Thursday Morning Takes

After a big slow down the last few days, the Development Camp has reinvigorated the local Predator news so there are several interesting items today. Unfortunately, due to work obligations, I won't be visiting the camp until Saturday's session so I will have to live vicariously through the tales form others until then.

In Predator Nation...

John Glennon at the Tennessean has a couple of stories today, one about Zach Budish, the big 6-3 defenseman taken in the second round of last month's entry draft, and the other about Blake Geoffrion who could become the first NHL player from Tennessee in a few years.

Fellow Predator Inside Hockey contributor Wes Cunningham has pictures from the first day of the prospect camp.

Forechecker Dirk has his observations from the camp and points to John Glennon's Inside Preds blog for more. He updates us this morning with his Thursday news.

Brandon Felder has a good wrap-up to Day One of the public sessions and talked to several campers and includes his interviews.

Paul McCann has first day observations at Hockey Buzz.

The City Paper reports that Colin Wilson had to sit out Wednesday's first on ice work out due to "clerical problems".

Predators.com has an interview with Milwaukee Head Coach Lane Lambert who discusses the camp and the Ads past season. Here is the Preds.com news from Wednesday's workout. A video follows with Marty Gelinas leading off the discussion.


The North Bay Nugget has an article about Steve Sulivan and his attraction to Nashville.

Around the NHL...

The big news around the NHL today will probably be the retirement presser of Joe Sakic which is set for 1:00 Denver time. Adrian Dater looks at where history will place Sakic among the great forwards.

Several more signings on Wednesday including Saku Koivu to the Ducks where that he will team with Teemu Selanne during his final season. TSN's FA tracker is here.

Episode #14 of my favorite podcast, The One Percentile with Mick Kern and Eric Gage from XM Home Ice is now up.

Seventh Woman gives her thoughts from the John Tavares coming out presser on Long Island on Wednesday.

The latest round of NHL-KHL contract disputes involves Joel Kwiatkowski who is jumping his KHL contract to return to the Thrashers organization.

The Hockey Writers looks at the top ten teams from last month's entry draft. Look here to see where the Preds landed and to see who they thought was #1.

One final wrap-up from the NHL Tweetup in Montreal, Kate AKA @antheia posts her blog describing the whole event.

Since it's the off season SI has the time for a top hockey announcers piece to ponder.

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

The Long Island Tweetup from last night appears to have been a big success. Pictures and other stuff can be found at LITweetup.com. That is cool that they have their own permanent web site.

The Globe and Mail reports a new bidder for the Coyotes who wants to keep it local.

From Bruce Dowbiggin at the Globe and Mail, "Well, if the media can call Michael Jackson a great humanitarian then we suppose murdered NFL QB Steve McNair - found dead next to his mistress - can be called an “inspiration to youth” by the same talking heads. May we all be afforded the same latitude."

From @PredPAPaul: Day 2 of conditioning camp.. Ellis looking good... Surprise is free agent Casey Wellman.

Darren Pang is leaving the Phoenix Coyotes broadcast booth to replace Bernie Federko in St. Louis. This is a real blow to those trying to maintain a stable face of the team in the midst of bankruptcy in Phoenix.