Sunday Notes and Comments

Good rainy Sunday morning...

Last night's game was a real shocker. After Vancouver jumped out to a 2-0 lead, you would hope that the Canucks would have learned their lessons from game one and not let the Hawks back in the game. Unfortunately, the Hawks came back with a vengeance and there was little the Canucks could do to stop them.

The game was completely out of hand by the end and the third period was marred with penalties and enough bad blood to carry over to game three in Chicago. The way this series has gone has been a complete surprise to me. If Vancouver doesn't make changes quickly, they may be facing elimination next time they play on home ice.

The afternoon game was much more of what I expected once all the hype was over and the puck was dropped. The biggest surprise was ex-Predator Mark Eaton scoring his third goal of the playoffs. Simeon Varlamov was not pleased with letting that one in but did recover enough to make the save of the playoffs as seen here. There is an interesting post game interview with Varlamov with an interpreter here.

The Pens and Caps appear headed for a deep series and I don't think the home teams will consistently win.

Today's NBC game has no threat of being shortened due to the Derby and features a rare Western Conference match up. This should be a good one as the teams regroup after game one. A tight one goal game is probably in store.

I'm really looking forward to the nightcap between Boston and Carolina since I have seen little of either team in the playoffs so far due to the NHL's screwed up schedule consistently putting games up against each other.

In Predators News...

The Milwaukee Admirals rebounded with a 4-1 win over Houston in game 2 of their AHL Western Conference finals series. RyanJones scored twice and Mike Santorelli and Codey Franson also lit the lamp. Here's the full stat sheet. Jonathan Blum did play his first AHL game but did show up in the point column.

Team USA took it on the chin Saturday at the World Championships losing 4-1 to Russia. Alexander Radulov had a goal and an assist. The win moved Russia into an automatic berth in the quarterfinals as the winner of group E. USA will play Switzerland on Monday.

Pekka Rinne and Finland took their first loss falling to Belarus 2-1 in a shoot out. Finland will play Canada Monday. Canada plays Norway on Sunday.

Mark from the View from 111 has a really good article about why the Preds get the shaft when it comes to awards voted on by the PHWA.

Around the NHL...

Chris at The Program comments on the visor cut to Jiri Hudler and the fact that Mike Brown did not receive a suspension.

Ryan at the RLD has a new mock draft up. Is Tavares still # 1? He also has his daily previews. The guy never sleeps.

Over at Mashable they are comparing a promotion at Bravo networks to the NHL tweetups opening night. There's a link to a second article that I missed the first time around too.

Interesting two articles about ten reasons to fire Gary Bettman. Bill Joyce kicks it off at the Bleacher Report and P Law37 piles on at Fox.

Charles Wang, Islanders owner, says that he regrets buying the team. Is it real or a posture for the new Lighthouse Arena.

Non-Hockey stuff...

Here's a list of the 100 most popular Twitter apps from the queen of Twitter dani3boyz.

Funny link from Perry Belcher on stuff grand kids will never understand.

The recent Miss California had breast implants paid for by the pagent folks themselves. Would that be considered building ratings?

Habs fans are being scammed while shopping!

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass