Predators Break Hearts and Return Home, POTG Radio Tonight, and Monday Round-Up

Last nights last second loss to the Ducks was a real heartbreaker for the team and for Predator fans. Had it been in the playoffs it would have been very similar to Nashville's game five loss in Chicago during last years post season.

It wasn't quite as much of a gut wrenching, heart stabbing, loss because it was a regular season game and frankly, it was the best game that the Predators had played in two weeks.

I asked the question on Friday whether it is better to win early and then go on a losing streak or to do the losing streak early and then go on a winning streak. I still don't have the answer but now that this streak is up to five games it is looking much more similar to last year's six game losing streak.

There have been blow outs, like Saturday, and then freak incidents like last night, much the same as last seasons streak. This game did appear to be similar to the Ottawa game where the Preds broke the slump last year but the Preds came out with the short stick this year instead of a streak breaking win.

Things do not get any easier this week with the Preds traveling to St. Louis on Thursday and then having the Blackhawks at home on Saturday. After that, they head back out on the road for four more games.

Preds-Ducks Wrap-Up...

The Tennessean went with the AP Story after the game but Josh Cooper picked up a couple of quotes at Inside Predators. Josh also added his postgame ponderings.

David Boclair has his story at The City Paper.

From the blog world reports come from Ryan Porth, Amanda DiPaolo, The View from 111, Dirk Hoag (with his advances stats), Jeremy Gover, AJ at PMFF, What the Puck, and Hockey Night in Nashville.

The other side of the story comes from Kat Kealy, J.P. Hoonstra, The Battle of California, the OC Register, Anaheim Calling, and the LA Times.

POTG Radio...

Tonight on POTG Radio, we will have Mark Willoughby from The View from 111 and Chris Block from the Third Man In.

Mark is very upset and will share his frustration with the Predators play of late. For a preview, you might want to check out his post from last night.

Chris has a great blog and has his own show on BTR and will discuss the Chicago Blackhawks season so far this year and what we might expect on Saturday when the Preds and Hawks meet.

Tune in at the following link at 7 p.m. Central or catch the show on iTunes.



In Preds Nation...

Jim Diamond connects the dots and shows how the Predators drafting Tomas Slovak in the 2001 Entry Draft led to the discovery of Shea Weber.

Jeremy Gover memorializes Barry Trotz's move into fifth place on the number of games with one team.

Michael Latta was the number one star of the day in Junior hockey after his hat trick against the Ottawa 67s.

The inevitable news came from @GoldenGopherHky: Coach Lucia just said Zach Budish has decided to have surgery on his right knee and will miss the rest of the year.

The Milwaukee Admirals beat Chicago 4-1 on Sunday in their last home game of the month.

Around the NHL...

Tonight's Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be highlighted by the first two women entering the hall. All the festivities can be seen on the NHL Network starting at 6:30 Central.

The Kings held their annual "Tip A King" fundraising event at Nokia Plaza yesterday and it looked like a blast from all the pictures on Twitter.

Phoenix captain Shane Doan will be out for an extened period with a lower body injury sustained in Friday's loss to Dallas. This is not good news for a team that has struggled early in their attempt to return to the playoffs.

Steve Lapore has the latest about the NHL's new TV deal that indicates that ESPN my be back in the picture.

Ryan Porth takes a look at applying the Olympic point system to the NHL in each season going back to the lockout. On SC finalist wouldn't have even made the playoffs.

Mathieu Garon appears to have supplanted Steve Mason in Columbus once again.

Copper and Blue looks at players on their Entry Level Contracts across the league.

Ken Campbell lists a bunch of curious money matters in a post at The Hockey News. As usual he skews the context on the one involving the Predators.

From last week, Bob McKenzie has a really good story about 38 year old Kory Karlander who is the oldest active player in the ECHL.

Odds and Ends...

Kelly Slater captured his 10th ASP World Championship over the weekend when he won the Rip Curl Pro in Puerto Rico. This is an accomplishment that is unparalleled in any individual sport compilation. Here's more from his hometown paper.

The Rockey Mountain Roller Girls beat Oly in a bout that came down to the last skate to be decided to win the WFTDA National Championships in Chicago.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass