Monday means another edition of PredsOnTheGlass Radio. Be sure an tune in tonight at 7:00 Central for a special Memorial Day Edition of POTG. We will focus on Colin Wilson's visit to Nashville and take a look at the Predator's free agents and speculate who will sign and who will go between now and July 1st.
Sunday's game between Detroit and Chicago was one of the more embarrassing games for a losing team in the playoffs so far. The Hawks really did a lot of dumb things that made a bad situation even worse. Coming on the heels of Saturday night's debacle in Carolina, things don't look good for the Hawks and Canes having a shot at winning another game.
Detroit played an exceptional game primarily based on the fact that they showed their maturity and composure and did not get drawn in to the skirmishes that the Hawks were trying to lure them into. This game was a prime example of youth and inexperience versus a team that has "been there" many times. Ryan at the RLD goes in to more detail on the matter. Mirtle also has quotes from Joel Quennevelle and a couple of Wings about the meltdown.
Corey Crawford was surprised in game three that he had to suit up as an emergency back up so I can't imagine how startled he was to end up on the ice during the shellacking that the Hawks took on Sunday.
With little chance of another game in Chicago this year, hopefully the Hawks can find a replacement for possibly the worst goal song ever, "Chelsea Dagger", by the Fratellis. Why they chose this is beyond me.
There are no games tonight, which makes little sense. Once play resumes on Tuesday, I do not see any way that either the Canes or Hawks have a chance to advance. I would really like to see both teams win a couple of games in order to stave off the potential nine day layoff between the Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals.
This break from the action will be a nightmare for television ratings for the finals. Casual fans that have gotten in the habit of watching games every night will disappear into other Summer activities and may or may not find Versus again come June 5. There is a rumor being floated today by E J Hradek that someone may be coming to their senses and move the start up to this coming Saturday if the games are over by Wednesday.
In Predator News...
Eric Kent at Admiral Short Shifts has a good analysis of Milwaukee players and their contract status for next year. There is overlap with Brandon Felder's analysis from last week but goes much deeper into the Pred's system as to who may be a free agent on July 1 if they are not signed.
John Glennon has an article today that covers several basis including Paul Fenton not getting the Wild GM job and the difficulty in establishing a value on Joel Ward in attempts to resign him.
Paul McCann has a new article today covering several bases as well.
Around the Hockey World...
The Memorial Cup came to a surprising conclusion Sunday when Windsor beat the well rested Kelowna Rockets 4-1. The Spitfires came out of the chute scoring three goals in the first 7:11 of the game. Kelowna played better on into the game but never made a serious run at Windsor. Former Predator Bob Boughner who played 142 games for the Preds in their first two seasons is the coach for the Champion Windsor team.
In the AHL, Hershey and Providence went deep onto overtime before Graham Mink scored for Hershey 15:10 into the first OT period to give them a 3-2 win. Hershey now leads 3-1 and can close out the series today playing at Providence. In the West, Houston travels to Manitoba for game six to see if they can stave off elimination for the third game in a row.
The New York Times takes a look at Balsillie's "Southern Ontario" and what it means. Within the article there is a link to one from a few days ago that I missed in The Spec that gives background information on Hamilton's long history of chasing an NHL franchise. Meanwhile, Winnipeg has a story on the CBC about the mayor's push for a franchise. Here's the other side of the arguement that says that Manitoba's economics don't make sense. Regardless of what happens in Phoenix, the league really needs to get serios about "Make it 32".
It appears the Coyote's situation in Glendale isn't the only one that's not working out as planned. The spring training complex that was built for the Dodgers and White Sox has yet to have all the parties involved signed on the dotted line. The agreements in principle done over two years ago may not be binding.
A really neat video shown Friday night on the CBC broadcast Inside Hockey section was on Patric Kane. There's not a direct link to the video but go to the above link and find it. You'll be glad you saw it. It's a nice story about a player who is still a kid at heart.
Here's a good story from the Islander's 7th Woman about Bill Guerin and the chance he now has to play in the Cup finals as a result of Garth Snow doing the right thing for Guerin at the trade deadline.
More Later...
Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass
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