Thursday, October 13, 2011

POTG Thursday Headlines, News, and Links: Roll Out the Gold Carpet!

The Nashville Predators will roll out the "Predator Gold" carpet today at 4 p.m. at the Bridgestone Arena when players, dignitaries, and selected fans will walk into the arena to kick off the opening night activities in Nashville.

There will be a party on the plaza and plenty of other activities for fans that arrive early. Puck drop will be shortly after 7 p.m. All fans attending the game will receive a T-shirt courtesy of Nissan. Here is a link for all the details of the festivities.

Here is a link to our preview from earlier. More Pred-centric previews come from Amanda DiPaolo, Ryan Porth,  Patten Fuqua, Robby Stanley, The Tennessean, Paul McCann, Dirk Hoag, Predatorial, Preds.com,  Pred, White, and Blue and Lady Preds.

Coyote news and previews come from Arizona Vibe, Five for Howling, Coyotes Examiner, the Arizona Republic, and the Coyotes Aggregator

Make the jump for all today's news and links...

In Pred Nation...

Lucas Di Giovanni contacted me a few days ago for insight on the Predators and he produced a nice story at The Good Point.

Tony Gonzalez has an excellent feature on what Jeff Cogen has done to transform the Predators' numbers.

Jim Diamond looks past Craig Smith's time at Wisconsin to his three year career at Waterloo in an interesting post.

Here is the third installment of The Ekholm Diaries from The View from 111.

Ryan Porth and Josh Cooper had updates from Wednesday's practice. Josh also has more on the Preds' third defensive paring. This morning Josh writes about the Predators building a winner on the cheap and has a few notes.

Bryan Mullen discusses the early season schedule that has left the Preds hungry to play tonight.

David Boclair talked to David Legwand about his penchant for empty net goals.

Jeremy Gover writes about Craig Smith being ready to "Jump Around."

Dirk Hoag has the season preview for Ryan Suter. He also has the audio of Mike Fisher discussing his book "Defending the Faith" on 102.5 The Game. This morning he has a full serving of breakfast links.

Kevin Allen thinks that Craig Smith looks like he belongs in the NHL.

The latest Jon Blum Blog is about his roomie, Cal O'Reilly.

AJ Konfronted Kostitsyn with the puck that did the damage to his face in St. Louis.

Chet Pickard has been sent back to Cincinnati.

Today at 2 p.m. there will be a major sponsorship announcement that Nissan will become an exclusive partner with the Predators and Bridgestone Arena. Preds' CEO Jeff Cogen, Bill Krueger from Nissan, and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean will be on the platform.                                                            

I got a heads up yesterday on a new promotion to save money on Predator tickets. Fans who purchase any large pizza from Hunt Brothers Pizza can redeem the proof of purchase on the box at the Bridgestone Arena box office for $5 off a Preds' ticket.

The next registration for the Predators' Get Out and Learn program is set for October 19.

Shanny TV...

Seriously, it is hard to believe that there is no Shanny TV news this morning. The crackdown must be doing what it is supposed to do.

Around the NHL...

We will hear a lot about realignment between now and the December 5th NHL Board of Governors meeting and Ryan Porth has the latest comments. Puck Daddy has more that sounds a lot like that the Wings want something like what we said in a post a couple of weeks ago.

Gabriel Landeskog talked to Adrian Dater about his first NHL goal. Dater also has the second installment of his podcast where he sits down with a crowd of writers in Columbus.

Matt Reitz has a piece that will bring a tear to your eye about the sad side of the opener in Winnipeg.

Ryan Lambert thinks suing Don Cherry is a bad idea.

True Hockey reports that a purchase agreement for the St. Louis Blues could come at any time.

The Hockey News has ten untradeable contracts.

Kingscast is back with Episode 124.

If you are at home on the couch tonight and not a fan of a team playing, the Caps-Pens game on the NHL Network at 6 p.m. has to be at the top of your list of games to watch.

Ex-Pred Cody Franson is not happy in Toronto. The good news is that he is set to play on Saturday.

Here is a great graphical presentation of facts about hockey fights that draws from numerous sources. This is definitely worth a look. Guess who the all time leader is in "Gordie Howe Hat Tricks." It's none other than Brendan Shanahan.

Odds and Ends...

Here a time lapse video of the travels of the Mars' rover Opportunity over a three year, 13 mile trip on the red planet.

Watch what you say on social media sites. Insurance companies are learning how to aggregate data to catch fraud and evaluate risks.

Also, it's not a good idea to play soccer when claiming a foot injury. You never know who is watching.

There is no end to what "scientists" will come up with to explain findings. Here is one that claims that a prehistoric squid or octopus aligned bones in a "self portrait."

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

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