Inauguralness

Bonjour and bienvenue to my new side project, Seven Thousand Volts. You may be familiar with my work at AllHabs.net and TheCheckingLine.com, or you may not. Regardless, this little space will not set out to look anything like either of those two sites, and I figure I should start off by saying that.

In 2009 I co-founded HabItHerWay.ca along with Rookie to a) get her calorie-crunching brand of hilarity on the Internet and b) voice a female side of the Habs, and hockey in general, that far too often gets under-looked or dismissed entirely. Little did I know my little Blogspot creation would give me multiple blogging opportunities, over four-hundred Twitter followers, even dinners with famous Habs' alumni (that I must say I am still full from).

In the midst of all that, I worked for a junior hockey team, finished two degrees in the same year (I still don't even know how) and went on many fulfilling adventures, both in and out of my favourite sport.

In a similar vein, to this day, despite being unemployed and not looking to get myself back into a classroom, I multitask. And for my followers that already know this, my hockey followings are clumped into an amalgamated mass of things that take on new life each day. With that in mind, the under-looked and/or dismissed venues I would like to tackle in this particular sub-division of HabItHerWay are: junior and minor-pro leagues.

Why? I used to be a one-team gal and frowned upon those who did the contrary. (Un)fortunately, after the 2004-05 lockout, I became the contrary. On steroids. Well, blame junior hockey. That is why we are here.

Actually, Guillaume Latendresse is why we are here. I hesitate to point that out for obvious reasons, but it remains true. The mania surrounding him and the eventual outcry surrounding his demotion prompted my mother to speak words she now regrets: "Why don't we go to a game in Drummondville?"

Junior hockey has revealed a number of phenomenons I had no knowledge of before stepping foot into the Centre Marcel Dionne. The age rules, the rotating cycles of powerhouse vs. rebuilders that make for unpredictable seasons from one year to the next, the much-less-famous player's chance of making it big, and the sense of community and family that encircles these (from the upscale modern to the downright embarrassingly retro) arenas.

Despite this season, in which the Voltigeurs are nowhere near the team they have been for the last three years (given the regular cycle of a junior hockey team I should count myself lucky, or even a spoiled brat) I have decided to take this on at the very end of the regular season, stretching into the post-season and beyond as I reminisce woefully of what once was and the hope for the return of past glory looms far off into the distance.

I also tend to be overly dramatic, in case that wasn't made clear.

I'm aware there don't tend to be many Anglo Voltigeurs' and/or QMJHL fans on the internet, which postponed the creation of this blog by about five years. However, on the off-chance they make it here, welcome. And hang on for the ride, because much like my early driving skills, things might get kind of bumpy.

While I don't intend on being too formal around here, things to maybe look forward to:

Weekly assessment: I haven't determined if I'm going to assign letter grades, as most of this season would get a D or lower. This space is likely better off designated for random moments to praise and/or (the likelier) rant about.

Alumni watch: Probably the biggest chunk of my entries would be dedicated to this portion, as those who started off as Voltigeurs have become ECHLers, AHLers, CISers and LNAHers and I tend to get overexcited about a lot of their accomplishments (...you don't say?). Habs' fans might say they're in for a bit of a treat since the Hamilton Bulldogs count five Volts' alumni alone.

Around the league: Here is where I would marvel and/or poke fun at the other Q teams in a jealous haze as they accomplish things my team currently has trouble with, such as holding a three-goal-or-more lead for the duration of a 60-minute hockey game.

Miscellaneous: NHL happenings, some funny YouTube video going viral around the interwebs and general thoughts might go here.

All in all, this is less of a formal forum for thoughts as it is a personal writing experiment, as I am literally making this up on the fly. That is not something I've done in a long while.