Peter Mueller poses for a picture at the NHL YoungStars Game in 2008.

As Goddess Sasha mentioned yesterday, our good pal Peter Mueller was traded from the Phoenix Coyotes to the Colorado Avalanche with some other guy for Wotek Wol… Wole… Something Polish. As a long time fan of #88, I was a bit shocked that Don Maloney would ship him out; but to be honest, I think it is a very good thing for him and his development.

I first got to know Peter as a rookie in the WHL as a member of my hometown Everett Silvertips.  The fact that he came to play here in Hooterville was a bit of  a shock to most folks who follow junior hockey; and it was a really big shock to the folks at the University of Minnesota as he had already committed to play there and had a scholarship. However, once he got a little older, he changed his mind and felt that major junior would be a better road to The Show than college.

So, he came to town and proceeded to not only have a great rookie year with 58 points in 52 games, but he went home to Bloomington with the WHL Rookie of the Year award and WHL Top Draft Prospect award as well as several other team awards during the season.  For an encore, he scored 78 points in 51 games during the 2006-2007 season and helped Team USA’s U-20 squad to a bronze medal at the World Juniors after being selected 8th in the 2006 draft.  It helped that he was alongside Zach Hamill, who now is Boston Bruins property; and that the Tips had a phenomenal season on the way to winning the WHL version of the President’s Trophy. Unfortunately the playoffs weren’t as good as they could have been thanks to one Mr. Devin Setoguchi and the Prince George Cougars, but I digress.

There was a lot of talk in the late summer of 2007 about whether Peter would make the Coyotes squad or would he come back to the Tips for another season, as he had two more years of eligibility. I would have liked for him to come back, partly because he’s a good kid and would have helped the team out tremendously; but you could see at the end of the season that the WHL pond was getting to be a bit too small for our boy from the land of 10,000 lakes.

However, I don’t know if dear Pete really realized just what being a full time NHL player would be like. Yes, he had youth and a whole bundle of talent; but without a taskmaster coach like Kevin Constantine, I can see how hard it might have been to stay the course with all the goodies an NHL contract brings with it.  Yes, he had a very good rookie season and was even voted for a few times for the Calder; but a rookie season does not a career make, nor does it guarantee even a good second season and #88 in your program was proof of this. True he had some issues with injuries; but I think if he had been with a different team with a different coach and more stability, things might have been a little better.

However I try to be optimistic and I really think if last night’s game against the Anaheim Ducks is any indication, things are looking up for our good pal Pete. He scored a goal, tripped a Duck and generally looked happy, which makes my little black heart happy too.

Photo: NHL

Good afternoon campers!  You don’t know me but my name is Amy and I am a new member of the Hockey Goddesses. The lovely Goddess Kaatiya invited me several months ago to join this lovely group of ladies; and finally now that the dust has settled from the holidays and my real life, I thought I’d come by to  say hello.

I am very happy to be coming to you from the lovely town of Hooterville which is out here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest; and I have been a hockey fan just about all of my life. It was started not only by a hockey loving mother; but being so close to the Canadian border, we were blessed with being able to have the CBC on our television every Saturday.

These days, I am not only a huge fan of the NHL; but a lot of my time and some of my money goes to one of the newest teams of the Western Hockey League aka the Everett Silvertips. I’ve only been a fan for about five of the seven years that the team has been around; but it’s something that I love so much. It’s been fun to watch these players come in to the league as boys and grow into young men, especially when you get to know them off the ice. The Tips are part of the five team US Division that also includes the Portland Winterhawks, Seattle Thunderbirds, TriCity Americans and the Spokane Chiefs; and their division is one of four that are a part of the WHL, which itself is under the umbrella of the Canadian Hockey League along with the Ontario Hockey League and la LHJMQ or the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

So, that’s a little about me; and hopefully in the next few weeks and months I can give you not only this fan’s view of the Tips but also the WHL and other junior hockey goodies. And thanks again to the lovely Goddesses for bringing me on board. Hopefully Kaatiya and Sasha make it back from Russia with lots of tales of the KHL and not too much frostbite!

Oh, and the Tips go for win #11 in a row in Portland tonight…Good luck boys and GO TIPS!