POTG Thursday Thoughts, Headlines, and Links

The first round ended last night with another thrilling pair of game sevens making this year's first round the best in many years, Boston won 4-3 in overtime on a Nathan Horton goal early in the extra period to eliminate the Habs. Tampa beat the Pens 1-0 on a Sean Bergeenheim second period goal and behind the stellar goaltendeng of Dwayne Roloson.

The second round gets underway tonight with a single game with your Nashville Predators traveling to Vancouver. It appears that the game will only be on Versus with no local broadcast from Preds TV.

Later this morning, we will have our Preds-Canucks preview, our second round predictions, and at 11 a.m. CDT we will have the Hart Trophy nominees.

Follow the jump for today's news, headlines, and links.

Programming Note...

I was on NHL Home Ice yesterday Mick Kern and Peter Berce on The War Room to discuss the Predators and Canucks.

Today, RLD Hockey Talk will provide a second round preview with Jeff Marek previewing the Eastern Conference games and Adrian Dater looking at the West. Join us at Noon CDT.

In Pred Nation...

David Boclair has a piece about Jordin Tootoo at The City Paper.

Josh Cooper has a story about tonight's game and a notes column about Shane O'Brien's grudge.

Shane O'Brien talked to the media about the upcoming series (Video).

Roy MacGregor has an excellent article about Mike Fisher being a throwback to a bygone era.

Cody Franson had a little help with his playoff beard between series according to Jim Diamond.

Jordin Tootoo was the NHLPA Player of the Week.Amanda DiPaolo has a really good look at Tootoo getting plenty of attention from the national press.

Chris Burton looks at Kevin Bieksa and the impact he may have in the upcoming series.

Sam Page looks at the Predators trying to neutralize the Sedin twins.

Marc Torrence looks at the Goalie match-up between Pekka Rinne and Roberto Luongo.

SlapShot Radio had a second round preview for the Predators and featured Jeremy Gover and Ryan Porth.

Faceoff had a Q and A with Mike Fisher.

Aaron Sims has a preview of the goalie match up in the Admirals series against Houston.

The Windsor Spitfire's run has come to an end. Expect to see Ryan Ellis in Milwaukee soon.

J.R. Lind's photoshop contest is in full swing at OnTheForecheck.

Voting is ongoing at PHT for who wins the Preds-Nucks series. It is heave on game six going both ways.

Whale Tales...

Here is the most complete breakdown that you'll ever see on a series between two teams.

The Vancouver Sun has a good look at the season series.

Dan Hamhuis give a scouting report on Nashville.

PHT has Alex Burrows' wild night on Tuesday.

The Canucks expect a tough series from the Predators.

Kurtenblog wants the Nucks fans to know their enemy.

It turns out that Canucks GM Mike Gillis was fined for his criticism of the officials before game seven against the Blackhawks.

Second round Previews...

Kevin Allen is still on the Predator bandwagon.

Puck Daddy gets a 400 pound transvestite into the Preds-Nucks preview.

Around the NHL...

PHT already has an early look at round two.

Adam Proteau has  his top ten impact players in the first round.

Bruce Arthur looks at the struggle to bring the Stanley Cup to Canada.

Steve Lapore looks at Versus plans for their World Championship coverage which includes Zach Parise as an analyst.

Chris Johnston has his Canadian perspective preview of the World Championships.

John Ourand has details on how the NHL-NBC deal went down.

Things are really weird in Glendale. The Goldwater Institute wants the city to drop a suit against an Indian tribe in order to get funding from them. The mayor of Winnipeg doesn't think that the Coyotes are coming to town.

David Shoalts has some suggestions on cooking the books in the Coyotes sale to get the deal done.

Odds and Ends...

With all the real tornadoes, hail, and floods to report on, some joker made fake tornado photos that went viral on the internet.

The crowd for tomorrow's space shuttle launch will be big and have a couple of circuses on the side with Obama and Giffords there.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass