First up this week, we will have Mark Willoughby from the View from 111 who will have a special announcement about a hockey related NHLTweetUp event for Nashville flood relief. This is something that he has been working on for a week or so and is starting to take shape. He will have details on the date, location and how folks can get involved.
Then, we will then have Su Ring of the Daily Su Hockey Blog. Su has an interesting background and has recently started a new show on BTR. She lives in Seattle and has a different view of the hockey world living in the heart of the Western Hockey League but still following NHL action.
We look forward to tonight's show and hope you can join us at the link below or on iTunes. Should you miss the live show, it's always available on podcast.
Yesterday's Playoff Action...
With the conference finals starting on both coasts yesterday we could not have had two games that were any more polar opposites. One was everything you would ever want in a playoff game and the other was everything you don't want to see.
In the Western Conference opener, Chicago and San Jose squared off in an all out skate-a-thon with both teams providing constant end to end action that was incredibly thrilling to watch. There have been few games that were more fun to watch than this one.
Antti Niemi's performance in goal ranks up there with the best we have seen in this year's playoffs. Other than one he let in early on a Shark's power play, he stopped the other 44 Shark's shots, many in an acrobatic fashion.
In spite of Chicago being out penalized 5-0, they were able to pull off a 2-1 victory with Dustin Byfuglien getting the game winner with under seven minutes left in the third period. San Jose will be in serious trouble if they don't find a way to win in game two on Tuesday night.
The Eastern Conference game was a horse of a different color. During the first period, the game looked like it would be competitive. The Flyers scored first, but Montreal was putting shots on net.
Three quick second period Philadelphia goals sent Jaroslav Halak to the showers and the rout was on. The final 6-0 score was indicative of the lopsided play. Michael Leighton's perfect performance, stopping 28 shots, was somewhat over looked by the impressive scoring from the Flyers offense.
When the teams meet again in the early game on Tuesday, I think we will see a much different contest.
Memorial Cup Weekend Action...
Friday night, Windsor overwhelmed the hometown Brandon Wheat Kings in an impressive 9-3 victory. Pred's prospect Ryan Ellis was +2 but had no points.
On Saturday, Calgary scored four third period goals to come back and beat Moncton 5-4. The other Pred's prospect Gabrial Bourque showed zeros across the score sheet.
Yesterday, Moncton failed to score in a 4-0 loss to the Wheat Kings. Bourque again had zeros in all categories.
Tonight's game will match Windsor and Calgary in a critical match of unbeatens in round robin action. The game is the only live hockey action available in the US TV market and will kick off on the NHL Network at 7:00 CDT.
World Championship Update...
Team USA has caught fire in the relegation round of the World Championships, beating Kazakhstan 1o-0 on Saturday and France by a 4-0 score on Sunday. This assures the US of not being relegated to second tier status next year. The US will play their final game on Tuesday against Italy.
In games that matter, Pekka Rinne threw a 2-0 shutout at Belarus on Friday.
Switzerland and Russia remain the only unbeaten teams in the tournament standings. Canada lost another game, this time to Sweden 3-1 on Sunday.
Today's Games
Finland - Slovakia 9:15am
Norway -Switzerland 9 am
Belarus -Denmark 1:15pm
Czech Republic -Latvia 1:15pm
Programming Note...
We were busy Saturday appearing on a couple of preview shows on BTR. Early in the day, I co-hosted RedLightDistrict Radio with Ryan Porth with guests Brian Metzer of From The Point and The Fourth Period's Dennis Bernstein. It was a really good show with keen insight from Brian and Dennis.
Later into the night, I had a much less coherent visit with the Godfather on SportsTalk Soup Radio where I went sol previewing both conference finals.
In Pred Nation...
Jim Diamond has an update on Pred's prospect Nick Oliver and his decision to play another year with the Fargo Force in the USHL.
We boldly made our third round predictions yesterday. Mark Willoughby did too.
Dirk Hoag is up early today with his news and links including a story about the NCAA making hockey more dangerous.
Chris Burton at On The Forecheck follows up on the Predator's captaincy issue after a flood delay.
In an article at SI, Allan Muir has both Ryan Ellis and Gabriel Bourque listed as top prospects to watch at the Memorial Cup.
Three former Milwaukee Admirals are still active in pursuit of the cup. Eleven former Admirals have raised the cup.
Admirals Short Shifts continues their "best of" series with a piece on nicknames.
Now that the Preds are locked in with the 18th pick at next month's entry draft, John Glennon looks at past #18's for comparison.
Patrick Hoffman lets the cat out of the bag that we owe him an interview at Kukla's Korner.
Around the NHL...
Puck the Media gives a lot of love to The Daily Line on what they have been doing to make sports fun after Versus hockey telecasts.
Here is a clip from Friday from the Fan 990 in which Ice Edge's Daryl Jones commented on the Globe and Mail's David Shoalts. Five for Howling has more on Shoalt's faux pas.
One of the St. Louis Blues investor groups is divesting their assets in the team. The remaining owners do not see an issue and are seeking additional investors.
It was a sad day for Brian Metzer at From the Point as the Pens were gathering for the locker clean out. He has several other posts at his site with final comments from Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, Sergei Gonchar and Dan Bylsma.
Mirtle has a story of the grueling journey that Keith Tkachuk is undergoing in trying to put his mouth back together. He also has a chart comparing the sizes of the final eight teams. I have been mistakenly saying that the Flyers were bigger than the Habs and it is not true.
Matt Reitz has his weekly piece prepping us for next month's entry draft.
Odds and Ends...
Here are foreign Google logos that aren't shown in the US (unless you have an IP masker).
Just when you think society can become more depraved than it currently is, there's always someone to one up the status quo. Dalia Kurtz exposes a real life "Virgin Auction" for reality TV that has been moved to Las Vegas to avoid prosecution for prostitution.
Finally, it's Monday so big news is that Lindsay Lohan threw a drink at a table with Sean Avery. I gues the big news is that he didn't punch her.
More Later...
Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass
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