Thursday Morning Predators Update

Tonight's game between the Preds and Blues in St. Louis will be a big test for both teams.

For the Preds, we will see how they come back from a stunning loss in the last minute in San Jose late Tuesday.

For the Blues, it will be a test to see how they return after a blowout big win over Vancouver on Tuesday that ended a five game losing streak.

We will look at the game breakdown in more detail later today.

We also expect to see a roster move prior to tonight's game with the return of J. P. Dumont. John Glennon speculates that Dave Scatchard may be the one but also considers Andreas Thuresson and Mike Santorelli.

In Pred Nation...

John Glennon confirms the news that J. P. Dumont should return for the Preds game in ST. Louis tonight. He also has updated attendance figures that show that the Preds are slightly ahead of last year through six games.

From @NHLPredsInsider: "Dumont rejoins the team in STL. He will probably play tomorrow, which may mean the 26-19-71 line is together for the 1st time since game 1."

Jim Diamond discusses the Forbes story that places the Predators at 27th in the NHL in franchise value. He also discusses that the figures are a complete shot in the dark. Forechecker comments on a throw away line about the Preds owners wanting to sell. This will be headlines in the Tennessean soon, I'm sure.

Puck Daddy addresses the issues of Mixed Martial Arts fighting that David Poile is pushing at the GM meetings. The Tootoo-Staubiz debacle of last year is the poster child for these tactics.

Around the league...

At day two of the GM's meetings very little was done other than a decision to further study the "head shot" rules. Ken Campbell of THN doesn't see any changes on the horizon. Colin Campbell will be on the NHL Hour today with Gary Bettman so he should give his take on head shots as well.

Ryan at the RedLightDistrict has a prediction for what Team USA will look like. I think this is a good guess at what the team will look like but I don't see them making the medal round this time.

SB Nation makes the list of top 25 most valuable blogs. Congrats to Dirk, Mirtle and the rest of the great SB bloggers.

Defending Big D has a look at Dallas' attendance and compares it to the other Sun Belt teams. This is definitely going to be a tough year for all with unemployment over 10% and rising.

Another day, another leaked third jersey at Icethetics... this time it's the Panthers.

Adrian Dater has a video of Matt Duchene at the morning skate in Chicago. He's not concerned about his mini-slump.

Along those same lines, Matt Reitz has an extensive article about Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly.

Off Topic but a classic Tweet faux pass...
17:20 RT @RWZombie: Dallas! We are here to destroy. You better be f---ing ready to get it on!
17:24 RT @RWZombie: Actually we are in Houston. We won't be destroying Dallas for another 48 hours. My life is a blur. HOUSTON ARE YOU READY!?
(haven't we seen this in a commercial before?)

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass