably not in your best interest to read this.

Am I still traumatized about the loss of Andrew White? Damn straight I am. Women, we are an unusual type of hockey fan in that some of us take it all very personally. I grab on and hold on very tight to my favorite players, and Andrew was my favorite returning Moosehead. I adored him. There are not enough words to express how much I adored him. Maybe the 21 posts labelled Andrew White can help make my point. Perhaps my tribute to Andrew's 20th goal of 2007-2008 can highlight my insanity.

When it comes to the stages of grief - I am still stuck in denial. Once I get to a few games and I still do not see Andrew I will probably get stuck on extreme anger. There will be no resolution for me. I will not 'get over it'.

Yes there are theoretical kisses for my poor Whitey, my fluffy mechano-puppy. If I see him on the streets I will have to resist the urge give him reassuring hugs. When bad things happen to my favorite players I just want to hug them and then hug them some more. I would give Andrew hot chocolate, and let him cry in my lap...you know, if young men (apart from Bernier, Brodeur and Giroux) did stuff like cry.

Last night the Mooseheads "offensive depth" allowed them to get 26 shots on net against the Moncton Wildcats in pre-season action. Only 5 of those were dangerous. We lost 2-1. Tonight we lost 5-2; 24 shots on net, 10 dangerous, when playing against Moncton's non-finalized rookie filled roster. Our defence allowed 25 dangerous shots on net. These are the quality players we kept. We had 9 penalties - the Moose are not playing smart.

I will NEVER fold and say that my team made a good decision in attempting to trade White over Bona or Pender (or even Yetman- sorry my sweet netti-yeti). Crazy lady emotions aside, he was the best player of any of these four. So while that likely means that he had a highest trade value, in the end the team got nothing for him. Then they disguised their decision by saying that they did what was best for the team this year, not because of the potential high draft pick (3rd round) they would have gotten in return. Are they lying to me? I get the feeling that they lie to me. I like honesty.

They should have had some idea that White would not be willing to accept a trade before they decided to go for it. Does management not discuss this stuff with the players first in order to get an idea about their plans for the future? I, for one, am spitefully happy that my team got screwed, got no draft pics, and that Andrew has moved on from the league after refusing to report to Drummondville.

No, Andrew don't turn your back on me

Hopefully he gets a shot playing university hockey this season. There still remains the problem of finding a place to live seeing as the team was done with him after September 1st. I would let him live with me but then he would have to deal with my creepily smelling his hair while he slept. I also don't think my boyfriend would be very happy with such a set up.


The problem on defence:
One reason suggested for the White trade was because of the recent injuries to both Greer (groin) and MacAskill (shoulder) Yet, had we kept White and traded either Pender or Bona, we would still have had 6 blueliners including one over-ager to play for the start of the season. Greer and MacAskill will eventually return to the lineup giving us 9 guys on D. Even when Greer returns it is not like he will be seeing a lot of ice time anyway. How silly it all is if the Mooseheads made a long term decision and gave up their best overage player to solve the short term problem of injured defencemen.

To top it off our team is once again running with 9 Ds. Once again this year our issue is that our defence is not well developed, even though we have five returning defencemen (ages 20, 20, 19, 18 and 17...our 17 year old did not receive enough ice time last year and is still considered a rookie). We are the ones who failed to develop them...the fault lies with the Mooseheads alone. There are 18 year old defencemen who may make it into the NHL this year. We cannot blame age and say that 16, 17 or 18 is too young to play significant time on defence. Claiming this is just makes you lame.

We have a history of keeping more defencemen than necessary and not letting many of them play; playing the top two oldest defencemen incessantly and rotating the rest through the lineup. This year we will likely play 4 (Bona, Pender, MacAskill and O'Connor) and rotate the other 5 players in two positions. How is this supposed to help us develop defencemen for the future? What makes it all that much worse is that our team is coached by a former NHL defenceman...someone who should know better.

Furthermore, defence is not just the job of the blueliners, every player on the team must be defensively responsible. Not only did we give up an offensive threat by giving up White (22 goals in 2007-2008, 19 even strength goals, 1 short-handed goal, 2 power-play goals, mostly with 3rd line ice time) but we also gave up an excellent two way forward...we gave up his assistance on the back end. Had we kept White we would still have an excellent player for the penalty kill, we would be rotating less defencemen, and allowing rookie Ds (and hopefully youngin's like Greer) to play more and maybe develop for the future.

We would have had a leader, an unselfish player who did everything for his team, whom everybody wanted to play on a line with, and who accepted any role he was given seemingly without hesitation, just for a chance to play. This is the kind of role model we should have kept around to guide our rookies and help them develop the right attitude. While it may seem that not accepting a trade to the Voltigeurs (a non-contending team) is a selfish move, maybe it was best that Andrew did something for himself, and thinking about his education right now is probably his best decision when he likely does not have a future in professional hockey. I am also being selfish...I want to continue to see him play.


In other news: Former Quebec Remparts goaltender Kevin Desfosses has signed with the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL, an affiliate of the Ottawa Senators. Desfosses attended to Sens development camp this summer and will soon be at Senators training camp.

Useless crap no one needs to know: I just noticed that Yeti is taller and lighter than last year at 6'2" and 190lbs (last years Mooseheads website profile has him at 6'1", 197lbs), while the QMJHL website is now reporting Mathieu Corbeil-Theriault to be 6'6", not 6'4". That is soooo not relevant, but my goalie obsession makes me notice stupid things.