Predators Ready for Battle of The South and Monday Links

Note: There will be no POTG Radio tonight due to the game.

The Nashville Predators (12-8-5) head to Atlanta, riding the crest of a three game winning streak and will try to extend that run to a season high fourth win in a row against the Thrashers (14-10-3) tonight at Phillips Arena at 6 p.m. Central.

Saturday's five goals in the 5-2 win over Carolina was also a season high. The Predators penalty kill unit extended their streak to 34 kills in a row covering the last nine plus games.

It will be interesting to see how Anders Lindback reacts to his second start in a row as a number one NHL goalie in Pekka Rinne's absence which is expected to cover the better part of December.

The Thrashers have been playing well lately and are one of the leagues hottest teams, winning seven of their last eight. They have also won five in a row at home and boast that their PK unit is 29 for 31 over their last eight games.

Per Josh Cooper, David Legwand is on the two game road trip which concludes on Wednesday in Detroit. He is not expected to play tonight but is possible against Detroit, which is a team where he has had success over his career.

The Thrashers are one of three teams that the Preds will play home and away games with this season. The others are Carolina and Florida. The Preds are 3-0-1 with Southeast division foes so far this season, with the lone blemish bring against Washington early in the year.

With Atlanta's dreadful attendance, the bus load of 65 Predator's fans going with the Section 303 gang should be audible on the Predator's broadcast tonight. It is a shame that the game is on a Monday and not a Saturday night when many more would have attended.

Other Predator previews come from Amanda DiPaolo and The Tennessean.

For the Thrasher side of the game, check out The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Blueland Blog, the Ice Man, Bird Watchers Anonymous, Thrashing the Blues, As the Birds Thrash, Thrasher Backer, and Blueland Chronicle.

Preds-Canes Round-Up...

Thanks again to Ryan Porth of RLD Hockey for handling our postgame story on Saturday in our absence.

Josh Cooper was out of town and left Bryan Mullen with the game story, notes column, and three stars.

David Boclair has his story at The City Paper.

From the blog world reports come from Ryan Porth, Amanda DiPaolo, Mark Willoughby, Dirk Hoag (with his advances stats), Jeremy Gover, and Hockey Night in Nashville.

The other side of the story came from Canes Country and the News and Observer.

In Pred Nation...

Ryan Porth has an excellent piece on Ryan Suter and his value to the Predators. He has really grown into a great defenseman this season.

One of the real oddities in Saturday's game was J. P. Dumont's 4:30 in ice time. Even stranger was his curt post game answers. Jim Diamond has the analysis of Trotz's explanation.

Bryan Mullen says that the Predators do not fear playing on the road which is good as they face Atlanta tonight and go to Detroit on Wednesday.

David Boclair points out that Cal O'Reilly's scoring this year is further example of the Predators' youth movement.

Amanda DiPaolo has here weekly look at the Western Conference with a few words about the Board of Governor's meeting.

Pete Weber's letter about the late Jim Kelly was published in Buffalo yesterday. Pete also shared a bunch of audio clips that are really interesting.

Phillip at Hockey Night in Nashville is taking hockey to the streets of East Nashville. This is good stuff. Attention Jeff Cogen: How about some free tickets for participants! Robby also has a post about Marty Erat and his breakout game on Saturday.

Rachel at What the Puck grabs a video that I had not seen of Anders Lindback shopping for his apartment before his girl friend showed up. I'm glad he is better in net than on the domestic side.

Ad's Roundtable has the weekend covered for the Admiral's loss to the Griffins on Friday and the overtime win over Peoria last night after a third period collapse.

Around the NHL...

The NHL Board of Governors meet this week in Florida and team ownership is tops on the agenda with a focus on Phoenix. There will also be a projection of a salary cap increase of about $2 .1 million.

The Hockey News is going with a similar theme to my post on Friday, declaring Sidney Crosby to be the best in the game this year.

The Toronto Star goes behind the scenes at Hockey Night in Canada for a look at what happens for the show to go on.

In the Saturday Face Off, Ryan Porth and Patrick Hoffman debate which team you would rather own. Ryan also caught up with several Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday and the results will be published throughout the week. Here is the first piece with Brandon Sutter.

Amanda Fortier looks at Ken Campbell's twist on analyzing scoring that has an emphasis on goals that count.

Odds and Ends...

This is really funny. It is a map of the US using Google auto complete for the state names. Tennessee's is an embarrassment.

Our friend, George Scoville has the Economics of Santa Clause with graphs and everything.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass