Thursday Thoughts in Pred Land

Preds and Dads on the Plane (from Preds Insider)

The Nashville Predators along with their dads left Nashville early Wednesday for the quick two game trip to Phoenix and Colorado. From the following couple of Tweets it appears that Darren Panger steered the group to the Arrowhead Grill for a nice dinner.

@Sullivan26: "@Panger40 Thanks for the great suggestion.... Our father's dinner at Arrowhead Grill in Glendale was very good"

@dellis39: "@Panger40 great call panger. I had two bone in filets. Outstanding!!!"

Hopefully the well fed Predators will be up for the task in their first game of the season with the new look Phoenix Coyotes tonight when the puck drops at 8 p.m. Central. We will post our game preview and Keys to the Game later today.

In Pred Nation...

Bryan Mullen takes a look at the Preds and their two opponents, the Coyotes and Avalanche and how they have been successful this year. The Tennessean also has the Game at a Glance for tonight's game.

David Boclair at the City Paper has the story of Nick Spalling and why he is the last rookie forward to still be with the big club.

Jim Diamond has a post on the Preds heading west with high expectations playing on the road.

Derek Perez has an introduction to the Smashville Express in a new blog From the Front Row at the Preds site. There is also a new video that captures the season highlights so far. It is a good one.



Forechecker linked to a Globe and Mail article by David Shoalts which Dirk calls "meddling, pure and simple". Rusty Lawrence's ineptitude on the Predators situation should be grounds for his removal from the process.

Mark at The View from 111 also has some words of advice for David Shoalts.

I emailed David Shoalts yesterday about his article and received a nice response where he was positive about the crowd on Monday when he was in attendance.

Dirk also has an interview with Pred prospect Taylor Beck of the Guelph Storm.

Jeremy Gover looks at the possibilities now that Kevin Klein has been re-signed.

The Hockey News places Dan Ellis and Pekka Rinne in their top ten UFAs this year. Dan Hamhuis was not mentioned. This probably raises their value a bit.

Barry Trotz was on The Power Play with Scott Laughlin on XM204. Here is the interview.

Chris Burton has Five Questions with Travis Hair (Coyote Blogger).

Paul McCann has a new edition of Hockey Buzz Radio up with Craig Custance and Phoenix analyst Bob Heethuis.

Short Shifts has a mid term report card for Milwaukee forwards. Colin Wilson is trending positively with points in six of the last eight games.

J P Hoornstra has a fun story about Dan Ellis' first ECHL All-Star game.

Here's an injury update on the Avs where the Preds will play tomorrow night.

Around the NHL...

Here's an oddity in Montreal when Carey Price comes out after the puck and gets into it with Cam Janssen.



Congrats to Chris Wassel and the Program on their third birthday week celebration!

Interesting stats from the Globe on man games lost per team. Surprisingly, there is not a direct correlation to injuries and points gained from top to bottom on the list.

This is the big weekend for the US Pond Hockey Championships on Lake Nokomis in Minnesota on January 22-24. This is the tournament that was the basis for the movie Pond Hockey. If you haven't seen the movie, it is available here on Snag Films.

Russ Cohen has a nice obituary/eulogy for John Halligan, a 2007 Lester Patric Award winner who passed away. Here's another one from NHL.com.

From @NHLdilo: "We'll be having a full, free preview of @NHL GameCenter Live on January 26. There will be 7 games that night (minus the #RedWings #Coyotes)"

Ryan at the RLD looks at the Top Five Coaches on the hot seat. If Brent Sutter's last name was anything else, he'd be gone too.

Puck The Media has an interview with Adrian Dater. I didn't realize that Dater was a Bettman guy.

From @mirtle: "Chris Chelios is plus 22 in 32 AHL games. Probably could help some team in the NHL". If the Preds trade a D-man and need an experienced 6/7 man, this is our guy!

The Stanley Cup was misplaced by Air Canada over the weekend and went to Toronto instead of Vancouver.

Vintage Leaf Memories has a few interesting links to sites and past articles that is worth a look.

Episode 59.2 of the Rink Podcast is now up. It's always a good listen.

Video on what happens when your spandex is too tight.

Off Topic... America's 75 worst commutes are described at the Daily Beast. I was really surprised that many were in places that you would not expect. I-40 in Nashville downtown is #44

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass