That Hockey Lass

So here we are again. It's been a while hasn't it folks? A lot has happened in the last year and a half (ish), both in my life, and on/off the ice over in Ottawa, but I'll start with me first in this part 1. As per usual, I have to apologise for my absence, but I suppose I at least have several reasons for that now. Just to be clear- this is going to contain very little Sens content. This is also not intended to be a pity party. I don't write this for sympathy, but more to show you all what an absolute state my life has been in and the reasons for which I was not able to open up blogger until now. *** TW: health, mental health, neurodivergency, gross mention of flesh??? In 2020 I started my master's degree down south at the University of Reading. My last post, in early 2021 was written in a time where I was busy, and struggling, but coping. However, I was also in the UK's third lockdown, and at that point, slowly started to lose the ol' marbles. My course be...

It's been about 3 months since I last wrote a post, and honestly the fact that I haven't vanished for like 9 months is a miracle in itself, but here we are. We are just about to start the 2020-2021 season... in 2021 itself. It's going to be a weird season. Please note: CW/TW in this post for domestic violence and substance abuse. I will try to discuss this as sensitively as possible.  First of all... where were we? Lets start where we left off last time. We had just signed Josh Brown and were preparing for the draft. I complained about how we'd let go of Boro, Anderson and Ryan, hadn't signed Chucky, Duclair or Connor Brown yet and I made a loose draft prediction. Well, currently, our beloved Borocop is now a Nashville Predator, Anderson has just signed with the Capitals, Ryan is a member of the Detroit Red Wings and Anthony Duclair is a Florida Panther. I'm happy all of the guys got deals, and wish them the best of luck with their new teams. With regards to Chu...

Where on earth have you been? Yeah, I know. It's been a while. But this year hasn't exactly been normal and I think I'm forgiven for that at least. I started this post back in April/May in the middle of a lockdown and then just... never finished it. Now here I am, right before the draft with an odd spurt of creativity, here to bless you with my thoughts that literally none of you asked for. So now I bring to you a cathartic stream of consciousness dating all the way back to the trade deadline! In case any of you guys even remember that because it feels like 5 years ago. We'll start there. The trade deadline Another year, another trade deadline passed, and as expected the Sens decided to hold a car boot sale and sold whatever they damn could. Fuckin' rights 'Melo is gone (I really wanted us to keep him goddamn it), Zaitsev and Hainsey are somehow still bloody here and I'm here now starting to lose track of who the hell plays for us anymore. We also traded (lo...

About being awol... So this post is incredibly overdue and for that I apologise. Life has a habit of getting in the way and after a breakup, an issue with my living accommodation, my dog being seriously ill, starting a new job and deciding to apply for a master's degree I've been rather stressed out. To add insult to injury, I began this post a while ago and had almost finished it before my laptop decided to crash and despite my belief that I had saved my work about 10 times, I lost most of what I'd written. Anyway, I'm back on track, and it's looking like the Sens are too. Sort of. This season: a few thoughts We are just coming out of the All-Star break and to be honest, this season is for the most part going exactly how I wanted it to. I no longer feel as much despair as I used to, and watching Sens games seems fun again. I actively want to watch/listen to games! Who is she?! From a fan point of view, we don't have the UFAs to worry about as much anym...

So let me just start by saying that this post was never meant to be split into parts, however so much has happened surrounding the Senators that I felt it necessary to divide up the work. Nobody wants to read a blog post longer than the Nile. I know I'm late to the party here with this but I'm usually late to every other party I go to anyway so might as well stay on brand here. I also only made this blog a few months ago so cut me some slack okay? A lot has changed since the ECF in 2017, and these past few years have been a wild ride. It seemed that on occasion, everything was quiet, and then at others it was just one shitstorm after another. Now I'd like to point out that while some of these stories are funny, some of them are serious or even genuinely heartbreaking. I do not want it to come across like I am making light of these situations. The tragic stories have been included in this post because I still want to keep this factual and also don't want to ignore the...

It's over. It's finally freaking over. Another shitshow of a season is done and dusted for the Sens. July 1st is over, the craziness has settled for now and thus begins a very boring two and a bit months. As sad as I am that I don't get to watch or keep an eye on my (albeit begrudgingly) favourite hockey team until September, there is somehow a sense of relief. No longer do we have a feeling of dread knowing that each game we play will probably be horrendous- well, at least not for the foreseeable future. Overview Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse after the 2017/18 season, the Sens decided to trade almost all of their good players, finish even lower than before, and cock up a deal that would've got us a downtown arena. The Belleville Sens season was also over in April, after they failed to reach the Calder cup playoffs. They lost to Rochester, and because Cleveland destroyed Toronto, we watched the Monsters leapfrog Belleville in ...

Hey everyone! Just a quick update. This blog is very much alive and as am I- and I'm sorry I haven't posted a lot. Truth is, for a few months I've very much been struggling with my mental and physical health, and these struggles have really manifested in me having no energy and not wanting to do anything. I've been really stresssed with work as well, and honestly have felt like I've been going through the motions a lot, just trying to get through each day. However, the past few weeks have been actually wonderful and I'm finally feeling motivated, I'm feeling refreshed, and I'm actually getting to rest a bit and have some me time. I'm in the process of moving to a new flat where I can tidy and not live in a cluttered mess, and I'm also going to have a nice desk for once that I can actually sit at to blog. I'll be getting a new laptop soon and I'm going to get a more compact one so I can blog on the go more as well. I've starte...