David Poile, Playoffs and Friday Findings

The story that everyone was concerned about yesterday in Pred Nation is one that probably won't go away for a while. With former Pred owner Craig Leipold's firing of Wild GM Doug Risebrough, many feel that he may target Pred's GM David Poile (and subsequently Barry Trotz as coach) as a replacement.

News in the media shows a variety of opinions and facts. Brandon Felder got the ball rolling early yesterday after the announcement with a Tweet and a blog. John Glennon has uncovered a provision in the Predator's sale agreement that prevents Leipold from coming after Poile. The Predators organization and TSN reported last night that Poile was "happy where he was". Hockey Wilderness (Wild SB Nation writer) still has Poile high on the list of potential hires along with Paul Fenton from the Preds. Glennon also writes of Fenton as a good choice.

So what will be the outcome of all this? For eleven years, things have never been easy for this team, so there's no reason to think that in spite of signed agreements that this will just disappear into thin air. Jim Ballsille did but it was only after months of gut wrenching activity.

Many folks have been quick to criticize both Poile and Trotz, but the Predators could do a lot worse. With budget constraints in place, that will not go away, there is no better tandem in hockey at getting the most out of limited resources. Losing either Poile and/or Trotz at this time would be a major setback for a franchise loaded with future young stars and a boatload of draft picks in this year's free agent draft.

On to more positive topics... Cal O'Reilly is still playing great hockey in Milwaukee and led the Admirals to a 3-1 win in their opening AHL Playoff game against Rockford. Patric Hornqvist also scored the other Ad goal. Another story here.

On the playoff front, last night's games may have pulled me out of my post Pred season funk. I really didn't see much action Wednesday night due to the Tweetup but I made up for it last night with six solid hours of viewing.

The Wings looked exactly like the team you expect to see in the opening game of a first round series. They handled the Blue Jackets in the same manner we have seen them handle the Preds in prior opening series. The Wings looked much better than they did down the stretch and Chis Osgood did indeed look like he was ready for the playoffs. Columbus will probably win a couple of games but Detroit will advance to round two.

I loved seeing the scrums at the end of the Bruins game with the Habs. My hockey heart welled up at seeing the bitterness and emotion that this series brings. I think Boston will dispatch Montreal quickly but I would love to see this one go seven just for the intensity it would bring.

Calgary seemed to be on track to pull an upset last night until Mike Cammelari woke up Marty Havlet with an elbow to the face during a faceoff. Havlet made the Flames pay with a couple of goals to seal the game for the Blackhawks. I really love this stuff.

In the late game, Anaheim proved that they aren't going quietly by shutting out the Sharks in San Jose where the Sharks had the best home record in hockey this year. Jonas Hiller was outstanding in his debut as number one goalie in the playoffs. With time running out and after six hours of viewing, I was amazed at how quickly the Sharks rink officials replaced a sheet of broken glass. It was truly amazing.

Jackson is going to start contributing over at the RedLightDistrict during the playoffs. I wonder if the stories will also feed over to Chris Wassel's The Program? I might be jealous if they do. Jackson's first story on RLD is here.

Thanks to all who have sent kudos from across North America for our attempt at doing POTG Radio live at the Tweetup. In spite of the technical issues and 15 minutes of panic to start the show, so far, it has been listened to in archive and downloaded twice as many times as any past show. Hopefully, all the new listeners will tune in Monday when we hope to do better technically.

Our buddy the Forechecker is headed for main stream radio this afternoon when he appears on the Thom Abraham Show on 560 WNSR during the 2:00 (Central) hour this afternoon. Click here to listen. Dirk also has an article today on the Potential Alex Radulov's return. I think Captain Arnott was clear on his thoughts as quoted here in a prior POTG article.

Mark at The ViewFrom111 has some interesting insights into the financial problems in Dallas. It makes us feel good to have fiscally responsible ownership in Nashville.

The Predators are really getting a good shot at seeing what prospect Colin Wilson can do with him playing in the World Championship. I would suspect that getting him added to the team was was a really crafty under the radar move by David Poile who is an Assistant GM for Team USA. The Preds should get a great idea of how ready Wilson's game is for the NHL.

Our new friend@goaliegirl points to this interesting Guide to Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter, expect a big slowdown later today when Oprah attempts to "uncool" Twitter by endorsing it on her show with the first tweet. StudioNashVegas has run a contest to see what the first tweet might say. After this stupid chase to a million followers by CNN and the no talent Ashton Kutcher, I wish I had a way to unfollow both but that would have meant I had an interest to begin with, which I didn't.

Interesting Penguins song from ChicsHockey here.

Update on the Matt Gilroy sweepstakes here. This is an interesting sidelight going on during the playoffs.

Rachel at WhatThePuck has a funny on her site today.

This next item was a huge story and I wasn't sure how to report it on a G-rated site so I will link to Puck Daddy who also gives a stern warning to all before watching the video after describing the R-rated on air slip up.

That's it for now. As always check back to this same article as the day progresses for additions and updates below the signature line. Many days, it's more than the original content.

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Afternoon Additions

Breaking news from @brandon_felder: Colin Wilson signs Pro contract with Nashville. Details to follow in a few hours. #nhl #preds #hockey

Update from Brandon - @PredFans 3 year deal according to Glennon. My CBA researcher (THX @mikebarnes5) says that means he'll make around $875k per year.

John Glennon has a full story on the Colin Wilson signing. Here's the Pred's official info on the signing. College Hockey News weighs in on the signing.

David Poile was on 104.5 this afternoon and indicated that Wilson could be in Nashville as a "top two center in the not too distant future". When asked directly about if he was going to Minnesota, Poile said he was very happy where he was and talked positive about the future. He said "Nobody should be worried". He also discussed Steve Sullivan and further discussions they have had. He said the biggest issue was that Sully doesn't know his "true market value".

Further update on Matt Gilroy, ESPN (and now everyon) reports that he is headed to the Rangers.

Puck Daddy has an article discussing how to find out what the eye in the sky is thinking when the call goes to Toronto during the playoffs. This is really cool!

Mirtle points to a link for Sports in 140 which has a list of athletes and others with legitimate Twitter addresses. It is broken down by leagues and categories.