POTG Radio Winter Classic Preview Podcast and Much More

Programming Note: I will appear on NHL Home Ice XM 204 this morning on The War Room with Mick Kern and Peter Berce in a segment during the second half hour of the show after 10:40 a.m. CST. The topic will be blogging which is pretty wide open, so we will see what my first appearance on national radio will bring.

POTG Radio Podcast...

Last night's POTG Radio special Winter Classic Edition was an enjoyable show to do. I spent the entire hour talking to Inside Hockey's Tim Rosenthal about the upcoming game and all the events surrounding the NHL's biggest annual event (outside of the playoffs).

We covered all angles of the Winter Classic from the teams participating, to the potential weather, and all the logistics and planning that have gone into making the game happen.





In Pred Nation...

John Glennon reported at Inside Predators that there will not be a call-up for tonight's game as Wade Belak will start against the Physical St Louis Blues. He also has a story about the dreadful Predator special teams and a game at a glance for tonight's match between the Preds and Blues.

Jim Diamond urges the Preds to close out 2009 with a pair of wins at The Examiner.

Hockey's Future has a mid-season update on Predator prospects. An injury free Colin Wilson would be a nice shot in the arm to the Preds right now. Anyone have a magic wand?

The Milwaukee Admirals rolled over Grand Rapids 5-2 lat night. Short Shifts has the story.

Forechecker is taking a poll of the biggest Pred's story of the year. I voted Sully for Masterton but I'm biased because I was there to see it.

Steve Sullivan was on NHL Live yesterday. Sully discussed growing up playing outdoors, the Pred's team make-up, his recovery from back surgery, playing for Barry Trotz, Brent Peterson and his best Christmas present.

The Predators have a special going for Saturday's home game with the Ducks. The first 100 people to go here and purchase tickets and enter the special offer code TOOTOO will get an invitation to a special meet and greet with Jordin, himself before the game.

The Wade's World video featuring Wade Belak and various Preds is now up on the Preds site. I'm surprised more folks didn't complain about the the part about eating dogs.

Eric LaForge questions the Pred's defense at Bleacher Report.

Preds101 is looking for a few questions to explain to new hockey fans. If you ever had something that you weren't clear about, now is the time to ask.

At the World Junior Championships...

Monday was a slow day at the tournament with only two games. Canada (wearing their green third jersey) beat Switzerland 6-0 while Russia beat Finland 2-0.

The Predator prospect page is updated with yesterday's results.

Puck the Media has a positive review of the NHL Network coverage.

The Hockey Zen has a new World Junior page with videos.

Today will have a full schedule with the following games on the NHL Network:

USA vs. Latvia 3 p.m. (CST)
Sweden vs. Russia 5 p.m.
Canada vs. Slovakia 7 p.m.

Winter Classic News...

In a Monday announcement, the NHL said the The Dropkick Murphys will play and Daniel Powter and James Taylor would perform the anthems at the Winter Classic. The Murphys are a solid addition to the Boston event. In a bit of over kill, the NHL set up a James Taylor microsite. I'm sorry that I'm not a James Taylor fan. It seems to me that the NHL could get bigger named entertainment to draw in non-fans. Where did they dig up Chaka Khan at last year's award show?

James Murphy writes on the weather for the Winter Classic at NESN.

Puck the Media has a ratings prediction for this year's event. He also has NBC's final Press Release with facts about the game.

Icethetics speculates on next year's venue and teams.

Around the NHL...

It doesn't get any better than Puck Daddy's Best stories of 2009.

In a trade on Monday the Caps sent Captain Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina to Columbus in exchange for Jason Chimera. The biggest issue that remains is who will be the Washington Captain. Few seem to think Ovechkin is the man for the job.

Michelle Kenneth's in depth article about the misunderstood goon, George Laraque is now up at Inside Hockey. It's a great story that covers many aspects of Laraque's career on and off the ice.

Interesting Tweet from @BlueJacketsBuzz: "In a small media scrum with Scott Howson who was asked when the last time he talked to Filatov, he said "When he left." I guess he left on as good a terms as Radulov did.

After a week off #SaturdayNHLPicks is back.

Al Cimaglia has an excellent piece on blogging and accountability at Hockey Independent.

Michael Langlois has a look at how the Leafs may evolve in the next few years.

Bruce Hollingdrake starts a three part series on the situation in Columbus.

Our friend Russ Cohen has a nice piece on John Tavares at Sportsology.

Randy Workman interviews the Yotes Diva, Heather McWhorter.


How Did I Miss This...

Vince Vaughn dropped the puck at the Preds-Hawks game on Sunday and FS TN did not show it.



Vaughn was in one of the greatest "Hockey" scenes in a movie in the Jon Favreau classic from 1996, Swingers, that featured a fight over a video game with the Blackhawks and Kings as participants. Here is the scene (caution R-rated).



On the Twitter front... The Top 10 Most Important Tweets of 2009.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass