Thursday, October 14, 2010

Predators Have Little Time to Celebrate, Blues Here Tonight, and Thursday Thoughts

The Nashville Predators have little time to celebrate their 3-2 victory over the Blackhawks on Wednesday night at the United Center. They returned home immediately after the game to prepare for tonight's match with the St. Louis Blues.

The Blues come into Nashville with the same 2-0 record that the Predators have. The Blues have played two games at home defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 in overtime on Saturday and the Anaheim Ducks 5-1 on Monday.

The newest addition to the Blues is goalie Jaroslav Halak who they signed over the summer after he gained notoriety in leading his Montreal Canadiens to the Eastern Conference finals.

There is no official word on who will start in net tonight for the Predators. (Update from @BMullenSports: Lindback will start in goal for the Preds against St. Louis, per Trotz. Rinne likely for Sat. Erat out tonight.)

The puck will drop at 7 p.m. tonight at the Bridgestone Arena.

Preds-Hawks Round-Up...

Here is our game story from last night.

Josh Cooper had two game stories (one, two) , a notes column, and and postgame ponderings.

From the blog world comes game stories from Ryan Porth, Amanda DiPaolo, Mark Willoughby, Dirk Hoag, Jeremy Gover, PredsBlog, Hockey Night in Nashville, and What the Puck.

The other side of the story comes from The Sun Times, The Daily Herald, and the Chicago Tribune.

One of the funniest thing from last night's game was Joel Ward appearing on the postgame TV report in a leather looking cowboy hat with a Pred's logo on the front. This appears to be something new where the hardest working guy in the game has the "privilege" of wearing it. We'll find out more.

Shameless Self Promotion...


Thanks to Chris Botta and Fanhouse for giving me the privilege of being the first of thirty participants in the NHL Blogger Survey series. I'm looking forward to seeing the other 29 over the course of the season. Check it out and if you agree or disagree with my analysis, let me know.

In Pred Nation...


Ryan Porth has the Predators looking for a fast start to the season at The Fourth Period.

Amanda DiPaolo has a neat story about Wade Belak and his volunteer firefighting duties.

Two new Predators blogs have crept into the Preds' blog world. Our friend Josh has birthed Fang Finger Fever and Kevin and Newton have introduced Hands of Cement. Both have been added to The Predators Aggrigator. It is amazing to see the explosion of talented voices being added to the Nashville alt-media.

AJ at PMFF checks in with his thoughts on the season so far.

Paul McCann has a few random thoughts including the best line I've heard yet on the Devil's manpower shortage. Paul also had the latest edition of Slap Shot Radio last night before the game with Andy Strickland, Steve Kolbe, and Coach Brent Peterson.

Shea Weber appears on Versus in an interview taped at NHL Media Day last month.

OnTheForecheck has their Play of the Week. They also have the Power Ranking Round-Up for week two. Some of these are a bit optimistic at this point.

The Bridgestone Arena received another award; this time as the IEBA Venue of the Year.

Around the NHL...

Derek Zona looks at marginal cap efficiency in two year roll1ng averages. As you would imagine, the Predators do well and the teams that spend to the cap and don't win fare poorly.

The Rat Trick ponders whether it's too early to start making excuses for the Panthers.

The Devils lost Brian Rolston to long term injury and are happy about it. After a surprising 1-0 win over Buffalo with 16 players, they will now be able for field a full team in Friday with the cap space opened up.

Chris Drury is ready to return on Friday. My fantasy team could use him. So you ask why I would have him. It is a 500 player deep league.

How many outdoor games are too many? Scotty Wazz finds another one in Finland.

Intent to Blow breaks down the recent suspensions and adds one for Ryan Smyth that I missed.

"Jan Levinson" from The Office will sing the National Anthem at the Coyotes home opener on Saturday.

Odds and Ends...

The Harvard Business Review looks at workplace zombies. Do you see any in your office?

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOntheGlass

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