Anna's Thoughts 11/4/24
Thanks, everyone for bearing with me while I dealt with some serious health issues last week. I’ve been dealing with stress for a long time, like, a decade or more. My hair has been falling out for years because of it. Finally, last week, it got so bad that I was at times struggling to function, collapsing while I was walking, and getting quite sick. It was miserable, and was just not able to write or really do much of anything during that time. But, I’m back. I have this article, and in the coming days, there will be articles about the Columbus Blue Jackets and Winnipeg Jets. Also, a quick announcement: “News Roundup” is on a temporary hiatus. The reason for this is that those articles, frankly, were a big part of why I got so stressed out. They’ve gotten so large, and take so much time to write, as in 4-5 days, that it got too stressful. I’m not planning to give up on “News Roundup”, but I need to figure out how to not let those articles get so out of hand length-wise and still provide the news you all should know. It just wasn’t sustainable. It would take so many days to write, and then I’d be burnt out for several more. It was stressful and the articles I wrote in between those I wasn’t proud of, quality-wise. Anyway, onto my thoughts:
I’m not going to lie, the Blackhawks are looking way better than I expected.
I miss Jake Walman even more now, watching him thrive in San Jose.
Over the last few years, hearing more and more people tell me that they’re finally seeing what I saw in Nate Danielson before he was drafted has been quite heartwarming (and more importantly: ego-boosting). I told y’all.
Why is everyone saying that Little Caesar’s Arena couldn’t handle a PWHL team as if other arenas, like Prudential Center, don’t host 5 or more teams? If other arenas regularly host 3+ teams, I think LCA can handle a third, especially one that won’t be playing all that many games in Detroit. The PWHL season doesn’t have all that many games. Seriously, it’s not the problem everyone seems to think it is. This isn’t a problem for other major league arenas, but for some odd reason, it is in Detroit. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, Van Andel Arena, in Grand Rapids, the same state, has three professional teams playing in it. If they can do it, LCA can do it.
This is the first season of professional women’s hockey that I’ve watched where I won’t have a team to root for, and it feels weird. I got into the PHF because I fell in love watching Amanda Leveille (now my favorite goaltender of all time, sorry, Jimmy Howard). Then, I went with Minnesota in the PWHL because that’s who drafted Leveille (yes, I would’ve gone with whatever team drafted her, but I was hoping for Minnesota). Now, because of the abusive reign of Ken Klee and Kendall Coyne Schofield, I dumped them. I refuse to support any of the other PWHL teams, solely because of ridiculous reasons. I refuse to support Ottawa because of the rivalry between the Red Wings and Senators. Montreal because I don’t support French people or their language (mostly for meme reasons). Toronto, because they feel like the bandwagon team, the one everyone just jumped on because they’re supposed to be good. That said, having Jessie Compher is a selling point and more than the other teams have. Boston I refuse to support because I refuse to support Boston teams, and New York for the same reasons. I don’t like supporting teams from the larger cities in this country. These are ridiculous reasons of course, but ones I strongly hold to. So, hurry up and get a team in Detroit already so I can have a team to root for again, please. (I want to make it clear: I WILL still be following and reporting on the PWHL this season. This paragraph is solely about fandom.)
If you told me that in early November, not only were the Blue Jackets in a playoff spot (as of writing this), but also ahead of the Bruins in the standings, I would’ve laughed at and mocked you.
If you told me that in early November, the Winnipeg Jets would only have one loss and would be dominating almost every single game, I wouldn’t have believed you (but at least I wouldn’t laugh at and mock you).
Let’s go back to the Bruins: no seriously, what the hell? Them being this bad is genuinely shocking. I have only seen two of their games, so I’m no expert on why they suck. That said, I do listen to “Bruins Tape to Tape”, which is co-hosted by Karoline on her newsletter, Check This Data (I cannot recommend this podcast highly enough, especially if you’re a Bruins fan, which I am not, but they’re entertaining and enlightening enough to listen to anyway). Frankly, I’m still not completely sure, but I’m leaning toward Jim Montgomery having lost the room. Nothing else makes sense to me, personally, but, once again, I’m no Bruins expert. Listen to Check This Data instead. (Admittedly, this section was included mostly as an advertisement for that podcast, because you all should be listening to it. It's the only podcast I listen to anymore.)
I’m so thankful that I have my ECHL teams to pick me up and make me feel good, because lord knows, pretty much all my other hockey teams let me down. I really need to catch some ECHL games soon.
Don’t look now, but Ovechkin is on pace to break Gretzky’s goal-scoring record this season.
Ok, this is literally last minute, as in, I added this in just seconds before posting this: Kunlun beat SKA! Kunlun beat SKA! My day is saved. (Yes, I was watching a KHL game just now, and I’m a Kunlun fan because I like suffering.)
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