TGIF Hockey Ramblings

The World Championships get underway today with eight Preds and prospects participating starting this morning in Switzerland. Here is a link to games televised on the internet (I hope I don't get a threat from the NHL for posting that link). Here is an alternate link. Canada and Russia play early today so don't be distracted at work. The Predators have a page set up to follow the Pred players here. Ryan at the RedLight District has a preview of the tournament.

Here's a new video from the Preds with owner David Freeman with the state of the Predators at year end.



Watch out world, our friend Sarah Connors has moved from Twitter to long form blogs at For Pucks Sake and starts off with a combo article about hockey and earthquakes.

I heard that there are multiple filings of missing person reports for the San Jose Shark's Joe Thornton. Minus 3 and 4 shots on goal, non of which came close last night. Coach Todd McLellan called the loss"a disappointment".

I still feel bad for Columbus and their fans. I'm sure they woke up this AM and wondered which train hit them. Steve Mason was a very un-Calder Trophy-ish 0-4, .878 Save %, and 4.27 GAA. Mason ranks last of all playoff goalies in most categories. Here is a video of the "picky" call (at about 2:05 into the vid) that doomed the Jackets in game 4. CBJ fans need to focus more on games 1, 2 & 3 and less on the call that finally put them out of their misery. Will this devastating loss send the Blue Jackets the way of the Atlanta Thrashers or will they learn from the thrashing at the hands of the Red Wings.

Can you guess who is #1 in GAA? answer below...

Rant! The NFL may allow CBS to stream next years Super Bowl online. The NHL needs to find a way to give fans a way to watch every game online (legally). All the time and effort they have spent chasing ATDHE, MyP2P, Justin and others should be focused on efforts to get all the games into the hands of hockey starved fans. There is a growing number of folks (especially in the NHL's target demographics) that do not have cable or satellite TV and are forced to go to pirated broadcasts of their home team's games due to NHL blackout restrictions. This is 2009 and rules made during the dark ages of the internet need to be updated.

PuckTheMedia reports a 50% ratings increase on Versus.

Watch for something new (old) at Section303.com in the near future.

Long time Nashville sports Journalist, Mark McGee, has joined up with HockeyBuzzRadio and will be contributing regularly. Here is his first article.

The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy finalist announcement will come at 11:00 today on NHL Live. Pavel Datsyuk has won the last three years and nothing has changes so I bet he is top three again. I will wager that no Predator will make the top 3.

I didn't hear anything about the Pizza Party at the Sommet last night. Any insight as to what happened ?

Answer - Simeon Varlamov at 1.01

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions

Lady Byng final three include Datsyuk, St Louis, and Parise.

Jas Faulkner seems to be having a hockey run over at Confessions of a Cheese Grits Fiend including Hockey Resources for the Noob. Check it out!

Here's a good list from Mirtle of NHL/AHL players playing in the World Championships.

Taylor Pyatt returned to the Canucks and released a statement about the death of his fiance. Alanah has more.

From @Forechecker - Well this is small comfort. For American fans who can't catch the Hockey World Championships, they are on Twitter: @IIHFHockey. Yippee???

From @Sarah_Connors HAHAHA! RT @voteforgrant Yahoo Sports will have a hard time convincing me this URL is a coincidence http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/666

Good to see updates from the Pred web site on today's games.

Puck Daddy reports Playoff ticket sales problems in Anaheim and Carolina. "The first indications for us as to what next year will look like, and if you're looking for indications as well, keep an eye on playoff ticket sales. That will be the first indication as to what we can expect going into the future and the impact of what the economy is having now." - Gary Bettman, January 2009

USA Today is running a contest, sweet-sixteen bracket style, to pick the NHL MVP.