James also writes at Jerseys and Hockey Love and covers a bunch of stuff related to his extensive work related travels from all across North America. James is currently hanging out in the beautiful Winter Olympic city of Vancouver.
Tonight, we will cover a wide range of topics that can best be described as an off season potpourri of news and discussion from the hockey world. James and I had planned to get together in Los Angeles and only saw each other briefly so this will be the conversation that we never got to have.
Please join us at 7:00 CDT at the link below or on iTunes for what promises to be an hour of good off season hockey entertainment.
In Pred Nation...
The Predators have had two prospects at the Team USA Junior evaluation camp in Lake Placid, New York. Austin Watson and Zach Budish hope to make the team that will play against the World starting December 26 in Buffalo. The US Juniors will play games all week against the Finnish and Swedish Junior teams. Pred's draftee Patrick Cehlin will represent Sweden.
Jim Diamond has more on the Pred's prospects at the camp and the information on the cuts expected later today.
The guys at Nashville Sports Potpourri dropped a new podcast on us yesterday with some great off season Preds discussion. Great job guys.
Forechecker's weekend topic was "What kind of player do teams always chase that turn out to be busts." Dirk also had translated storied on Linus Klasen's body fat and Patrick Hornqvist nearing a contract with the Preds.
Predlines recounts her first Predator playoff experience in 2004. Fond memories indeed. They also finish up their off season Losses and Gaines posts with part four in the series.
PredsBlog disputes the Legwand - Erat "chemistry" myth with plenty of facts an figures.
Mystery, Alaska was on tap at Rachel's What the Puck summer hockey movie night over the weekend.
From @NHLPredsInsider: Just saw Train Camp #s. Among newcomers-Lombardi 15, Parent 77, Kostitsyn 74, Andersson 28, Halischuk 24, Lundmark 21, Lindback 39 Klasen 58
Kovi's Korner...
Nothing new to report on the Kovalchuk front over the weekend other than it looks like the arbitration hearing will be on Wednesday with veteran arbitrator Richard Bloch as the master of ceremonies.
Larry Brooks compared the Kovulchuk case to that of several players in 2003 where the NHL claimed that signing bonuses were circumventing the CBA leading up to the lockout.
Around the NHL...
Our good friend Ryan Porth of the Red Light District was the featured guest on the Puck Daddy series of Five reasons why different folks love hockey.
The result of the Antti Niemi's arbitration was revealed to be $2.75 million on Saturday. We should find out today if Chicago accepts the figure or lets Niemi become a free agent. It's not as much as Niemi had wanted but seems like a figure that the Hawks should be able to live with.
There were unconfirmed reports from last night that the Hawks had signed Marty Turco and were ready to walk away from Antti Niemi. Today, we will find out for sure.
There are also late-night unconfirmed reports of the Rangers picking up Todd White from Atlanta.
In one of the oddest pieces on news over the weekend, the Canadian Green party named Georges Laraque a deputy leader of the party. My only direct encounter with Laraque was rather bizarre and can be seen in this video.
Who gets Michelle Kenneth's "Most Distinguished NHL Gentleman Award?"
It's been almost a year since the NHLPA canned Paul Kelly. Bob Wage has an update.
Phil Esposito may get a bigger role with the Lightning. I hope it doesn't interfere with his XM Home Ice gig. I would really miss hearing him on the Power Play over the summer.
The Hockey Writers takes a look at the value of different franchise's Stanley Cup success in an equalized formula. This is interesting.
Ryan at the RLD looks at Boston's prickly cap situation.
Mike Chen finds some interesting hockey items on Ebay.
Winning the Cup doesn't always lead to riches. The Blackhawks finished in the red last season.
Canada's next Sportscaster, Launy Schwartz, is going to star with his wife, Dahlia Kurtz, in a new TLC reality show called The Medium Couple. Why not? Mediocre is rare.
Odds and Ends...
Over the weekend, I became fully immersed in the X-Games 16. This year's version seemed to be better done than in the past and the move to LA Live appeared to be a big success. It is hard to believe how much the sports have advanced since the Dogtown pool skating days of the mid seventies.
More Later...
Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass
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