The first star of the game last night went to Sergei Kostitsyn. It should have gone to Predators' Head Coach, Barry Trotz who called out three of his top players, in the press, and subsequently, they responded with two goals, and an assist and were a plus 3 for the game.
In an era when there is always talk about coaches "losing the room", Barry Trotz has been the only coach the Predators have ever had. The players still listen. This should be the year that he finally wins the Jack Adams Trophy for the NHL Coach of the Year.
Trotz knows, when and how to pick his spots. Prior to this latest episode, earlier this year, Trotz "pealed the paint" in the dressing room between periods, and spurred the team on to victory.
These special occurrences of overt outbursts of getting players attention have been rare in Trotz's 13 year coaching history with the Predators but he knows just when they will be effective.
Last night's game was indeed a "statement" game for the Predators. Some would say that last Saturday night's 4-0 win was an anomaly and that the Wings were starting the backup goalie and were without Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom.
Those excuses were invalidated last night as the Wings were playing at Joe Louis Arena where they were 16-7-4 coming in to the game. For the record, the Preds took two of three there this year and were playing with one hand tied behind their back in the one loss there.
Hopefully, the Predators recent 1-4-1 slump, that had the net effect of dropping them from fourth to fifth in the Western Conference, is over. They now face the free-falling Colorado Avalanche on Saturday and then continue the homestand from hell next week with San Jose, Vancouver, and Phoenix coming to town.
It's time to return to the streakiness that we've seen this season on the positive side and turn last night's win into the start of at least a five game win streak to re-establish their position and chase down the Wings for the Division lead which is the ultimate goal in the locker room at this point.
The Predators practice for today has been canceled as they prebare for the big Gala at the Bridgestone arena tonight.
Preds-Wings Round-Up...
Here is our game story from last night.
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, What the Puck, Predatorial, and Hockey Night in Nashville.
For the story from the stunned writers in Motor City, check out MLive, the Detroit Free Press, Winging It in Motown, and the Detroit News.
In Pred Nation...
With all the talk of "shutting down" Mark Savard, and even Sidney Crosby, the Predators timetable on Matthew Lombardi is growing near.
Jeremy Gover looks at possible deadline pick-ups for the Predators and the pickings are slim.
Per Adrian Dater, it sounds like Foppa is a done deal to play in Nashville on Saturday.
Hockey's Future's list of top ten drafted D-men in the QMJHL includes Charles-Oliver Roussel at number eight.
Brian Huddle has an update on Preds prospect Austin Watson.
The Milwaukee Admirals had a third period collapse last night and eventually lost to Peoria in a shootout.
Around the NHL...
Ryan Porth calls last night's 8-6 Boston win over Montreal the game of the year. Check out his stats and highlights to see why.
Matt Cooke received a four game suspension for his hit on Fedor Tyutin which most folks think was incredibly light. Joe Yeardon analyzes the discussion about Matt Cooke and the incident on Tuesday night. The CBC put together a complete list of Matt Cooke infractions.
RLD Hockey projects points for seasons end using a very exacting formula with home and away game averages.
I'm not sure that I understand the trade yesterday where the Anaheim Ducks acquired Francois Beauchemin from Toronto for Joffrey Lupul, Jake Gardiner and a conditional 2013 draft pick. It seems like the Ducks got the better end of the deal. Toronto worsened it's cap situation, taking on more $$$ and for an extra year.
A second trade went down last night with Chicago sending Pred-killer Jack Skille, Hugh Jessiman, and David Pacan to Florida for Michael Frolik and the rights to Alexander Salak. Hopefully, Jessiman will finally play an NHL game in Florida and take the trivia question about him being the only first rounder in his draft to never play an NHL game off his back.
Chris Botta has a great story about a Federal League player toiling for $250 a week that you've never heard of. Give it a read.
Sad to hear Chris Drury is out again for a minimum of six weeks with a knee injury requiring surgery. He is a good guy that appears to have hung around too long.
The NHL offers an "architectural rendering" of McMahon Stadium with an ice rink in it. What is the difference between that and an "artist" rendering?
Odds and Ends...
A quadriplegic man is suing Disneyland alleging the theme park left him on the "It's A Small World" ride for 40 minutes. I can certainly understand how forty minutes of that song could be worth millions. Seriously, it is surprising that they had no procedure in place for ADA affected patrons.
Here is a story about a boat capsizing that was full of Canadian high school students but no one has heard of it because everyone survived.
More Later...
Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass
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1 comment:
Thanks for recommending Chris Botta's story. It was wonderful read.
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