Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Reflections on a Lost Two Points, a Hurting Dad, and Tuesday Round-Up

When the season comes down to the last few games and the Predators are battling for home ice advantage in the playoffs or even just to get in the top eight, they will look back at last night's loss as two points that they should have had.

On paper, the game should not have been close. On the ice, the Predators did the one thing they could not afford to do. They came out flat against a young team that had more intensity and will to win than the Preds exhibited during the first period.

Off the ice, a small victory in the long term battle to prove to Canada that Nashville is a hockey city was won. The Predator fans are to be congratulated for a near sell-out and the loud standing ovation for the duration of the third period TV time-out.

I received an email from Michael Langlois of Vintage Leaf Memories who said that he Canadian broadcast had nothing but praise for the Predators, the crowd, and the city. Its only one game and a small step in the big picture but it is good to see positive coverage for the Preds north of the border for a change.

Dan Ellis' Son's Injury...

After the game last night, Dan Ellis' son suffered a head injury and Dan had to take him to the hospital. In a series of late night Tweets you see another side of Ellis, a dad suffering from holding an injured child. It is a rare look into the human side of a player that all were watching on the ice a few hours before. Here are the Tweets as written.

12:01 Rushed to the ER my son hit his head...throwing up over and over...prayers please...just had a CT. 12:09 Something is not right about holding your sons head still as he cries in a CT scan. Heart breaking. 12:16 Why when they get CT done in Franklin do they send it to Israel to get read...not very efficient!!! gettin ready to snap. 12:30 I hate waiting...the little guy is sleeping in my arms right now...seems to be doing better. Thx for the prayers. 1:14 CT came back negative...heading home now. Maybe a concussion? That is never fun. Thx again to everyone for their thoughts and prayers.

Our prayers go out to Dan and his family. As a father, I know that everything else pales in comparison when you child has a problem. Thanks to Dan for his transparency and a glimpse into another side of Dan the parent.

Preds-Leafs Round-Up...

Here is our wrap-up with postgame comments from both teams.

John Glennon has a game story, notes and postgame ponderings at the Tennessean.

Jim Diamond has his post and even gets a little artsy with a Haiku that describes the game well. Jim also had a nice piece that I missed yesterday about Pred's players who grew up in the GTA.

David Boclair has the story for the City Paper.

In the Blog world stories come from Brandon Felder, Forechecker, What the Puck, and See Puck City who points out that we often lose when Arnott comes back from injury. Mark at View from 111 is looking for a refund of his ticket money after last night's performance.

The Canadian view of the game comes from the Toronto Sun, The Globe and Mail, and The Star.

In Pred Nation...

Jas Faulkner hands out mid term awards to Preds players at The Hockey Writers.

The Toronto Sun has a nice piece on ex-Pred Stu Grimson. hen Stu first came to Nashville he was very nice to my boys when he visited our church.

Preds101 has an interesting comparison between Patric Hornqvist and Kenny Britt (without the police troubles).

Eric Kent co-hosted the Ads Center Ice Radio Show last night at 1250 WSSP. Hopefully we can find a copy to hear the broadcast.

David Shoalts at the Globe an Mail has a story about the Predator's drafting abilities.

Dirk Hoag and a few other SB Nation Hockey folks had a roundtable discussion about the Olympics and Alex Burrows. Looks like it was a good use of Google Wave.

David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail gives the Toronto view of all the Pred's financial issues.

The weekly Admiral's update is at Predators.com.

Around the NHL...

Vote for the player least likely to fight on each team at View From My Seats. Another great idea from Matt Reitz.

The AHL All-Star game is tonight. XM 204 had an interesting interview with Buffalo prospect Nathan Gerbe this morning. Listening to his comments, it is amazing how much the Buffalo organization is like the Predators. Cal O'Reilly scored two points for the Canadian team in last night's skills competition.

NHL Home Ice on XM 204 launched a new Facebook page over the weekend. To become a fan, go here.

The Rink Podcast Episode # 59 has the focus on Texas Hockey as James has been hanging out there for a few days.

Ryan Lambert blasts NBC's coverage from Sunday at Puck Daddy. It was a great game in spite of what NBC did to annoy fans. However, missing a goal is unpardonable. Steve Lepore has a slightly more positive review.

Puck the Media looks at the playoffs if the season ended today from a broadcast perspective and speculates that a Phoenix-Nashville series could be the most ignored in history. Unfortunately, he is probably right. Steve also has a nice defense of Kevin Weekes who we also like.

Our friend Steve Wilson from Blackstone Sports has a nice story about his Flat Bottom V at the Globe and Mail.

Connie Kim has joined SB Nation with Jewels From the Crown a site dedicated to the LA Kings.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

2 comments:

Dirk Hoag said...

Nope, no Google Wave there, just a plain old chat room that was transcribed...

PredsOnTheGlass said...

That's the perfect forum for Wave. I've only done one and it worked well for that type of activity. The one difference from a chat room is that typing is in real time so you can watch others type. Unfortunately, they could also see how bad my skills are before spell check.