POTG Thursday Headlines, News and Links: Return to Vancouver

The Predators return to Vancouver tonight for the first time since last year's memorable second round series that was a magical time for the Canucks' Ryan Kesler. Here is a story that we did after the series was over with several Predator players discussing Kesler's play.

On the other side of the coin, Kesler was equally complementary of the Predators when we spoke with him in Las Vegas at the NHL Awards in June.



Here is our game preview from earlier today.

Other Predator Previews come from Ryan Porth, Amanda DiPaolo, The Tennessean, David Boclair, Dirk Hoag, Paul McCann, Jeremy Gover, Predatorial,  and Predators.com.

For Canucks news check out The Province, Vancouver Sun, FaceOff, Globe and Mail, CBC, Nucks Misconduct, Pucked In The Head, Pass It To Bulis, Canucks Hockey Blog, Canucks Corner, The Canuck Way, Canucks FanZone, Love Our Canucks, Head to the Net, Canucks and Beyond, Canucks Army, Play Me That Ballard, Benched Whale, and 3:10 to Overtime.

Here are the NHL game notes for tonight's game.

Make the jump for all of today's news and links...


In Pred Nation...

Here is part one and part two of Barry Trotz's weekly coffee with the coach show from yesterday on 102.5 The Game.

Jim Diamond has the story of Barry Trotz's rare visit to the press box to watch the Canucks-Rangers game on Tuesday. He also has updates from Wednesday's practice.

Josh Cooper has a round up of short blogs from Vancouver. This morning he has a feature on Matt Halischuk and a notes column.

Ryan Porth reflects on last year's playoff series with Vancouver.

The "Predator Gold" is doing what it was chosen to do, provide a distinctive identity.

Jeremy Gover explains that it's not the time for Preds fans to panic.

Dirk Hoag has his breakfast links and news that he will be on 102.5 The Game with Willie Daunic tonight.

Jon Blum says the visit to his "summer home" has been good so far.

AJ has a look at life without Marty and doesn't like it.

Adam Gretz has a piece on the Predator's power outage.

Paul McCann had Puck Daddy Greg Wyshynski on Slap Shot Radio last night. Go here for the podcast.

Big news for the new Predator fans in Thrasher country is that the NHL has lifted the Center Ice blackout for non-locally televised Preds and Canes games.

The Province has the story of the young Preds' early season struggles.

Predatorial says that the standings look odd at this early stage of the season.

Pred, White, and Blue has Wednesday musings about the status of things in Pred world.

Ryan Miller discusses Juuso Puustinen's strong start in Milwaukee. He also says the Ads are making waves in the AHL with their 3-0 start.

The Second City Hockey clan will be invading Bridgestone Arena on January 21.

Around the NHL...

In the only NHL game last night, the Leafs beat the Jets 4-3 in a shootout. The highlight of the game was Joffrey Lupul taking out the goal cam.

Roberto Luongo was jeered by the crowd in their 4-0 loss to the Rangers on Tuesday. NHL Network takes a look at Luongo's early season struggles.

I didn't see this Bob McKenzie piece when it came out, but it is a timeless discussion that is well done.

Adam Proteau has the top ten NHL slow starts so far.

Ilya Kovalchuk is thriving with all the ice time that Peter DeBoer has been giving him.

Yesterday we heard a proposal from Hockey Canada to raise the draft age to nineteen. Ryan Kennedy wants no part of it.


Pierre LeBrun has his top five Calder candidates.

In a saga that's been discussed since the 2009 draft, the Leafs sent prospect Nazem Kadri back to the AHL.

Sportsology has the story of Sean Avery's return to the ice.

Matt Reitz made a guest appearance on the Sports-Casters podcast.

Steve Lapore offers up five suggestions for the NHL Overtime guest analyst slot.

Odds and Ends...

Android's "Ice Cream Sandwich" will debut next year. Here are the highlights of the upgraded system.

A two-headed, eight inch snake was found in Clarksville.

If you are in to solo piano music, here is a concert from Sunday night from some of my favorite artists including Murfreesboro's Joseph Akin.

The Motorola Droid Razor was announced with rave reviews.

More Later...

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