Sweeter than Kandee: The Career of Wendy Cain [2/2]

[SlashACM 38]

Wendy never had it easy growing up. Born just ten months after her older brother Martin, and four years younger than then oldest brother Aleister, she was already competing for her parent's attention with two rambunctious boys. They all fell in love with the sport of hockey, and unfortunately that was an expensive endeavor. Aleister and Martin would get brand new gear for Christmas, and Wendy would get Aleister's goalie hand me downs. She was always the odd one out when her brothers would play street hockey with friends, and eventually she had to break off from them and find her own friends.

Through high school she went through a lot of boyfriends, many were her hockey player teammates, but nothing could make up for the need for attention from her family. She was always in the shadow of Martin and Aleister, and never felt like the center of attention in her hockey player family. She played in high school, taking up the starting role on Varsity after her brother graduated, and playing with her brother Martin for the entire four years. Her brother Aleister left for the SMJHL when he was drafted 87th overall, last in the draft, to St. Louis, and a year later drafted to Edmonton in the SHL draft. His career has been quite unusual, winning two cups with St. Louis before being exposed by Edmonton in the SHL Expansion draft. Wendy was unable to attend the expansion draft where Aleister went first overall to New Orleans, but it was a very emotional moment for the whole family to finally prove the worth of the Cains. 

Once Aleister left and it was just Martin and Wendy, they became more distant and eventually Wendy had to learn that no one cares for her but herself. A tough lesson to learn at such a young age, but an important one nonetheless. Martin was called off to the inaugural season of the NSHL, and with Aleister telling her explicitly not to follow his path into the SHL, Wendy was left to her own devices with limited options to play hockey. 

She took to the road, leaving Chicago and her reputation of "puck bunny" behind her, for greener pastures in Saskatoon. She tried out for the local VHLM team and made it as backup, partly due to her charm and partly due to their need for a better back up. She knew she had a lot of work to do, but starting fresh in another country felt right for her and she wanted a new identity, rebranding herself as Kandee Cain. She ditched Wendy's temperamental and reserved personality for the seductive, sly, charismatic persona of Kandee. This allowed her to rise through the ranks and with her new contract in the books, the world was her playground. 

Wendy decided that she had no future in Saskatoon and after learning of the upcoming VHLM expansion, decided she wanted to be the face of the Philadelphia Reapers netminding for seasons to come. This came as a shock to many of her friends and especially her brother Aleister, who went through multiple drafts and was happy to play for any team that wanted him. Wendy decided then and there that she would choose her own destiny, and if it meant her draft stock plummeted, so be it. Buying a condo in Philly that summer and moving in, she denied a call on draft day from Minnesota, who were interested in her goaltending skills. She instead knew the Philadelphia GM would make the right decision and build a team first, before picking Wendy up at the end of the draft.

Wendy was very happy to have a familiar face in Walter Clements in the locker room, one of her summer flings, and a decent hockey player at that. She became an instant favorite in the locker room and while she can get emotional at times, she wants to win first and foremost, and is ready to do what it takes to get there.

Wendy's Playing Career:

Wendy filled in for her brother who graduated the year before, playing in net for the Whitney White Dolphins. Her brother had a terrific high school stint and she had a lot to live up to. She struggled the first year as a lot of talent had left with Aleister, and only posted an .890 save percentage and a 3.05 goals against average. Luckily in her second year the defense got etter, with her brother Martin filling in on defense instead of the normal forward role he usually has. Wendy was able to have a respectable season, with a .914 save percentage, a 2.35 goals against average and a trip to the Chicago high school ice hockey playoffs, unfortunately falling in round two to the Ray Tech Cherokee. Her playoff numbers were good until round two, and in total she had a .906 save percentage and a 3.60 goals against. 
Her junior year saw another miss of the playoffs, as the team struggled again. Wendy didn't though, sometimes keeping her team in games and standing on her head, unfortunately the scoring firepower wasn't there. She had a .916 save percentage and a 2.30 goals against average but unfortunately saw no postseason action. The next year saw redemption, as she had an amazing season with a .929 save percentage and a 2.16 goals against average. While her numbers were steadily improving, so were her brother Martin's who switched back to forward and had a respectable season as well, finding his own defensively and had an outstanding giveaway/takeaway ratio. The playoffs saw some struggles, as they were almost swept in the first round, but came back to reverse sweep and meet their rivals the Cherokee in round 2. A tough 6 game series saw the Dolphins victorious, and another 6 game series in the semi finals saw 2 shutouts from Wendy. The Evanston Panthers were in the finals, and a very even series led to a game 7. In this game, Wendy gave up 2 early, but her team clawed back to force overtime. Both goalie played extremely well in OT, and that led to a lengthy double overtime in which Martin Cain scored to give the Dolphins the championship. Wendy saved 58 out of 60 shots and took home the playoff MVP award before she graduated and headed out for a life of professional hockey.

[xDParK 81]

Review

 

Grammar was good, and it was a well thought out biography. My only suggestion would be to add titles of each section to clean it up a bit. I got a little bit lost in some parts, but other than that it was really good. Didn’t know you were picked up in the expansion draft as I joined after that  

 

all in all you’re a sim league beast and Wendy is going to be a great player.

 

well done on the bio mate 

 

[FacebookFighter 67]

Need better spacing when writing paragraphs, adding some headings would probably help. You could have dug into why she was on the men's team in high school. How she chose to the vhl over the NWHL.

 

I like the addition of a female player into the league. But a little backwards to say she gets around and has family issues. There was also a lot of content, but lacked in details outside of the statistics.

 

Overall it wasn't bad.

 

[Gustav 6,407]

Review--First of all, very nice job highlighting Wendy's childhood struggle to be seen as a legitimate athlete as a girl. You managed to make it a significant event without having it take over the entire story. The storyline is good and it makes a lot of sense--doesn't jump around too much and highlights everything.

I agree what everyone's saying about having more spacing between your paragraphs, though I was very guilty of this in my bio as well.

Nice job saving 63 of 67 against us in that preseason game by the way.

[DollarAndADream 3,356]

3 minutes ago, GustavMattias said:

Review--First of all, very nice job highlighting Wendy's childhood struggle to be seen as a legitimate athlete as a girl. You managed to make it a significant event without having it take over the entire story. The storyline is good and it makes a lot of sense--doesn't jump around too much and highlights everything.

I agree what everyone's saying about having more spacing between your paragraphs, though I was very guilty of this in my bio as well.

Nice job saving 63 of 67 against us in that preseason game by the way.

No article is allowed to have more than 2 reviews on it. FacebookFighter and xDPark are both reviewers, so that's 2. Please review something else as this one doesn't count.

[Gustav 6,407]

Just now, DollarAndADream said:

No article is allowed to have more than 2 reviews on it. FacebookFighter and xDPark are both reviewers, so that's 2. Please review something else as this one doesn't count.

Sorry--I think I did that on another one or two earlier. Consider me notified.