Preds and Blues Both Hope to Bounce Back Tonight and Thursday Thoughts

Salute to the Veterans

As has become an annual tradition on Veterans Day, I defer to Mark Willoughby for today's post to honor our troops and veterans. Mark writes another excellent piece so follow the link and enjoy his tribute. Jim Diamond also points you to a great Veterans Day Tribute from 2006 which points out the importance of the Derek Hines Unsung Hero Award given out by the NCAA.
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The Nashville Predators (5-5-3) return to the ice tonight in St. Louis to play the Blues (9-2-2) for the third time this season. The Preds are looking for the hockey gods to give them favor so they can right the ship that has seen them fall from first to 13th in the tough Western Conference.

Before last night's 8-1 shellacking in Columbus, the Blues only regulation loss was to the Predators in a 4-3 game on October 14. The Blues in turn, gave the Preds their first regulation loss in a 3-0 shutout on October 28 which was the start of Nashville's current five game losing streak.

The Predators went on to lose to Detroit, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Anaheim after the team's last meeting with the Blues.

The Blues have become one of the darlings of the Western Conference as they rode the hot hand of Jaroslav Halak who was 8-1-1, 1.46, .944 before he gave up four goals on 16 shots in last night's debacle against the Blue Jackets.

It is unclear who will start in net tonight for the Blues as backup Ty Conklin also got pummeled last night. The Preds will go with Pekka Rinne (2-4-2, ,910, 3.01) who hopes to return to his early season form after losing 4 games in a row and giving up sixteen goals in the process.

Injured Predators Ryan Suter, Marty Erat, and Matthew Lombardi did not make the quick overnight trip to St. Louis and there is no timetable for their return.

Late word from last night was that T.J. Osie suffered a broken ankle that will require surgery. Oshie was the Blues' leading point producer with a goal and nine assists. The Blues also are without Barret Jackman, Roman Polak, and Carlo Colaiacovo who has been out since being hit by Jordin Tootoo in the last meeting.

While many fear a backlash from the Blue after a sound beat down on Wednesday, it is rare for a very hot team not to go int a bit of a slide one a streak is broken. To me, it looks like the table is set for the Predators to start their comeback trail and make the best of the next couple of weeks as they prepare for plenty of home games after Thanksgiving.

Other Preds-Blues previews come from Amanda Dipaolo, Chris Burton, The Tennessean, and Predators.com.

Check out the Post-Dispatch, BlueNote Zone, Frozen Notes, and St. Louis Game Time for Blues news.

In Pred Nation...

Josh Cooper has the latest thoughts from David Poile. He also has the injury updates which continue to be day to day on Erat and Suter and no time soon for Lombardi. Josh also has a piece this morning on the Preds-Blues rivalry and a notes column highlighted by Frankie Bouillon wearing the "A."

Colin Wilson steps in for his weekly blog and tells of a celebrity moment when he met Kevin Connolly from the TV show Entourage.

The Predators and the Tennessee Lottery have teamed up on a promotion where you can get discounts on Preds tickets with your losing Powerball tickets.

Section 303's podcast, the 303:30 has been nominated for the prestigious AIR Awards in the best locally produced podcast category. Click here for details.

Dirk Hoag has an interesting poll as to what Barry Trotz should do in the absence of the three injured Preds. Segei Kostitsyn seems to be the solution of choice. You can also vote on the OTF play of the week.

Here are the updated Movember pictures for the Predators. Another well known mustache bit the dust when Yanni cut his Mo for the cause.

Jordin Tootoo was on Puck Daddy Radio yesterday. Go here to listen.

Ryan Ellis was named co-captain for Team OHL in the Subway Super Series that will play their first game against the Russians tonight. Ex-Pred Dan Hamhuis was named honorary captain of Team WHL for their game against the Russians in Prince George on November 18.

From @NHLPredsInsider: From David Poile and Paul Fenton in Windsor: Ryan Ellis breaks franchise's dman points record with an OT goal

Mike MacDonald asks if it is time for a coaching change with the Preds. It's not going to happen based on this little bump in the road. The Predators will be back.

Paul McCann's entertaining salute to the movie Slapshot from last night is now up on podcast.

The Milwaukee Admirals and the Grand Rapids Griffins played 65 minutes of scoreless hockey before the Ads won the shootout 2-1. Mark Dekanich stopped 35 shots and then two of three in the shoot out for the win, boosting his record to 7-1-1 for the season.

Around the NHL...

Details of the new NHL All-Star game format were released. The fact that the game is being discussed at all in November is a big win for the marketing folks. It should do well this year but will have a short shelf life going forward.

Matt Reitz has interesting commentary on the new format at View From My Seats.

Patrick Hoffman interviews Aron Papernick aka the Paperboy of NHL Home Ice's Hockey This Morning. We don't get enough of him on the show so this was a treat.

Jon Jordan has an update on the Bolts after their win over Toronto and has good things to say about ex-Pred Dan Ellis who has two shutouts so far this year.

As much as Pred fans are worried about the injury situation, the Avalanche has ten players on the injury list.

One more time, there are reports of a new potential comeback by Peter Forsberg. Dater loves these stories.

NHL GameCenter Live is now available on the Roku and Boxee players as well as the PlayStation 3. I love our Roku and would have preferred to go this route instead of the Center Ice Package. This should have been announced in September.

Intent to Blow has news of a huge bonus that is now due to Derek Boogaard since he scored a goal. This will bust the cap for the Rangers.

Finally, how bad are things in New Jersey? This is what their $100 million man did to end the game in the shootout last night. This video is not for the squeamish.

Odds and Ends...

Do you think your boss has a personality disorder? According to this story they probably do.

I knew our Northern Tissue was getting smaller. Here is why.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass