POTG Podcast, Pred-Stars Preview, and Tuesday Tidbits

Last night's POTG Radio is now up in podcast form by going to the player below or listening on iTunes.

The show was an extended edition since there was too much to cover in the initial hour of the show. It featured Travis Hair of Five For Howling who covers the the Phoenix Coyotes and Matt Reitz of View From My Seats who follows the the LA Kings, and writes about hockey in general.

It was a fun show with wide ranging discussion that covered all aspects of the Coyotes and Kings as well as many other topics of interest in the Western Conference. With the Kings and Yotes being rivals, there was good natured ribbing as you would expect.

We hope that you will check out the show. It was a fun one to do and I think you will enjoy the discussion.




Preds-Stars Preview

The Preds play the Dallas Stars for the first time since Halloween tonight at the Bridgestone Center.

In another of the numerous quirks in the schedule, the Predators played the Stars three times in October and have not played them since. The Preds won 3-2 on opening night in Dallas, went back there 11 day s later and got white washed 6-0, and then defeated the Stars 4-2 at home on Halloween night.

The game will be a match of teams headed in different directions. The Stars find themselves on the outside looking up, nine points behind Detroit with with ten games left to play. The Preds are in sixth place with 89 points and are scrambling for position in the crowded middle of the Western Conference race.

Predators Keys To The Game

Don't Read the News...

The internet has been full of stories about Pekka being first star of the week and what a great run the Predators are on. The team needs to block out all the accolades and remember how they got there in the first place. Looking at accomplishments can wait until the summer.

Step Up for Injured Comrades...

Injuries are playing an active part in the process as you would expect toward the end of a long hard race. Joel Ward appears lost for a week and Jason Arnott probably won't be at full strength if he returns. Once again, it is time for everyone to step up and fill the voids left by folks who aren't on the ice.

Play a Full 60 Minutes...

This sounds like a broken record (does anyone remember what that means, maybe a scratched CD), but the Preds cannot afford to take any shifts off. The Stars are a desperate team and would like nothing moe than to knock off the Preds. Historically, Dallas has always given the Preds fits and tonight will be no different.

The other side of the game tonight can bee seen at The Dallas Star Telegram and the Dallas Morning News.

Programming Note...

I will again be co-hosting Ryan Porth's Red Light District Radio on BTR today at Noon Central. Ryan reports that "we'll talk of the streaking Coyotes and Predators, along with our top breakout players from this season. Bill Kellett, a British Columbia junior hockey scout, will be our guest... we'll touch on some prospects and the Canucks, who he follows closely. Anthony Curatolo from The Hockey Guys will also be making an appearance. A late addition to our lineup is Joe Gladziszewski from InsideCollegeHockey.com. We'll discuss the upcoming NCAA tournament. It should be a great, jampacked show!!

In Pred Nation...

In addition to being the NHL First star, Pekka Rinne received the THN Player of the Week honor.

John Glennon discusses the impact of the Pred's younger players and has the Game at a Glance. John also has the update on Jason Arnott and Joel Ward.

Hockey's Future continues with positions 11-25 of their Spring top 50. This group includes Colin Wilson and Jon Blum.

David Boclair has more on Pekka's latest success.

Paul McCann has a post about the road trip to St. Louis that he organized.

Chris Burton looks at how much the Preds will have to pony up to keep Patric Hornqvist for next season. He also has his game day preview for tonight's Preds-Stars game.

Ryan at the RLD projects the Preds to finish sixth and play Vancouver in this week's Stretch Run.

Around the NHL...

Ken Campbell at The Hockey News has another stir the pot article that someone locally will pick up on and run with with more "Preds Leaving Town" headlines right during the middle of potentially one of the best runs in franchise history.

Adam Schwartz at looks at the Western Conference race at Inside Hockey.

AJ pointed us to a story about Brittanie Cecil, who was killed by a puck at a Blue Jackets game in 2002. Her legacy in the NHL are the high nets that have become standard in all arena end zones.

The bottom fell out in the ratings for NBC's Sunday Bruins-Ranger's match. When the game was announced it appeared to be a real groaner and it was against NCAA basketball so it should not be completely unexpected.

The Flyers got another blow with word that Jeff Carter has a broken foot, most likely ending his season.

Voting continues for the weekly winners of the Ultimate Leader Sweepstakes and award that will eventually lead to the Messier Trophy.

The producers of Forgotten Miracle and Pond Hockey have a College Hockey Picks Tournament. Pick your brackets to win prizes.

Kevin Greenstein talks dirty hits and respect at Inside Hockey TV.

One of the longest fights I've ever seen was during Saturday's Blues-Devils game between Cam Janssen and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond. It went on for almost two minutes with plenty of good blows.

Odds and Ends...

From @ApoloOhno: CRAZY @juliannehough I might be taking a detour through Nashville for a meeting..I'll be there for less than 1 day...are you around!@@??? Look for the paparazzi to spot Apolo Ohno.

The last three versions of the Tennessee Blue Book are online. This is the who's who of folks in Tennessee state government.

Maybe someone else is as slow as I am and will find this post on how to make notes on your Blackberry while you are on a call.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass