Hump Day Highlights

Who would have thought that we would have ended up with three game sevens at this point in the second round? Doing cursory research, I could not find a stat about the last time this happened. Mirtle writes about the total number of games played so far possibly being close to a record. When the Preds were eliminated my sole goal was to take in, and enjoy the playoffs to the fullest. With all the long series, I have not been disappointed.

Last night's games were a bit of a letdown after Monday's thrillers but did produce bonus hockey in the form of two additional game sevens.

In the early game, the Boston team that we saw in game five returned and never let Carolina come close as they won by a 4-2 score. The Bruins were ahead 2-0 in the first five minutes of the game that produced little drama. The bad blood between Aaron Ward and Scott Walker was not evident, and Ward showed no signs of injury other than a black eye. Game seven will be Thursday night in Boston.

The late game was a bit more exciting, especially at the end. Scoreless into the second, the Ducks went up 2-0 before Johan Franzen scored a power play goal with 2:25 remaining. The Ducks withstood the final assault by the Wings to force game seven in Detroit on Thursday. Jonas Hiller stopped 38 of 39 Wings shots for first star honors.

The highlight of the game probably was the full ice brawl after the game was over featuring the unlikely duo of Scott Niedermayer and Pave Datsyuk scrapping as the lead bout. Corey Perry and Todd Marchant received game misconducts as Anaheim was accessed 38 minutes of penalties compared to the Wings 10. I would really be surprised if Colin Campbell took any action on suspensions before game seven.

Ducks-Wings Brawl

Tonight's game seven is the one everyone has been waiting for between the Pens and Caps in Washington. Brian Metzer gives his take as does Japer's Rink. Puck Daddy compares Crosby and Ovechkin before game seven. Scotty Wazz also checks in on the two.

In addition to having the best preview of tonight's game seven, Ryan at the RLD along with Chris at The Program will have a live blog during the game that should be fun. Jackson and I will probably throw in our two cents worth too. After the game, The Program on BTR will run in its usual Wed night time slot from 9:30 to 11:30 Central.

In Predator News...

Another game seven will occur tonight at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee between the Admirals and Houston Aeros. Down 3-1 in the series, the Ads have roared back to set the stage for tonight's chance to move on to the Conference finals. Much of the wight of the game will be on the shoulders of Drew MacIntyre who has had a 1.41 GAA and a .940 save percentage, the best in the AHL playoffs, so far. From @jwhouk, here's your scorecard for tonight's action.

I was overwhelmed with the kind words Mark wrote at The View From 111 last night on the Changing Face of Hockey News. Nashville is blessed with many talented and passionate writers and bloggers and each of the Predator Blogs listed in the right column here are all top quality. One thing that really stuck with me from Podcamp was that 10 folks could write about the same thing and it would all be different based on each individual's personality. It is always fun to see the differences in all the blogs. The one thing that all have in common is passion, and that's what makes them all interesting.

We would also like to thank Beau Kautzman at Buzztap.com who has added POTG to the PredsBuzzTap Twitter feed as well as the under development NHL portion of their site. Check them out and add @predsbuzztap to your list of Twitter followers.

Thanks also to Odin Mercer aka Travis Hair for linking up the POTG interview with him on Five for Howling.

Forechecker and several others commented on a story from SI about the five best and worst owners in hockey. The part about the Preds being fifth worst was a real hack piece of journalism (if you can call it that). Minimal research would have uncovered that the Preds don't have 30 owners. The fact that Phoenix, Dallas and Tampa were not in the worst five is also indicative of poor research.

Brandon Felder will be in the HockeyBuzz Chat room today at 2:00 CDT and will be on Hockey Buzz Radio on WNSR with Paul McCann at 6:00.

Around the NHL...

Here's an example of the sideshow petty squabbling that has been going on in the desert. The courts have compelled the NHL to produce all information about the discussions with potential buyer Jerry Reinsdorf, and the NHL is fighting it. The Hamilton mayor is "Cautiously optimistic" and even the Canadians can't agree on what to think about Balsillie. Meanwhile, the local Hamilitonians are frothing at the mouth. Here's another story from the National Post.

For our new Coyote readers, the site for the big White Out Ralley has been confirmed as being at the Native New Yorker in Glendale at 10:00 Arizona Time on May 16.

Forechecker confirmed yesterday that @MakeItSeven on Twitter was now officially aligned with the MakeItSeven effort and was no longer a rouge account. The first official tweet came at 4:12 CDT and said "Brenna from the MakeItSeven campaign here. Looking forward to interacting with you and sharing informative links."

Here's a really neat story that got a lot of attention on Twitter last night about the Islander's Josh Bailey befriending a father and son here in Middle Tennessee.

In Minnesota the search for a new GM continues.

It was announced that Memorial Cup games will be on the NHL Network in the US.

For our Long Island readers, from @dani3boyz "Join us for the first ever NHLtweetup Long Island! May 27th in Farmingdale -RSVP Here"

Here's another death of newspaper story from the Washington Post.

Twitter News...

Interesting story linked by Tony Hawk about his Twitter scavenger hunt for skateboards and how a lot of other sports stars use Twitter to connect with fans.

Here's the story behind the @reply controversy.

Twitter will be down for one hour at 2:00 today CDT. Same announcement was made Monday and canceled. We will see.

Finally, in the humor category we got a funny Tweet from "@GaryBettman" this AM "So happy today! No Canadian teams in the playoffs, Caps/Pens going to game 7. Must send memo to the refs. PP stand for Power to the Pens". (Before anyone goes off- note the " " around the sender)

In STS 125/ Hubble News...

@Astro_Mike had the first tweet from space yesterday at 3:33 CDT saying "From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!". From this AM "From orbit: Getting more accustomed to living in space today and getting ready for our big rendezvous with hubble". The shuttle is chasing Hubble and is scheduled to latch on at 11:54 today.

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions

Forchecker has an analysis of what "top six" forwards means and who thetop six is on the Preds, along with a survey.

Hubble from about 100 ft grabbed from NASA TV over Indian Ocean

I'm not Sid's biggest fan but I love his quote in this story. "These are the moments as a hockey player you dream of playing."

XM Fantasy Guru Rob Higgins @higgy2112 Tweets "is back from morning skates - chatted w Sid, Staal, Satan, Gill, Fedotenko, Federov, Backstrom, Green (he rules) and Jurcina - Gonchar on PP"

New story from the Star - Gretzky backs Riensdorf and more details of Balsillie plan.

The Predators announced that Colin Wilson, fresh off his Team USA play, will appear at the Open House Sunday afternoon.

Here's the Globe and Mail version of the NHL salary data base.

A new "One Percentile" Podcast is up at XM 204 with two of my favorites Mick Kern and Eric Gage.

Free agents Steve Sullivan, Scotty Nichol and Vern Fiddler will participate in Celebrity Bowling Thursday night. Details at the Preds Site.

John Glennon has an update on the Alexander Radulov situation and the status appears quo. They also have a slide show of Rads at the World Championship.

The latest press release from Jim Balsillie is here. It appears that the Hamilton city counsel is considering an option for a 20 year lease at the Copps Coliseum.