Thursday, December 10, 2009

Thursday's Predator News Roundup

As of this morning, the Predators have heard nothing back from the league office on their official appeal to overturn Jerred Smithson's game misconduct penalty from his hit on Alex Burrows in Tuesday night's game.

The court of public opinion in the media and on XM's Home Ice 204 yesterday was clearly in favor of the Trotz/Smithson view of the incident. Bill Clement was emphatic that it was a legal hit and that the hit was the kind that needs to stay in the game.

We will monitor the situation today and provide an update if anything is released on the matter. Later today, we will also have our game preview as well as the keys to the game for tonight's match with Columbus. (I can hear the Darth Vader music already)

In Pred Nation...

Bryan Mullen at the Tennessean has a look at the importance of faceoffs.

David Boclair at The City Paper has more on Marty Erat's hat trick.

Dirk the Forechecker has a look at the Preds attendance through November. Simple math indicates that the Predators will need to average approximately 14,564 paid for the last 27 dates of the season (which includes two miserable crowds last Saturday and Tuesday) in order to participate in the full revenue sharing that they need to stay afloat. I am hopeful, but not overly optimistic at this point.

Mark at the View from 111 tips the cap to the Pred's consistent effort on Tuesday. He also has a post on the iffy financial situation with the Dallas Stars.

A J also checks in with an E(rat) for effort. It was good to see A J at the game on Tuesday.

Last night's HockeyBuzzPodcast that featured Make Willoughby, Eric Smith and Jon Jordan is now up on podcast.

Short Shifts discusses Mark Dekanich and his self esteem building in Cincinnati.

The Pred's Blog off continues to get nasty with See Puck City taking a few shots at the competition. I refuse to get down in the gutter on this, but would appreciate anyone's vote that feels that we are deserving.

The Preds make RLD Ryan's Top 5 Teams that Need to Make a Deal.

Around the NHL...

Our friend Matt Reitz and Jennifer Shaw have started a new View From My Seats Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio. It is great to see a variety new shows this year and Matt is great on the internet and equally as interesting on podcast. Here is the first episode.

The Winter Classic hype is really gearing up. At 1:00 today the NHL will hold a media conference call to welcome the ice plant truck to Fenway. We will monitor the situation for any worthwhile information. Here is yesterday's story on the truck and ice guru Dan Craig. For those who can't get enough of Fenway, here is a live cam of the field as it is transformed to an ice rink.

The Toronto Star has an update on the potential of Canada getting a seventh team. A couple of weeks ago, Gary Bettman mentioned the E-word (expansion) for the first time in many years, setting the stage for more non-Ballsillie "make it seven" talk.

Hockey fans in Canada are frothing at the mouth thinking about their 2010 "dream team" with Mark Messier being named GM of that edition of Team Canada. The potential of Gretzky as the coach would complete the fantasy for Canadians.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

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