Hump Day Highlights

Today we will start out with a bit of shameless self promotion. A couple of weeks ago I got a rather innocent looking email from Jeff Klein who is one of the writers for the New York Times Hockey Blog, Slap Shot. It was an invitation to become the Predators contributor to Slap Shot's Hockey Night in Blogdom project. Of course we said that we would love to.

The project has a blogger from each of the NHL's thirty teams that will answer questions and check in at different points during the season. The first posts went up on Tuesday in the form of a series of questions and all thirty folks responded. Here is the Western Conference post and also the one from the East.

There are a bunch of great writers represented here, several of which I have gotten to know over Twitter. As a part of our Aggregator side venture, I put together the Slap Shot Hockey Night in Blogdom Aggregator so that all thirty sites could be seen at once.

There are a wide variety of sites, a few from SB Nation, a couple from Kukla's, and a bunch of purely independent sites like ours. Go to the Aggregator link and check them out.

It looks like it will be a fun project to be involved with and hopefully will be an avenue to "spread the gospel of Predator hockey to the four corners of the hockey world," which is one of the primary goals of POTG.

Our poll on the Preds Goal Song continues with Tim McGraw in a commanding lead. Our friend @jodystapley had an interesting idea - "I say switch it up..."skills to pay the bills" for @sully26 , "scarface" for #19, "slim shady" for #25, hotstepper for #10 I'm da sh-t for #22, Weapons of Mass Destruction for #71, Regulate for #3, Get up for #11, Cobrastyle for #28 Damn if Feels Good to be a Gangster for #6, American boy for #20, Problem Child for #2 Supermassive Black Hole for @dellis39 ;) ...you get my point ;)". @predsgirl chips in with "The wall for @dellis39." Look to the right column to cast a vote if you haven't already.

In Pred Nation...

John Glennon brings some clarity to the confusion on Tuesday about Cal O'Reilly being placed on waivers. Other teams have until 11 a.m. today to claim him off the waiver wire. Here is our story with the official release from the Predators from yesterday.

Admiral's Short Shifts tries to make sense of the waiver rules in discussing the Cal O'Reilly situation.

Jim Diamond gives accolades to three Predator college prospects who have been mentioned in preseason college honors.

Forchecker gives his Western Conference picks. Could the East be far behind?

AJ at Pull My Fang Finger has his take on the Gretzky situation. As usual, it is a great read.

Colin Wilson, at 19, is the only Predator player listed in the Top 50 Prospects at Hockey's Future. Here's the links to 1-10, 11-25, and 26-50.

HockeyBuzz Radio returns tonight with a season preview with new co-host Pete Weber. Guests will be Peter McNab and Bill Clement. Paul McCann also has his Predator preview today at Hockey Buzz.

As part of the new Smashville campaign that we discussed yesterday, the Preds have also put out some cool wallpaper for your computer based on this year's theme.

Around the NHL...

NHL.com is running a contest where you can win a trip for two to any NHL game (excluding the Winter Classic). You must be on Twitter and following @NHL to play. Follow the link for details.

In a major pre-season fail, the Chicago Blackhawks lost to the Zurich Lions 2-1 giving the Swiss team the Victoria Cup Championship.

After his appearance on Monday's POTG Radio, Ryan at the RedLightDistrict has finalized his Division by Division, team by team picks.

A source in Sweden has now confirmed what Michelle Kenneth has been saying all Summer, that Mats Sundin is retiring. Michelle has pointed out that Mats has a poker contract that would have prevented him from playing this season.

The Forechecker reported that Behind the Net has now moved to SB Nation. The best analyst in hockey stats has now joined one of the best sports sites out there.

Congrats to Twitter friend Larry Halliday who has moved to HockeyBuzz as the Coyote correspondent. Larry goes by the Twitter moniker @HKYFN and has been one of the better trial tweeters over the Summer in Phoenix.

From @TSNBobMcKenzie: "Free agent Maxim Afinogenov has earned a spot on the Atlanta Thrashers, who are in the process of getting a contract done."

Frozen Notes points us to a few pictures on the Blues site from Sweden. David is also a fellow contributor to the NYT Hockey Night in Blogdom.

From @walsha: "DirecTV now says that it may carry Versus w/out new agreement in place. I hear DirecTV has incurred wrath of hockey fans and losing subs. DirecTV won't say how many subs have cancelled service, word is they are bleeding and desperate to get Versus back by start of NHL season."

The Program's Chris Wassel bashes ESPN for some really bizarre picks in their initial power rankings.

As we discussed on our podcast on Monday, Cody Hodgson is being returned to Juniors.

Our friends Chris and Adrian have a new video at the Hockey Zen where they interview Dan Wildfong, the head coach of the 2009 CHL Champions, Texas Brahmas. This is the first time that they have Skyped a guest onto their monitor for a visit. Interesting technology for the guys.

More Later...

PredsOnTheGlass