Who Angered the Hockey Gods in Nashville and Wednesday Wrap-Up

I was really surprised that there was no mention of the "hockey gods" by anyone in post game interviews after the Predators' 4-2 loss to Dallas last night at the Bridgestone Arena.

It was a game where Nashville clearly outplayed Dallas, yet had nothing to show for the effort. The Preds could have easily had five or six goals and should have not had defensive lapses that allowed three unanswered goals by Dallas in the third period.

The sold out crowd was as supportive and as loud as it has been in some time and surprisingly did not diminish its intensity when the Predators fell behind in the game.

Patric Hornqvist's record setting fourteen shots on goal truly was astounding. Every shot attempt that he had in the game was on net. He had none that were credited as a "miss" or even blocked.

The Predators remain mired at the 40 point mark in the standings as they fell to tenth place in the Western Conference with Phoenix and Columbus only a point behind them.

Their next game is on Friday in Minnesota where they suffered an ugly loss on Black Friday last month. After a home game against Columbus on Sunday, the Predators play ten of their next twelve games in January on the road so things will not come easy in the new month.

Preds-Stars Round-Up...

Here is our game story from last night with post game video.

Josh Cooper had his game story, notes column, and postgame ponderings.

David Boclair has his story at The City Paper.

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

The other side of the Star-Preds game previews can be found at The Dallas Morning News, ESPN Dallas, the Star-Telegram, The Dallas Stars Blog, and Defending Big D.

HockeyFights.com has the Belak-Barch fight as well as the O'Brien-Ott tussle from last night's game.

The Predators supplied audio clips from Colin Wilson and Shea Weber. Dallas clips come from Coach Marc Craford, Stephane Robidas, and Part 1 and Part 2 from Andrew Raycroft.

In Pred Nation...

The best story to come out of last nights game was Chris Mueller's NHL debut as told by Jim Diamond who talked to the whole family.

Josh Cooper also caught up with Chris Mueller yesterday and also talked to a couple of players about Jordin Tootoo's absence.

Paul McCann looks at all the Pred's troubles at HockeyBuzz.

Jeremy Gover poses the question as to whether the Predators would benefit from going after Niclas Bergfors if he is available for a draft pick or a prospect.

Robby at Hockey Night in Nashville is ready to give Paul Kariya a call to see if he wants to come play for the Preds again.

The Milwaukee Admirals lost to Rockford 4-1 last night. It was not Mark Dekanich's best game as his record fell to 12-4-0.

Winter Classic...

The Pens' alumni are getting ready to take the ice on Friday as a prelude to the Winter Classic.

Ryan Porth has the weather speculation at the Red Light District.

Matt Reitz has an open letter to Mother Nature on behalf of hockey fans everywhere begging for a window of good weather for Saturday's game in Pittsburgh.

For a good preview of Saturday's Winter Classic, check out RLD Hockey Radio from yesterday where Ryan had USA Today's Kevin Allen and Brian Metzer of From the Point as guests. Click on the following player to listen.

Listen to internet radio with Ryan Porth on Blog Talk Radio

Here's what can happen 24/7 style when two kids fight over one ticket to the Winter Classic.

World Juniors...

Predator prospects Ryan Ellis and Patrick Cehlin continue to lead their respective teams through two games at the World Juniors.

Finland 4, Switzerland 0
Canada 7, Czech Republic 2
Sweden 2, Russia 0
United States 6, Slovakia 1

Today's Schedule

2:30 Germany - Finland
6:30 Canada - Norway

Many Canadians got stuck in a huge traffic jam trying to cross the border you yesterday's Team Canada match with the Czech's.

Around the NHL...

Big news yesterday was the forced resignation of GM Darryl Sutter in Calgary. He was replaced by Jay Feaster who took over immediately as the "interim" GM. It will be interesting to see where the dominoes fall withing the organization going forward.

Sidney Crosby extended his point streak to 25 games with two goals and two assists in the Pens 6-3 win over Atlanta last night. Pittsburgh plays the Islanders tonight in their last game before the Winter Classic.

Ducks Captain Ryan Getzlaf took a puck to the face in a really scary injury.

Now, Jonathan Toews is out with an injury in Patrick Kane's first game back.

The hapless New York Islanders traded their leading point man, James Wisniewski to Montreal for a pair of draft picks. Go figure. They would now be well under the floor of the salary cap except for contractual obligation to players who no longer are on their roster.

The Canucks beat Philadelphia in Vancouver for the first time in 22 years last night. That has to be one of the longest streaks in hockey to be broken this season.

Ken Campbell has five puzzling thoughts about hockey at The Hockey News.

Odds and Ends...

This is one of the best testimonials for organ donation that I've seen. A young lady was killed in an auto accident in Arizona and gave organs to seven different folks in need.

Here's one person's opinion of the ten best social apps of 2010.

Here is the new "Honeycomb" music player for the Android platform.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass