Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Challenge #9

Rec Us Your Newest Thing. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Last February, I made a Women's Hockey Primer for halfamoon (returning this February, join us!). In the section on "Leagues", I wrote There has been much discussion over the years regarding the need for one women's hockey league in North America. With the two sides (PHF & PWHPA) as they are, they are never going to agree on how to do things.

Little did I expect that a group of investors would buy out the PHF in June and begin the development of one unified women's hockey league in North America, the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). It came together very quickly- a CBA ratified by the players was the first thing. After that, it was announced that the league would consist of six teams - Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, and Toronto. Then came a free agency period which allowed each team to select three players- some of the biggest names in women's hockey were signed as free agents. After that was a fifteen round draft, and to round out their rosters, teams were allowed to invite players to the training camps which began in November.

The PWHL brought a couple of interesting rules with it:
-Standings, which in the NHL are 2 points for a win (any scenario), 1 point for an overtime or shootout loss, and 0 points for a loss, have been modified to 3 points for a regulation win, 2 points for an overtime or shootout win, 1 point for an overtime or shootout loss, and 0 points for a regulation loss.
-The "Jailbreak" goal - unlike the NHL or international hockey, when a shorthanded goal is scored in the PWHL (for a minor penalty only), the penalized player is sprung from the penalty box. It makes for a more interesting game than just having a team ice the puck to kill off the two minutes.
-There are differences in the shootout as well. The shootout is at least five rounds and teams can repeat shooters as much as they'd like. So, if you're PWHL Montreal, you could have Marie-Philip Poulin handle all five shootout attempts.

Physical play has been heightened from the rules in women's international hockey. Referees are more inclined to allow physicality in board battles, but they want to prevent dangerous open ice hits, so there are a lot more scrums than people are used to seeing in women's hockey.

Players to watch-
Boston - Hillary Knight, Alina Muller, Aerin Frankel
Minnesota - Taylor Heise (1st overall draft choice), Grace Zumwinkle, Lee Stecklein
Montreal - Marie-Philip Poulin, Erin Ambrose, Ann-Renee Desbiens
New York - Abby Roque, Ella Shelton, Emma Woods
Ottawa - Jincy Roese, Daryl Watts, Mikyla Grant-Mentis
Toronto - Sarah Nurse, Emma Maltais, Renata Fast

Official Website
PWHL YouTube Channel

I'm currently surrounded by boxes as I'm in the midst of my annual room clean & purge. I've got a bag of clothes, a box of miscellaneous stuff and a couple of boxes of books and DVDs that I'm going to be donating. It's a little after 10 now so I doubt I'm going to finish tonight- still have the filing cabinet and a couple other shelving units to go.
( writing/reading/goals/hockey )
That's all I've got for the moment. I'd like to say that I'll update about my personal life more regularly, but it always seems to start out ok and then I'll go from March to August without anything. So, we'll see.

Here's to a terrific 2021!

Well, it's been a little eventful in the world in the past week or so. I am working on adjusting to the current normal, knowing it might change any day now. The biggest adjustment has been with church- since gatherings over 10 people are not recommended, church has essentially shut down, which means no services and no choir practice until May at least.

Hockey has been done for a week. I haven't started walking into walls yet, but it's only a matter or time. On the bright side, if they decide to suspend everything including the playoffs, the Blues will be the reigning Stanley Cup Champions for another season.

I'm still going into the office. We're in the service industry so heaven forbid someone's heat or a/c goes out while they are practicing their social distancing while being cooped up with the kids. I am asking if they've been requested to self-quarantine, because I'm not sending any of our techs into those situations. (My main worry is when the two owners get back from Florida next week. They're pretty good about maintaining distance).

I'm organizing a write-in/gathering of sorts at 1_million_words on Saturday. You can find the details here. It'll be good for me because even without going out, I have not been using the time to write, so that needs to happen.

Also, someone posted about the Comfort Challenge at story_works and I thought it looked interesting.

Hope you all are doing okay despite the weirdness. We'll get through this.

I went to see "After the Wedding" today. Excellent performances. The story itself was a bit predictable, but Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup, and Michelle Williams were excellent. It also had Julianne Moore in a "bold look of Kohler" moment (yes, I am a sucker for nice bathtub moments) and things went better for her this time than they did in "The Kids Are Alright" - side note regarding that particular moment, I had to suspend my disbelief in Annette Bening's character's lesbianism because nobody would ever turn that down, imo.

My brother helped put my exercise bike together last weekend, so I've been working to try to take off the pounds that I gained when on an exercise hiatus for half the summer (I blew the chain off of my last stationary bike). With the weather getting slightly better, I should be able to walk more.

I signed up for an opportunity to go downtown to get my pic taken with the Stanley Cup on Tuesday morning. Hopefully, work will let me go for an hour or two. It'll be nice to have a few seconds. I offered my brother the chance to go with me, but he said that his work is arranging to have the management staff (which he is a part of) to work a party in late September where the Stanley Cup will be present. I'm a little jealous actually, but I'll take my opportunities as they come.

I feel guilty for not writing anything for August Rush at 1_million_words so far, especially since they took one of my choices for fandoms - Firefly. I think it's because I've been away from a lot of it for so long, so trying to recall where pics fit into the series is a little difficult.

Noodling around with asking for some prompt help at hardtime100. Every month it seems like the 1st and 15th come around faster and faster. And sometimes it's a reach.

Hope you all are doing well.

THE BLUES ARE IN THE STANLEY CUP FINAL!

I'm excited.

And nervous.

But mostly excited.

So in two weeks, I'll be heading to the NHL Draft in Dallas. I went last year in Chicago and had a great time and I'd be doing a party at home if the site wasn't in driving distance. We normally do various games and such- draft trivia (which takes place on the car ride), bingo (and if you're going to watch, let me know and I'll make you a card) and, last year, we did a jersey-spotting game (since fans from all the different teams will be there, looking for 31 different jerseys as we walked through the concourse helped get us some exercise and kill some time). This year, since I hope to be near the draft floor again at some point, I put together a bit of a facial recognition quiz involving icons of GMs, coaches, and reps from various teams and laid them out against the backdrop from last year's draft (my sister took that pic). I'm not a graphics queen (obviously) so this might come off as a bit of a hot mess, but I'm actually pretty happy with it.

So here it is, I'm putting it behind a cut because it's kinda big. If you feel like playing or showing off, you can put the names of the guys you recognize in the comments.

( The Room Where It Happens )

Saw "Goon: Last of the Enforcers" and am now feeling inspired to write the story that I wanted to see on the screen. Expect fictional hockey fic happening soon.

Went to see the movie "Carol" today. I'm a big Todd Haynes fan, so I might be a little biased, but it was very good. The acting was dead on, the story didn't drag too hard into sentimentality, and the cinematography was beautiful.

( slight spoiler here )

I also was able to get my library card renewed, so I'm not going to be spending a fortune on books and DVD rentals for a while. First up is binge-watching season one of "Orange is the New Black" which I have been meaning to see, but haven't got around to it yet. I really wish my library had copies of "The Wire" but maybe I can find it elsewhere and get it transferred over. I also picked up a book called "The Incarnations" which is about soulmates across time and sounded like fun.

Hockey game tonight. Blues and Nashville. Can't wait.

Haven't been writing a lot lately but I expect that to change fairly soon. Been busy with church stuff - was co-captain on our Race for the Cure (breast cancer) team for the beginning of the month and then have been trying to help with Pride when I can. Not to mention choir.

Went to LA at the end of May. Beautiful weather and I had a lovely weekend seeing friends I hadn't seen in 4 years. I also got to lead the liturgy at my old church - something that I loved doing and was really touched to have them invite me to do that again.

The brother got married last weekend. I really like the girl he married & I think she'll be good for him (unlike his first wife).

Heading to Chicago on Friday for the day to watch my beloved Blackhawks as they celebrate winning the Stanley Cup. Going to be a grand time. Need to make sure that I have batteries for the camera.

I am ridiculously proud of them.