Streaky Predators March Onward and Friday Findings

The strange and curious ways of this year's version Nashville Predators continued on their mysterious journey last night with the Predators fourth loss in a row in the City of Brotherly Love. Oddly enough, the Preds still cling to fourth place in the Western Conference, but are only three points out of tenth.

All but three of the Predators 18 regulation losses have been included in two five game game losing streaks and two four game streaks, one of which is still active.

On the flip side, the Preds started the season with an eight game point streak, have a nine game point streak, and have six and three game win streaks too.

Any Predator fan with a weak constitution probably should change their allegiance because the streakiness does not seem to be going anywhere this year.

I have pestered Barry Trotz for answers on the subject and he has none. He has correctly pointed out that the losses have all been for different reasons.

The one common thread that appears to be prevalent is the lack of offense during the down periods. In the current four game slide, the Preds have scored six goals and have lost by one goal in three of the four. In the five gamer in December, five goals in five games were all the Preds could muster.

Our hope, as fans of the team, is that with 20 of the last 30 games on home ice that we are due a few more long win streaks to counter the slide that the Preds are currently mired within. A return to the four goals a game average during the last six game win streak would make a big difference too.

Preds-Flyers Round-Up...

Here is our game story from last night.

Kudos to Kevin Klein for sticking up for Marcel Goc against Dan Carcillo. Hockey Fights has the bout.

The Tennessean has the AP story while Josh Cooper had postgame quotes.

From the blog world reports come from Amanda DiPaolo, Mark Willoughby (who was at the game), Dirk Hoag (with his advances stats), What the Puck, and Hockey Night in Nashville.

Happy stories about the game come from Russ Cohen, Broad Street Hockey, Philly.com, Philly Burbs, Courrier Post, and CSN Philly.

In Pred Nation...

Last night's Top Ten Predator Moments on FS TN was a lot of fun. Additional airings will be on February 6 at 5 p.m. CT, February 9 at 9 p.m. CT and February 15 at 10 p.m. CT.

Today from 1:00-2:00 Jeremy Gover will join Darren McFarland on 560AM for an hour of puck talk.

Mike Morreale explains why Pekka Rinne loves participating in shoot-outs.

Predators prospect Ryan Ellis was named the OHL Defenseman of the Month for January. This is the second award for Ellis this year as he also won it in November.

Paul McCann has a variety of topics in a post but focuses on a few wild allegations on struggling franchised made by Kevin Wheeler of St. Louis. It is amazing to me that folks still like to include Nashville as a team "in trouble" when things could not be more stable at this point.

Dirk Hoag's conspiracy theory article got big play at Puck Daddy yesterday.

Here is a new criticism of the Predators, a bad logo. This is a first. Of all the things the team has taken flack for, the logo has held it's own.

Around the NHL...

Adrian Dater has a interesting piece on the masterful job that Detroit's Ken Holland has done.

In the aftermath of the Johnson-DiPietro bout on Wednesday, Patten Fuqua takes a look at past top goalie fights. RLD Hockey has video of a couple of epic fights.

Patrick Hoffman takes a look at what is different with Alexander Ovechkin this season.

From @kausatoday: Dominik Hasek, 46, won 10 of 11 games in January, earning four shutouts. He leads the KHL this season with seven. May play into his 50s.

Here is the new NHL Heritage Classic spot with Gordon Pinsent's narration. Watch it here before you see it 1000 times over the next few weeks.



Odds and Ends...

Now that NASA is stepping aside in the space business, a new private firm plans to launch a commercial space station in 2015 that will dwarf the current International Space Station.

This guy was missing the rest of Danny Ocean's crew when he got arrested for stealing chips at the Bellagio.

Special Super Bowl Badges at Foursquare will be on the line on Sunday.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOntheGlass