Hump Day Highlights

Good mid-week to all this morning. This afternoon we should have the league's complete schedule after receiving sporadic leaked information over the last few months and days and also know if thereth are one or two outdoor games this season with the latest rumors of one in Montreal in November.

We do know that the NHL will open e season on October 1 in North America and that the European games will be after that. The Preds will open on the road before playing their first home game against Colorado on October 8. We also know that the three Eastern opponents that we play twice will be the Thrashers, Panthers and Devils. Everything else, we will find out today.

In Pred Nation...

The entire NHL schedule will be out today but the Preds have given us a teaser that the home opener will be Thursday October 8 against Colorado and that the three home and away teams in the East will be Atlanta, Florida and New Jersey. As reported earlier, camp will open September 12 with rookie games in Atlanta on the 14th and 15th. Columbus's home opener is Oct 3 so I suspect a couple of road games prior to the 10/8 opener.

Jim Diamond gives us a breakdown of what is known about the Preds schedule at this point.

John Glennon has a couple of posts at Inside Predators. He seconds my opinion that adding Ben Guite is a good move and gives more insight into the previous rumor that Antti Pihlstrom is headed to Europe to play this season. The major sticking point is that Pihlstrom wants a one way contract that the Preds are not willing to offer. He has an update to the story at the Tennessean this morning.

Paul MCann's podcast from the development camp is posted at Hockey Buzz Radio. I'm looking forward to listening to it at work today.

Holly Gunning has more stuff from her visit to Nashville on Saturday with an interview with Chet Pickard on HF Boards. She has another interview with Roman Josi. They have also added all the new draft picks to the Pred's prospect list.

The Tennessean also reports on Metro's thoughts about the high dollar seating that the Preds want to add. I personally have a difficult time thinking that there are that many folks who would pay for this many seats. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think so.

On the Forecheck has their Wednesday round up of interesting stuff. Dirk also Tweeted that his wife was going to take him on a cruise. Lucky Guy!

This is an obscure story where the Mississippi RiverKings announced that one of their employees Jana Deluna is leaving their operation to come to work for the Preds as an inside ticket rep. She previously worked for the Nashville Sports council so this is an opportunity to return to her home area.

Around the NHL...

From @martinhavlat: I guess everyone saw what happened to Dale....yes, the story is starting to come out but it's just the tip of the iceberg. Big news of Dale Tallon's firing may have more to come based on Martin Havlat's Tweet. The official NHL.com story is here.

The Chicago Tribune has a story from last week on Jerry Reinsdorf's bid for the Coyotes. It is interesting to see the hometown take on him even if it is a week late.

In another Bettman intervention into a franchise, Mirtle tells us that Friday is the deadline for Len Barrie to come up with a cool $10 million to keep the Tampa franchise afloat. After sweeping the Coyote situation under the rug for several months with statements to the fact that there was not a problem, I am sure other "non-problems" will be monitored with more scrutiny in the future.

Here's a roundup of Monday's court hearing in Phoenix from Hip Shot Blog. Here is the Toronto Star's take from Kevin McGran. "It's the Phoenix Coyotes until somebody says otherwise," says Judge Redfield T. Baum. In an AZ Central story (rare) it is revealed that the City of Glendale is spending big bucks to keep the Coyotes as tenants at Jobbing.com.

In another schedule story, a highlight that will be beaten to death by the media will be Pittsburgh playing at the Islanders for John Tavares debut as related by Lighthouse Hockey.

MapleLeafsHotStove reports that Brian Burke has offered Marcus Naslund a job as a European scout. That seems a bit out of the blue (no pun intended).

Goalies on the farm... Yesterday we talked about NHL goalies and today we have this from Heather Galindo at In Goal Magazine of the shakeup of goalies at the AHL level. Follow Heather on Twitter as @msconduct10.

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

B D Gallof has a good story on the above mentioned Martin Havlat Twitter episode yesterday. Havalt's agent Allan Walsh, also got in on the discussion. Here's TSN's take on the Havlat vent. Looking to the next NHLPA/NHL negotiations, I for see some type of Twitter/Social Media guidelines or agreement between the parties as to what can be said.

Another "parody" scam exposed, this time on My Space, by some fans and related by Puck Daddy with credits give all around to the ones who exposed the mess.

Too cool from @schuylerb: Here is a wide shot from the Fenway Park control room. - Really Cool! Ever wondered what a hockey rink would look like on a baseball diamond in July? Wonder no more.

To Tweet or not to Tweet is a good post at NHL Digest. I left a few comments based on what I said three paragraphs up.

An early leak from Dallas (via John Glennon) that the Preds will be the Stars opening night opponent on October 3.

From @schuylerb: Here is the logo for the 2010 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic.