Back in the Saddle with POTG Radio Tonight

I am back from vacation (physically at least) and ready for an exciting week. I am leaving Wednesday for Las Vegas and the NHL Awards show and festivities on Thursday. Posts and updates and will continue to be limited and sporadic until things settle down again next week.



Tonight's PredsOnTheGlass radio should be an interesting show. As we have done in the past with other guests that mixed new media and hockey, our first guest will be Matt Prielipp of DaBuzz Media. I first became aware of Matt when he was tweeting to the @predfans group during one of the Predators visits to Phoenix last Winter when he was Pete and Terry's engineer on a game broadcast. Matt is a man of many talents from New Media guru to radio engineer. I've been wanting to talk to him for quite a while so I'm looking forward to the conversation..

By show time tonight, I can't imagine that we won't have a ruling from the courts on the Phoenix situations so we plan to have Travis Hair of Five for Howling for news and analysis of whatever is announced today.

There's also been a lot of weird news items over the last few days that we may discuss including Dany Heatly wanting out of Ottawa, Chris Pronger to the Kings (?), and the upcoming free agent market and whether it will be a frenzy or more reasonable come July first. We may also take a look at the NHL Awards show that I will attend on Thursday.

Please plan on listening since we always seem to have information you don't find elsewhere in the main stream media.

In Predator News...

John Glennon has a couple of stories today. One story has several interesting points including Jason Arnott calling on the team veterans to produce more offense and Greg DeVris acknowledging that he probably won't be back. The second story, is a bit of a tear jerker for Vern Fiddler fans. Vern has fallen in love with Music City and plans on remaining here regardless of where he signs the next contract.

Mark at The View from 111 has a really good look at what Hamilton would look like as an NHL city. As usual, he has a great analysis of the social and economic nature of the Hamilton area.

Paul McCann wraps up the finals in a post this morning.

Ryan at the Red Light District starts his off season team by team analysis and has the Predators in the first group. He also has plenty of information on next week's draft and free agent offerings.

From several days ago on the Preds site, I just saw this story about Cal O'Reilly's younger brother Ryan who will be drafted nest week.

Around the hockey world...

Belated congratulations to the Hershey Bears for their Calder Cup Championship as they beat Manitoba 4-1 on Friday night. This is their second championship in the last four years.

One of my favorites, Mick Kern, from XM Home Ice 204 was on The Program on BTR for two hours of conversation Sunday night. It is a great listen covering a wide range of topics.

The Hockey Barn has a NHL Awards story about a Russian brawl for the Hart trophy that sounds like it would be more suited if the three were in the NBA.

Longtime veteran defenseman Derian Hatcher is officially retired and has moved to the Flyers front office.

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

Heres something interesting from NHL.com, a list of the best picks at each position 1-30.

Chillin' Out on Vacation

We have reached the point in our trip where there will be very limited updates over the next several days. We are at an all day surf contest today, will be at Disney World Friday and on the move over the weekend. Hopefully the weather and technology will hold so that we can see what would probably be our last chance to see the Space Shuttle launch on Saturday at sunrise.

I will be back home by Monday and will be ready for our weekly POTG Radio show. After the Awards, the Draft and Free Agent day we will probably start having guests from a couple of different teams each week to start previewing each team for next season. As they say, it's always hockey season. It's either the pre-season, regular season, playoff-season or off-season.

In the meantime I will direct you to Forechecker for Predators news, Five for Howling for Coyote news, and the Red Light District and The Program for everything else. We will return as time allows.

By the way, I'm picking the Wings to win on Friday.

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Cup Finals and PHX Situation Continue

Yesterday's big day in hockey came and went and very little was resolved. Pittsburgh held firm on home ice ans will force a game seven in Detroit on Friday. While it appeared the Balsillie camp lost ground in the hearing in Phoenix, a ruling was not made. In the AHL, Manitoba forced the Hershey Bears back to the Western front for game six. Brent Sutter left the Devils but no word on where he is going other than "closer to home". Dany Heatley wants out of Ottawa to points unknown.

On to Game Seven...

For the first time in this playoff season, I actually predicted the winner and score when I tweeted "2-1 Pittsburgh in a thriller" yesterday afternoon. I was happy to see the series extended but I am now in a quandary because we will be out of pocket Friday night and will have to scramble to get to a television in order to see the cup raise.

The one thing I do feel certain about is that the Wings will complete my series prediction by winning in game seven. Jackson picked Pittsburgh in seven so we will have one correct prediction at POTG regardless of who wins.

On the Predator Front...

John Glennon has a story at the Tennessean about Alexander Radulov and Pred free agents that are on the fence for next year. Jason Arnot seemed to have softened his hard line on Rad's return, possibly because it would make Steve Sullivan's to the Preds more likely. The story also indicates that Zannon, Fiddler and Ward are not close in their numbers to what the Preds are willing to pay. Ward is really the primary surprise in that group.

The Milwaukee version of the Examiner takes a look at what next year's Admirals might look like. There is little new revealed but it does point to the fact that Drew MacIntyre will probably be headed to another organization to have a better shot at the NHL as a backup next year.

We offer Hockey Buzz's Preds writer Brandon Felder prayers as he heads out for an interview with an NHL team at points unknown. Check out HockeyBuzzRadio tonight for more clues and possibly an answer to the game we have been playing "Where's Brandon?" Pete Weber joins this week as co-host.

Dirk has a full slate of information at OnTheForecheck this morning. My bet is that he also was the winner in the above mentioned "Where's Brandon?" contest. I wonder if Brandon will get a couple of tickets to game seven if the Forechecker is correct.

Hearing in Phoenix...

After reading what seemed like a couple of hundred tweets during the hearing yesterday, it became obvious that Judge Redfield Baum is a very patient man. From what I could tell PSE's attorney was on his last nerve for most of the day.

It appears that Gary Bettman/the NHL was in the lead at the end of the day since the judge did acknowledge that relocation fees would be in order if the team were to move to Hamilton. The rumored amount of a fee would be in the $100-150 million range which would bring the total cost of a Hamilton franchise to $312-362 million which is in the ballpark of the estimated $300-400 million figure that Bill Walker of Make It Seven told me was "speculative" last week.

The Judge has suggested that al sides mediate the relocation fee which could cause the Balsille group to walk away from their offer.

Here are more stories from The Hamilton Spectator, The Toronto Star, and the National Post. The Arizona Republic continued with it's less than marginal coverage with this piece. They have provided some of the worst reporting imaginable on an issue critical to the taxpayers of Glendale. Heather at Save the Coyotes has a piece representing the fan's interest.

Here are the transcripts of the NHL's Bill Daly's post hearing presser.

We received an interesting email this morning that included this announcement from Make It Seven, "We want to keep the momentum going and give Canadians an opportunity to demonstrate their desire for a seventh team, so I am excited to announce that we have chosen June 19th as Make It Seven Day in Canada. This will be a day for Canadians to show their support in a variety of ways. Our corporate partners will be celebrating Make It Seven Day with us and you will be hearing more about that in the days to come." I didn't realize that big Jim he had the power to declare a "day". I seriously doubt that Balsillie realizes that day is already taken and is celebrated as "Juneteenth" which is a day set aside to commemorate Emancipation day and the end of slavery in the United States.

Around the Hockey World...

The the AHL playoffs, Manitoba extened the series and caused the teams to head back to the home of the Moose for game six on Friday night with a 3-2 win.

Ray Emory has agreed to a one-year contract with the Flyers.

Blueshirt Banter has an interesting article about the strength of different divisions in the NHL. To no one within the division, the Central was the toughest and appears set to continue in that direction for a few years to come.

At Inside Hockey, where we contribute, Jake Duhaime takes a look at how Twitter helped him follow all of yesterdays events simultaneously. Unfortunately, I spent most of my day atthe beach also glued to my Tweetdeck.

Another day, another mock draft, this one from Long Island.

Finally, here is an interesting post from View From My Seats on Gary Bettman with an in depth look that you don't see often past the normal cat calls that are mostly thrown at him.

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Potential Cup Raise and PHX Hearing Makes for Big Day in the NHL

Today may be a momentous day for the NHL. While attention should be focused on game six of the Stanley Cup Finals and the potential cup raise, the hearing in the desert will provide ample distraction as a pre-game warm-up.

We would like to thank our guests from last night's POTG Radio. Since we are in Florida with unstable internet, Chris Wassel of The Program did a great job of running the board and co-hosting the show from California.

Travis Hair of Five for Howling was our guest for the second half of the show had great insight into today's hearing. It was probably one of the better half hours of coverage on the whole situation since the Phoenix media has fallen down on the job and refuses to has tough questions on behalf of the City of Glendale and the local Coyote fans. Click the button below and listen for yourself.



Game Six...

After another night's sleep, I still will be picking Pittsburgh as my Twtpool pick this morning. I do think that this Pittsburgh team has improved since last year, especially with the outstanding play of Geno Malkin. He has contributed consistently throughout the playoffs and did not disappear in the finals as he seemed to do last season.

I do think Detroit will win on Friday if they don't close it out tonight. I think the Conn Smythe will be a tough choice between Henrik Zetterberg and Chris Osgood. Both have been difference makers through all four series. Zetterberg has been a shut down player, taking on Nash, Kane, Getzlaf, and Crosby and limiting their chances in each series. Additionally, he has been the leader for the Wings in point production and has picked up the slack for the injured Pavel Datsyuk. Osgood has been surprisingly steady and leads all goalies with a 2.00 GAA through the playoffs.

Mirtle has a good story on numbers and how few NHLers actually get their name on the cup.

Hearing in the Desert...

The hearing in Phoenix over the potential relocation of the Coyotes gets underway this morning. Briefs were due by last Friday, so this should only be oral arguments over the submitted material which could lead to a ruling from the bench. After all the circus type antics of the past hearings, I can't imagine that someone won't muddy the water that will prevent an immediate ruling. Judge Redfield T. Baum wants to keep the case moving forward and realizes that there will be an appeal no matter what happens so I think we will know something soon if not today.

We've heard plenty from the Canadian media (and almost zero from the Arizona press) but Eklund reposts some Coyote fan stories that was put together by Heather McWhorter, The Yotes Diva, that gives the side of the story that has been totally missing in the main stream media.

To add a little humor to the clamor for the second team in the GTA, the National Post came up with this story.

Just in time for the hearing, Make It 7 comes up with a theme song/video that includes a Nashville slam and repeated use of a small child flipping the bird. I guess that's about par for the course.

Here's a link to a live blog from the hearing. Several folks will also be tweeting the hearings which can give you a wide range of opinions. Check out @TheYotesDiva @OdinMercer @kmcgran @kash2112

In Predator Nation...

Jim Diamond comes up with a fairly obscure story about the air quality at the Predator's practice facility at the Centennial Rink. When you are paying athletes, which are your only asset, $45 million a year, this may be something the Preds may want to have cleared up prior to next year's season.

John Glennon and the Tennessean take a look at the potential $2500 per game tax on NHL and NBA players. I did not realize until now that Preds players would have to pay $7500 a year. They are also taxed when they play in other arenas in some states. They also have a story about the re-signing of Triston Grant. You can tell its the off season when that makes a headline.

Forechecker works the word "abacus" into his headline for today's post. That's something you don't see everyday, but he does have several interesting items to check out.

Around the Hockey World...

In the AHL Finals, the Hershey Bears have a good chance to close out their series against the Manitoba Moose in Pennsylvania tonight. The past few years have been an amazing run for the franchise.

The other big news today is Brent Sutter steping down as head coach of the New Jersey Devils to potentially become head coach of his brother Daryl's Calgary Flames. Many were surprised when he left his hometown Red Deer team two years ago to coach the Devils. Few are surprised that he is leaving as it has been a topic throughout most of the past season. It will be interesting to see who Lou hires as a replacement.

Twitter friend @StephBags has a really good story posted on From the Blue Seats on hockey and Twitter that has a Nashville twist as always, as she talked with Preds fan @karpo about the Nashville Tweetup leading to her purchase of season tickets. Our friends at The Hockey Zen and @dani3boyz also get some pub.

Here's an item about the most annoying person in an ad during hockey games. The best commercials are on the Canadian broadcasts. My favorites are the couple loading their car from the second floor and the garage that is made up like a goal cage. I've been looking for links on YouTube and they aren't there.

Here's another mock draft, this time our friend, Eric Smith at Fire The Cannon in Columbus.

From @dani3boyz: Yesterday's interview of @specialhockey by @HTM_nhlhomeice on XM 204/Sirius 208.

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

Off Topic... The Tennessean has a story about Meat and Threes in Nashville. That may be an off term for some of our non-Southern readers but it's mainly down home types restaurants that specialized in some type of fatty meat and fat seasoned veggies. About 15 years ago, we set out on what we deemed the "Cardiac Arrest Tour" of meat and threes in Nashville. To qualify as a finalist three things were required. The waitress could not have a complete set of teeth (sorry that it was not PC but it was the rules), they had to serve sweet tea, and there had to be signed pictures of country music stars that had eaten there on the wall. I don't think we ever went anywhere that was not a finalist.

Funny name mix up story by Alanah about Mike Kennan vs Michael Keenan in Vancouver.

From Andy Strickland - Sutter isn't a slam dunk to Head To Calgary according to a member of the Sutter family. Here's the blog post.

Live from Surf Camp It's POTG Radio

Tonight's show will mark our second attempt at doing POTG Radio from a remote location. We are hoping to overcome past technical issues by enlisting Chris Wassel from The Program to co-host the show from his "studio" in California.



Tonight's show is still a work in progress as we are attempting to line up one of the pro surfers from the Club Zion Surf Camp as a guest on the show. This is Jackson and Fisher's fourth year to attend and it is an incredibly well run event with over 300 kids aged 12-19 in attendance.

Basically it is set up where the kids surf in the daytime and have a party at night with bands and giveaways (Jackson actually won a surfboard in his first time at camp). In the past, they have had surfers like C T Taylor, the Hobgood brothers, Rich Rudolph, and others as guest speakers at the night-time event.

In addition to talking about surfing, we will have Travis Hair from Five for Howling to give us the latest update from Phoenix on the eve of Tuesday's hearing. We will discuss whether the Wings will clinch in six or if the Pens can push it to seven as well as other things going on in the hockey world. It should be a different type show this week so tune in and see what happens.

Stanley Cup Finals...

I was really surprised at the ease in which the Detroit Red Wings blew past the Pittsburgh Penguins in game five on Saturday night. We have seen two completely different series within the SCF. To this point, both teams have appeared to be world beaters on their own home ice. As dominant as the Pens were at home in game four, the Wings were even more so at home in game five.

Sean Leahy at Puck Daddy had an article that gives a wide variety of opinion on game five. It is really difficult to gauge how Pittsburgh will respond on Tuesday when they return to the Mellon Arena and try to stave off elimination. Based on their turnaround between games two and three, I think that they will have a good chance to push the series back to Detroit for a game seven. My early pick for game six is Pittsburgh, but that could change after another night's sleep.

Puck Daddy himself, has an article about the potential of Malkin being the Conn Smythe winner regardless of the outcome of the series. I tend to agree at this point that Malkin has been the dominant force in the playoffs through four rounds. From the Wings, I would say that Chris Osgood would be the number one candidate, simply from a standpoint of exceeding expectations and having the best numbers in goal overall. Franzen and Zetterberg would also be considered as they are third and fourth in points behind Malkin and Crosby.

Stay Classy offers the flip side to the above picking "Zetterberg, by a mile". It's a good arguement.

In the Predators World...

Forechecker did much better at blogging while traveling over the weekend than I did. He has several interesting posts including one about Jordin Tootoo going ice fishing.

Hockey's Future takes a look back at the 2004 draft class of the Predators which yielded Pekka Rinne and Alexander Radulov. The general goal in each draft is for a team is to yield two solid NHLers. Had Rads not bailed on the Preds then this would have been a great two player draft for the team. Milwaukee star, Mike Santorelli is also in that draft class but has not mastered the two way style of play required by Barry Trotz and the Preds to make the move to the NHL.

Brandon Felder has Part 2 in his storys about the Preds at the free agent deadline. In this story, he takes a look at potential free agents that the Preds may be interested in to fill a few holes. Top of the is is forwards who can score.

Paul McCann checks in with a few thoughts on a Monday.

Bleacher Report has a look at the upcoming Predators draft. Take it with a grain of salt. Included in the story is a line that says, "Koistinen is a free agent this summer, and he will most likely be re-signed." Is there anyone with even a slight knowledge of the Preds that thinks that we will ever see Ville in a Preds uni again?

@jackmac reports on Twitter this AM "Anyone else hear Poile on 1045 this morning? Didn't sound 2 optimistic about Rads (not surprising) or J. Ward (more surprising)". Hopefully Poile was just having an upset tummy when discussing Ward. I think a Rads deal is over for this year, and maybe forever.

@brandon_felder reports the signing of Tristen Grant. "It's a 2-way deal that will pay Grant 500k at the NHL level and 60k at the AHL level. Also given 30k bonus. Likely to be AHL only"

Several Preds including Jason Arnott and J P Dumont will join in the City of Hope Celebrity Softball event. Hopefully no one receives any freak injuries.

Hearing in Phoenix...

Sunday night, Coyote owner Jerry Moyes went on local TV to give his side of the story prior to Tuesday's bankruptcy hearing. As you would expect, the video is a fairly self-serving attempt to influence opinion in advance of the court date. He is playing the Oprah card where ho is a victim in this whole situation. The TV reporter is very negative on the Coyotes as has been the Arizona Republic which has failed at reporting a very important local story.

Moyes lists too much competition from other sports and a bad lease requiring $15-20 million a year in concessions from the city of Glendale as the primary factors leading to the bankruptcy. He also indicates that he tried to put together a package to get 10-11 investors of $20 million each to keep the team afloat. In closing, he claims that his number one obligation is to the creditors and that the Balsillie plan is the only one that will make everyone whole.

The Toronto Star has a summary article that lays out the reasons why Balsillie has a chance to win at tomorrows hearing. They also concede that regardless of the outcome, there will be an appeal. There are also links to numerous league documents (including the league bylaws) and filings that have been released over the last few weeks.

Gary Bettman now claims that there are four local groups in line to buy the Coyotes including the owners of the Toronto Argonauts. The Globe and Mail seems to think their intent is to move the team to Toronto.

In one of the court filings, Jim Balsillie says that he regrets taking season ticket applications for the "Hamilton Predators" without league approval. Do you think the "Billion Dollar Boys" are going to have regrets about unveiling the "Toronto Legacy" without talking to the NHL first?

The Globe and Mail had an interesting take about how Make It Seven is making the other "Six" in Canada unfomfortable. The truth is that all professional leagues are nervous about what type of havoc Balsillie's actions can have on the anti trust exemption that pro sports has enjoyed over the years. They also have a story on a posible precedent for the Coyotees move being the Seattle Pilots move to Milwaukee in 1970.

The Spec has an article about the Maple Leafs view of Balsillie's attempt to bring hockey to Hamilton. They will not stand on the sidelines and be quiet if the court rules in Balsillie's favor.

Around the Hockey World...

In the AHL playoffs Hershey has taken a commanding lead over the Manitoba moose with a 3-0 shutout win in game three and a 2-1 win in game four. Hershey can try to wrap it in their last game on home ice on Tuesday night. If they lose, the series will shift back to Manitoba on Friday night.

This is an interesting panoramic view of the inside of the Oilers locker room from the Edmonton Journal with a note of how each player got his number. It appears to be dated a bit since several players are no longer there, but it is cool to look at.

Off topic... 50 years ago today, the Navy launched a rocket carrying mail. It was said at the time that "before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail." It is amazing to me that the postal service still exists today carrying paper mail to every house in the country on a daily basis.

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

ESPN has a story about the potential sale and relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers. Although several groups appear interested, there are hurdles to overcome including an agreement with the NHL four years ago not to consider relocation for eight years.

More reports today that Ray Emery has agreed to a one year deal for $1.5 million. You can add him to the list of past suspects in goal in Philadelphia including, "Roman Cechmanek, Brian Boucher, Robert Esche, Jeff Hackett, Antero Niittymaki and, for the last 2 years, Marty Biron."

Here's a good pro-con listing of potential Conn Smythe winners from View From My Seats.

Pens Break the Ice and Mid Week Musings

The Pittsburgh Penguins did a 180 degree turn on home ice and brought a much needed victory to their fans on Tuesday night in game three of the Stanley Cup Finals. Sergei Gonchar scored the GWG and Max Talbot added two more as the Pens won 4-2.

It was the most exciting game of the series. It got off to a quick start with both teams trading the lead and scoring two goals in the first period. The Wings came on strong in the second, out shooting the Pens 14-4, but were never able to get the puck in the net.

Sergei Gonchar scored the eventual game winner at the halfway point of the third and Max Talbot got the empty netter at the end as the final exclamation point.

Everything that had been missing for the Pens in the first two games was found at home in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. Marc-Andre Fleury was much improved in net, Sidney Crosby finally got a point, secondary players provides all the goals, and Malkin continued his good play with three helpers.

Detroit did not play poorly, but they were missing the match-up advantage that they had on home ice. The Wings played well enough to win, but not on Tuesday night. Zetterberg and Franzen each had a goal and an assist to lead the Wings charge.

While the series is closer at 2-1, I'm not ready to change my current projection that the Wings will win the next two games and clinch at home on Saturday night. I'm all for a seven game series, but I don't see that happening.

It was fun seeing the wild Pittsburgh crowd all fired up and supporting their team. It looks to be a great place to see a cup finals game. I'm looking forward to the next one on Thursday night.

In Predator News...

The Forechecker continued his off-season profiles of Preds players with a nice piece on Radek Bonk. It is unclear whether "Bonkie", as Trotz likes to call him, will return next season. He also has a new article today that touches on a wide variety of topics in the Preds and Hockey worlds.

Paul McCann checked in with a few Tuesday thoughts.

Speaking of the Hockey Buzzards, Brandon Felder and Paul with their HockeyBuzzRadio will go remote for a special “Hockey Celebration” tonight at Byrd Dog’s Pizza in Smyrna. Special guest will be Thom Abraham. It all gets started at 6:00 on WNSR 560.

Mark at the ViewFrom111 gives his insight into the sale of the Florida Panthers. He is a expert on financial matters and my go to person when I don't understand those things (as you will see below). Here is a MSM story from Palm Beach about the offer to buy the Florida Panthers for $240 Million. Sports Property Acquisition Group, who boasts Mario Cuomo and Hank Aaron as board members is trying to buy the team, the arena and other properties in the deal.

John Glennon has yet another article on Colin Wilson. So does David Boclair at the City Paper. Is this Colin Wilson day in the Nashville MSM?

You can tell it's the off season at Predators.com as they have a nice story about Amy Grant who is a regular visitor to the Sommet Center with her hubby, Vince Gill. I played golf with Vince Gill in a tournament a long time ago when he was just some big guy that played on an opposing Olds Scramble team.

When you get trough reading about Amy, Tom Callahan gives his take on the SCF.

"Flat Stanley" gets a new makeover as the Preds have a summer contest for the kids with a "Flat Gnash" to take on your vacation for pictures. Most original gets posted on Gnash's web site. Jackson once sent a Flat Stanley to his cousins in Atlanta and they threw it away. It was another childhood heartbreak for Jackson when Stanley never returned.

News from the Desert...

Several items from Phoenix on Tuesday. Jim Balsillie, with the help of former CFL President, Tom Wright, filed his aplication for relocation as part of the ongoing process with the courts and the NHL. Here is coverage from The Spec, The Star, and The Globe and Mail.

In a short statement from the Globe and Mail, it was revealed that the "U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it would not block his effort to buy the club. Antitrust authorities completed their review of Balsillie's proposal without taking any action to block it, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said in a notice."

I checked in with Mark from the ViewFrom111 for an explanation of what this means. The way I understand it is that the FTC is basically not taking action on their own at this point, so it remains in the court's hands.

Finally, I have been itching to talk to someone from MakeItSeven to get their take on some questions that I've had about the PHX situation. It probably wasn't the best venue for it, but I did ask three questions at Tuesday afternoon's phone press conference put on by the Balsillie camp. My full story is here. I expect to speak to Bill Walker with Make It Seven again today for more answers.

Around the Hockey world...

The second game in the AHL Calder Cup playoffs was played Tuesday night in Manitoba. Jason Jaffray was all the Moose needed to tie the series 1-1, as he scored all three goals on the way to a 3-1 victory. Game three will be Saturday night in Hershey.

Gary Bettman appeared on the CBC during the second intermission, discussing several topics including the Phoenix situation. He still feels that the NHL will win. Good example used was that if you buy a Tim Hortons store, it doesn't mean you can close it down and open another one anywhere you choose. Is it me, or do I detect a softening in Bettman's tone when discussing an expansion franchise for the GTA?

In conjunction with Tuesday's game, the leagues GMs met, and were unwilling to come up with a modified "headshot" rule.

The projected top five draft picks in this year's draft were paraded around the Mellon Tuesday and had a fun interview with Don Cherry on CBC (click here for video) that included Matt Duchene telling a story about how his grandfather was saved from dying in a barn collapse because he wouldn't feed the cows until after "Coaches Corner".

Long Island's Seventh Woman, Dee Karl, gives her account of the Long Island Planning meeting on the Lighthouse Project on Tuesday moring. It's a good read despite my not knowning the local areas being discussed.

Jackson sends us to the voting for the Hockeyfights.com Awards. There are a bunch of categories and all you favorite tough guys are ready for your support.

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

Do you think Tony Granato and his staff say this coming? The Avs officially relieved six members of their staff of their duties.

A new addition to the NHL Awards Show will be the NHL Charity Shootout, which will be held at the poker table instead of on the ice. It will be held on Wednesday, June 17 and will be filmed for TV in the US and Canada.

Stay Classy has an interesting suggestion on the salary cap and how to reward teams that develop players in their system and want to hold on to them.

I'm sure we will see a lot of folks putting up draft previews for the next few weeks. Here's one from Japer's Rink that links to each players NHL Prospect Card.

From HB's Aaron Musick, The Avs have hired former Assistant GM Greg Sherman as the new GM.

It wouldn't be the playoffs without something like this from Freep.com. It is the "Don't Touch Sidney" game. Check it out and take it for what it's worth.

A couple of really good, in depth reports on the Preds defense by Forechecker and The Hockey Writers. Dirk is a lot closer to the team and I agree with his analysis on several players over that of THW. Blum is a great prospect but is not ready for top six duty in Nashville which is what it would take for him to stay in the NHL. DeVris is too expensive at $2.5 million and will not return unless a discount is offered. Finally, I would be surprised if the Preds picked up a free agent D-Man for much more than the minimum when funds can be spent on an offensive player.

T'is the awards season and the Hockey Barn has open nominations for the Online Hockey Writers Award in several categories.

I found this tweet from @reporterchris to be quite funny, "Datsyuk says he's been drinking lots of beer lately. Not entirely sure he was kidding."

More info on the Arena situation in Columbus from Eric Smith. He has really good information that lays out the history and situation in great detail. The more I read his stuff, the more I like Eric. He is a real pro.

Rob Zombie is on Twitter @RWZombie - His version of Blitzkrieg Bop is the opening song on POTG Radio.

Here's a positive spin on Versus from Pen's Universe. NBC, Versus, CBC, and TSN each have their good and bad points, but the one commonality to most of my complaints revolve around McGuire and Milbury.

Brian Metzer has today's update from the Pens perspective. He needs to get a regular check from XM204. He's on more than some of their regular staff. I always enjoy listening to him.

It must be Kevin Weeks day at the NHL. He was on NHL Live and Michael DiLorenzo has an interview with him at FromTheBlueSeats. I really became a fan of Kevin after listening to him on Hockey Confidential about a year ago. He is really a character guy.

Here's the Malkin video that's given everyone a laugh today when he talks about Max Talbot.

Tuesday's Notes and Thanks to Russ Cohen

A huge thanks to Russ Cohen our full hour long guest on last nights PredsOnTheGlass Radio show. We covered a lot of ground with Russ including his new book 100 Ranger Greats which will be out on Sept 28 and can be pre-ordered at Amazon now.

We also discussed Russ' career change from the hotel industry into the world of sports and his Sportsology network. We took a look at the upcoming free agent draft and many other subjects and rabbit trails that came up along the way. Be watching for Russ' guide to the draft coming up soon at Sportsology.com. It was a fun hour that passed too quickly.

Game Three...

The SCF heads to Pittsburgh for tonight's crucial test for the Penguins. This will be the Pens best chance to make a statement and attempt to make a contest of a series that has gone the Wings way at every turn so far.

The Pens will have the advantage of the last change and will try to keep Sidney Crosby as far away from Henrik Zetterberg as possible. Mirtle takes a look at Crosby's match-ups in the first two games. They also need production from Guerin, Kunitz, and anyone else feeling frisky enough to step up for the Pens. Marc-Andre Fleury needs to be outstanding in net also.

The Wings have a hot goalie in Chris Osgood and a lot of momentum going for them. History is also on their side with only one other team in history losing a SCF series after taking the first two games at home.

I am reluctantly taking Pittsburgh in the Twtpool tonight. I think the Pens will win one of their two home game and I'm not sure if it will be tonight or Thursday. Ryan at the RLD will have the preview and sim game up shortly.

Here is Pittsburgh's inside view from Brian Metzer of HockeyBuzz.

In Predator News...

Congrats to HockeyBuzz's Preds writer Brandon Felder who has a second interview with a mystery NHL team. Keep him lifted up in your prayers to help make all his hard work for the past few years pay off. One of these days we will be able to say that we knew him when...

Dirk has his Tuesday round up of stories at OnTheForecheck.

In PHX...

After all this time, Jim Balsillie finally formally filed a relocation application to the NHL on Monday. This came on the heels of the NHL refusing to turn over the requested information regarding prior relocations that Balsillie/Moyes had requested.

Gary Bettman also revealed that the league was within "20 minutes" of completing the deal to sell the Coyotes when Moyes filed bankruptcy. You really wonder who knew what and when.

The Sports Business Journal has a store about the man, Richard Rodier, who is Jim Balsillie's main man in the courtroom, pushing for the purchase of Phoenix. He is described as an "agitator", imagine that.

From Fox sports is an article explaining why the NHL is adamant that the Coyotes stay in Phoenix.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Spec has a good story on Greg Esposito one of the leaders of SaveTheCoyotes.

While we are on Phoenix, lets talk hockey for a change. I've actually seen more Phoenix hockey stories in the last few days than I have in a month including this one from FiveForHowling with a look at the Free Agent situation in the desert.

Around the Hockey World...

The AHL Calder Cup finals heads to game two tonight with Hershey holding a 1-0 series lead over the home standing Manitoba Moose. It is doubtful that tonight's game could be more exciting than Saturday's overtime thriller with Alexandre Giroux's hat trick. Game time is 7:30.

We have a string of game intros from the CBC from the last couple of days, but here's one that was never aired before the Wings-Hawks series. Flashbacks to Winnipeg are cool. For the flip side of the game one preview, WrapAroundCurl didn't like it at all.

Chris Botta has a wrap up of Victor Hedman's visit to Long Island on Monday. The visit was a short one as the NHL plans to parade Hedman around the Mellon Arena during game three of the SCF today.

Here's a few different perspectives from Illegal Curve on the hiring of Jacques Martin in Montreal. Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun writes a scathing article on how Martin was the opposite of everything Montreal is. I would say from this and other sources that the feelings are mixed on this one. You really want there to be a more positive outlook of your new hire than what we are seeing.

A man from Vancouver won the contest that will allow him to present the NHL Fan Fav award at the Awards Show in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. There are ten finalist but the favorites are probably Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin. Over a million fans voted.

From NHL.com comes a wrap-up from the combine in Toronto. Here's another look from Hockey's Future. There were no real surprises as a result of the tests that were given.

Hulu is showing all the games from the SCF on a 48 hour delay. Game one is up now.

Abel to Yzerman has a bit of a tear jerker about the job losses in Michigan in the auto industry and how the Wings are motivated by all the laid off car workers and to bring the cup back to them.

A little blast from the Pens-Caps series "NHL Tweetup in the House"

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

Not only is Hedman getting paraded around today so are Tavares and a few others.

The NHL announced the finalists for the Mark Messier Leadership Award to be given in LasVegas at the Awards show on June 18. Zdeno Chara, Sidney Crosby, and Jarome Iginla are the top three. Messier gets to make the final choice himself. I was really disappointed that Crosby was not up in any category and was not set to attend until now.

Sean Leahy has a detailed look at the two Zetterberg "cover-up" plays over at Puck Daddy. I personally think Zetterberg kind of freaked out on the first one because it is rare for a puck to be laying on a goalie's back in the crease. I think he was going to knock it away and thought better at the last second and covered it with his glove and then his whole body. It's not something you see often, that's for sure.

This just out from the Washington Post. The FTC reviewed Balsillie's offer to buy the Coyotes and did not block it. Not being a legal expert, I'm not sure how that ties in to the anti-trust exemption pro sports have operated under.

From NHL.com, "Bill Hay, Chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, announced today that DAVE MOLINARI, the newspaper voice of the Pittsburgh Penguins will receive the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award for print journalism. Hay also announced that JOHN DAVIDSON, a long-time broadcaster who is currently the President of Hockey Operations with the St. Louis Blues, will receive the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster."

The Toronto Star is reporting that the Islanders are now more interested in Victor Hedman as the first pick. Take it with a grain of salt.

Wings Play as Expexted in Game One

Game one of the Stanley Cup finals could not have turned out any more according to the expected script than it did. I fully expected the Wings to grind away with their best in the NHL puck control game until the Pens gave them a few chances to score. That is pretty much what happened.

What I did not expect was for the officials to swallow their whistles and let the teams play in game one. I really thought if the Pens were to have a chance, that they would have to score on power play opportunities, but unfortunately for them, they only had two chances and converted on neither.

Pittsburgh really tried to make a game of it coming back to tie at the end of the first period. Johan Franzen's goal at the end of the second period really seemed to take the wind out of the Pen's sails. Justin Abdelkader's goal at the start of the third set the tone for the remainder of the game. As the game wound down the Pens seemed to be without the same intensity that they had early in the contest.

As much as anything, I think Pittsburgh was out coached during game one. I think the Pens overcame the issues that had last season as far as preparation, but during the game, I think Babcock's Stanley Cup experience showed that he had been there before.

Last night prior to the game I tweeted about what a poor job NBC did with it's intro compared to the CBC. For those in the US who weren't geeky enough to be trying to watch both, here is a really good intro that is worth a look.



In spite of all the concern about back to back first games, I am thrilled that they are hitting the ice again tonight. Even though it is only the second game, this one is critical for the Pens. If they go down 0-2 against this Red Wings team I don't see how they can win four of the last five to win the cup. Detroit is too good at taking other teams out of their plan to let that happen.

I do think Pittsburgh has a chance tonight, just not a real good one. Detroit's first two goals in game one were from behind the net and off Fleury's pads. Pittsburgh was miserable in the face off circle at 29%. I doubt either of these points will be repeated tonight.

Just to add a little spice to tonight's contest, Sidney Crosby gave Kirk Malrby a little love tap after the game as seen below. Here's what Sid said about the incident when questioned in the post game:

Q. Kirk Maltby spoke after the game about the little incident or maybe run? in that you two had. He gave his side of it. I wondered if you can explain from your side what maybe occurred.
SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, he was doing what he always does. You know, he was giving guys lip service and things like that. And you know, I two handed him on top of the foot there as we were skating by. So he felt like it was necessary to keep talking after the game, and I thought I'd whack him and that was it.



For a lengthy discussion of last nights game, Chris Wassel of The Program and I guested on SportsTalk Soup on BTR after the game and discussed all aspects of the game and what we expect for the rest of the series. Chris's regular version of his BTR show will be at the regular time at 7:00 CDT tonight with instant analysis of game 2.

For the sake of trying to have a lengthy series, I would like to see the Pens do better tonight, but I am still picking the Wings to win again tonight, possibly in a higher scoring contest. Chris has a game sim at The Program that is not too far from what I would expect.

I just realized today, that if this series goes to seven games, I may be at Walt Disney World in Orlando during game seven with little chance to see the game. I guess we will see what shakes out. Plans may have to be revised. Maybe the ESPN Zone at WDW will be the answer.

In PredsNews...

Stay Classey has Colin Wilson in their top ten rookies to watch next season.

Around the Hockey World...

The SCF wasn't the only game last night. Perhaps an even a better game took place in the AHL finals where Hershey beat Manitoba on the road in overtine by a score of 5-4. Alexandre Giroux had a hat trick, including the game winner deep in the first OT period. Game highlights can be found here. Game two will be in Manitoba on Tuesday.

Before Saturday's SCF Gary Bettman has his state of the game presser with a Q and A afterwards from a few hostile reporters. Here is the TSN story on the interview but it is worth the read to look at the entire interview posted here. Here is the NHL.com version of the presser story along with a video of Bettman on NHL OnTheFly before the game.

The Seventh Woman, Dee Karl, who I enjoy reading, has a good story about Sidney Crosby at the Hockey Barn.

For those bored with the on ice action, Ryan at the RLD takes a look at his top ten UFAs.

A quick note from Mick Kern at XM204, don't cut your nose off to spite your face. "Suckers"

Eric Smith puts a wrap on day two of the NHL Combine.

RedLineHockey has Tavares as #2 in a USA Today story.

More later... possibly...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

The Dallas Stars named Joe Nieuwendyk the new General Manager in a major shakeup announced Sunday afternoon. Brett Hull and Les Jackson were reassigned within the organization. A press conference is expected Monday.

Brian Metzer has his game two preview up. I follow him fairly closely as he seems to be in tune with what is going on with the Pens.

Heated Skates is up to # 20 in their draft preview. They have the Preds with Jordan Schroeder in the 11th slot. With all the picks the Preds have, I expect some movement on draft day depending on what is on the table. That was last year's strategy.

Thursday's Notes - The Finals are in Sight!

The Detroit Red Wings finally took care of business and finished off the Chicago Black Hawks in overtime on Wednesday night by a 2-1 score. The Wings will now move to the finals to face the Pittsburgh Penguins in a rematch from last year starting Saturday Night on NBC. Did anyone else feel a complete let down in the Conference finals after a great second round?

The game itself was the best one of the series going scoreless through two periods. The first period was all Wings as they out shot the Hawks 21-9. In the second period the Hawks played much better but still were unable to score.

Daniel Cleary finally broke the ice 6:08 into the third to give the Wings a brief lead. Patrick Kane tied the game 6 1/2 minutes later to send the game into OT. The Wings had a chance to win in regulation but a spectacular save in the closing seconds by Christobal Huet extended the contest.

In overtime, it was all Detroit and Darren Helm scored the game winner 3:58 into the extra period. Cristobal Huet needs to be commended for his excellent play in goal for the Hawks as he stopped 44 of 46 shots at his net. He was the prime reason that the Hawks were able to make a complete turn around from Sunday's fiasco.

As rumored originally by E J Hradek, the first two games of the playoffs will be this Saturday and Sunday nights on NBC. Game time for all seven games will be 7:00 Central with the exception of Sunday which is currently set as TBA. A full schedule can be found here.

In the Preds World...

Hockey's Future Spring Organization Ranking are out. 21-30 is here and 11-20 is here. The top ten, when announced, will include the Predators, to no one's surprise, considering the number of top prospects that the Preds have as detailed in a piece last week. Last place goes to the Minnesota Wild and the Islanders, Devils, Ducks and Lightning round out the bottom five.

John Glennon has more on Colin Wilson and whether his maturity can win him a spot on the Pred's roster this fall.

In the PHX Circus...

At the hearing Wednesday, the schedule was set to move the case along sooner than originally planned with a new date of June 9 to try to sort out the relocation issue. The biggest news of the day was the information about the second bidder which appears to have offered more than Balsillie at an earlier time.

The second bid does not involve relocation which would overcome one of Balsillie's largest hurdles, that being the issue with the City of Glendale's claim for monetary damages for breaking the lease if the team leaves Phoenix. The Globe and Mail has a different take on the second buyer. There is a lot of fishy dealings going on and it will be interesting to see the whole story at some point in the future.

Around the NHL...

Glenn Anderson has an interesting perspective comparing the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Edmonton Oilers of the 83-84 season which was the last team to lose in the finals one year and return the next. The similarities don't end there. Check it out.

At the Long Island Tweetup on Wednesday night it appeared that a good time was had by all based on the tweets filtering out of the bar. A few technical issues were overcome and soon forgotten. It's great to feel like a part of an event 1000 miles away with a the link through Twitter. A couple of pictures follow, the second of which is really geeky, with four people probably Tweeting the person beside them.

Tweetup Organizer@dani3boyz and writer @7thwoman at the Long Island #NHLtweetup

@HockeyBarn @mediaphyter @dani3boyz @antheia Geeking out on their BBs at #NHLtweetup Long Island.

Long Island's Seventh Woman (pictured above) gives her full in person wrap-up to last night's Tweet-up on Long Island as well as an update on @dani3boyz and the big Tweetup planned for the draft in Montreal next month. Word on the street is that the next big push for a nationwide Tweetup will be for next Tuesday during game three of the Finals.

More news of marginal players heading to the KHL to play as Michael Tellqvist signs to play for Ak Bars. As I wrote Tuesday night, this trend will continue.

Mirtle has an update on ticket avalability at the NHL Awards Show in Las Vegas which will be held three weeks from tonight. This is on the heels of a prior story that wasn't well received by the NHL. I personally, plan to be there as a member of the press, and I am looking forward to it regardless of how many seats are sold. Mirtle also has a story with a poll on whether the Wings recent cup run qualifies as a dynasty.

Eric Smith of BlueJacketBuzz has a good article about how much Tampa covets Victor Hedman at this year's draft. I wonder how Brian Burke will use the Lightning's desire to his advantage in trying to land John Tavares.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

I link to this article not for it's content, but the fact that the hometown Arizona Republic has such a meager offering of the yesterday's hearing in Phoenix. It is no wonder that newspapers in the US are in trouble if they can't cover a local story any better than this. If nothing else the potential economic impact to the City of Glendale should be headlines.

Off topic... 100 best movie lines in 200 seconds.

This is an amazing thing that the Twitterverse did to help @dani2boyz fund the trip to the NHL Draft Tweetup in Montreal. After all, what would a tweetup be without the Queen of Tweetups.

The above picture is a rarity with Barry Trotz (with a big smile) from @loudestnoise at the Pred's appearance @rhcc Family Fun Night. on Wednesday night. Vern Fiddler, Peter Horachek, and Gnash also attended.

Puck Daddy points out that you just can't make everyone happy with the scheduling of the Cup's Final round. The two day gap versus eight day delay reminds me of the old laxative commercial from the 1960's, where they discuss the confusing state of prune usage, "Is four enough, six too many?" If you don't remember that, you aren't older than dirt like me.

More on the NHL Awards ceremony mentioned above... The NHL has now released a partial list of performers and presenters at the ceremony.

Big news for Preds Fans as Mirtle reports from his Russian contacts that it appears Alexander Radulov has decided to stay in the KHL at least for another year. It was a long shot that he would return and not cause major issues in the locker room. This may be a situation where David Poile will trade Rad's rights to someone if the right deal comes along.

On the NHL Hour, Thursday afternoon, Commissioner Gary Bettman said that the league had intended to play back to back games to start the finals for over a year.

Off day news and notes from Pittsburgh's Brian Metzer.

Mid-Week Musings and Round Up

Tuesday night's mercy killing of the Carolina Hurricanes by the Pittsburgh Penguins was welcome news for fans ready to move to the Stanley Cup Finals. All we need is for the Wings to finish off the Hawks tonight so we can get ready for a more competitive series starting this weekend.

Carolina came out and actually looked like they wanted to win the game and lead 1-0 early in the first period. The Pens tied the game and and then Cam Ward drove the nail in the Hurricanes coffin with the worst non-stop of the playoffs so far when he missed a little floater shot by Max Talbot to give the Pens a 2-1 lead.



Beyond that point, it was just a matter of time running out for the Pens to be rightfully crowned with the Conference Championship so they can move on for what appears to be a rematch with the Wings. Carolina looked bad in the second and third periods and took several sloppy penalties which did nothing but put them further behind the eight ball.

Much of the post game talk was about Sidney Crosby and the team touching the Conference trophy, which they did not do last season. It didn't make a difference last year and it won't this year. I'm glad they chose not to follow a stupid superstition and did the honors of posing with the trophy that they worked hard to acquire. For those who missed it, here is a video of the game's end, handshakes and trophy touch.

Tonight's match up between the Wings and Hawks will also be an interesting game. After a meltdown by team and coach alike on Sunday, it will be key to see if the young Hawks gain their composure and compete with the Wings or if they are too far gone to make a game of it. I honestly don' know how they will react but I do expect the Wings to wrap it up tonight, one way or another. Preview and game sim at the RLD.

In Predator News...

John Glennon has a new post today about athletes who use Twitter, including Steve Sullivan (@Sully26) and the Titan's Alge Crumpler(@GetCrump). He also quotes Paul Nicholson (@pwnicholson) who is the originator of the @predfans group among other things. John has a second article about the announcement yesterday that Colin Wilson was the USA Hockey player of the year.

Jim Diamond has a good piece about how Barry Trotz's longevity is a rariety in the NHL. Only Lindy Ruff of Buffalo has been with their team longer than Trotz. Over 100 coaching changes have been made elsewhere during Trotz's tenure with the Preds.

The Hockey Writers have a thorough examination of the Predators goaltending situation. The only flaw that I saw in their analysis was with their treatment of Drew MacIntyre who will be a UFA come July 1. Unless the Preds trade Dan Ellis or if they want to create competition for the back-up position in camp, I do not see them resigning big Drew in spite of his stellar season at Milwaukee.

Hearing in Phoenix...

Today's court hearing in Phoenix will be another circus. The main point when it was originally scheduled was for the judge to get a update on the "mediation" between Moyes and the NHL on the control of the team. It was reported Monday that some progress had been made on day to day operations of the team, but none on the issue of whether Moyes had enough control to file bankruptcy on his own.

There were numerous filings yesterday by all parties but the one getting headlines concerns Balsillie's new "deadline" of June 29th when the sale must be completed. Balsillie also proposes that the BOG meet to approve bids by June 12 and the auction to be on June 26. From experience, I can say that the BOG doesn't move on anyone else's timetable so I would really be surprised if that changed on behalf of Jim Balsillie unless they wanted to deliver a big fat NO!

Around the NHL...

Breaking news from the Denver Post, Patrick Roy has turned down the Av's offer.

Condolences to the family of Peter Zezel who passed away yesterday from complications from a rare blood disorder that he had been battling for over a decade. He was a well like Toronto Maple Leaf player who played 15 years at the NHL level. Zezel was only 44.

Jackson and I were discussing Dan Bylsma's past last night after he was interviewed by the CBC. Like magic, Mirtle answers all the questions that we had in this post.

In an effort not to lose headlines after Edmonton's announcement of coaches Quinn and Renney, Daryl Sutter called his own press conference to say that he was the best person that he knew to lead the Flames next year, but that he would interview other candidates. The dynamics of this "I'm the best unless I find someone better" situation seems a bit odd to me.

Federov and Kozlov jumping to the KHL isn't the only bad news in DC. Puck Daddy has a story that we will probably hear much about in the future. Allegations have been made during an arrest in Polk County, Florida that a steroid dealer has sold his goods to several unnamed Capital and National players. Hopefully, the allegations aren't true but regardless this is the kind of news that never seems to go away. On a lighter note, go here for Puck Daddy's Stanley Cup replica contest.

Chris Wassel from The Program announced that tonight's BTR show will be early this week at 6:00 Central.

Off topic space news... Three additional astronauts were sent in to orbit by a Russian spacecraft this morning to join the three already at the International Space Station. This will mark the first time that the ISS has been fully staffed with the intended crew of six.

The folks at @Astronautics continue their crusade against Twitter spammers with fake girl names by posting a list of "girls" that have invaded their space (pun intended).

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

Here's an odd one courtesy of @pwnicholson and @forechecker via RT. Rolling Hills Community Church is sponsoring a family night with the Predators in the west parking lot of the Thoroughbred Cinema in Franklin from 6-8 tonight. Barry Trotz will allegedly be there and they advertise "more fun than you can imagine". You can even get your picture made with Gnash. WooHoo!

Per @CraigCustance Datsyuk and Lidstrom out tonight

Nathan Fournier is reporting a Noon Eastern Presser by Patrick Roy to announce that he is staying with the Quebec Remparts.

A new interview with Jim Balsillie appeared in the Toronto Sun prior to today's hearing. Balsillie has now resorted to the Oprah school of being the victim in the whole Make It 7 matter. Basically, my interpretation is that he just wants to be one of the boys and the NHL won't let him play. Poor fellow, all dressed up and no team to play with. I hope Canada gets as many teams as they can support and Balsillie doesn't get any of them. What a whiny jerk, he is! Mirtle has a more even keeled response to the interview.

Here is another pre-hearing story from the Wall Street Journal about teams using bankruptcy as a tool if the Coyotes succeed in their sale.

After pouring through over 100 Tweets from @TheYotesDiva, @kash2112, and @kmcgran the best I can tell, little was resolved at today's hearing in the desert other than a few scheduling issues . The judge admitted that there was no precedent case law in this matter. The next major hearing will be June 9 with briefs being filed by June 5. This will be on the relocation and Glendale lease matters. The judge admits that no matter what is decided that it will be appealed. Several other dates were floated for a sale or auction but really are not worth discussing until the mobility issue is resolved. here is the Globe and Mail's first take on the hearing as well as the Hamilton Specs first report.

The NHL and the Washington Caps deny any knowledge of the steroids story linked above.

Rumors continue on next season's Winter Classic being held at Fenway Park. Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs discussed the posibility today.

When the KHL Offers More Money, What Can You Say?

Yesterday afternoon, I posted a link to Craig Custance's column in the Sporting News where he is lamenting the fact that too many veteran NHL players, like Sergei Federov, are jumping to the KHL to finish out their careers. In the story, Chris Osgood agreed that it was bad for the league to lose the older guys who act as a role model for younger non-North American transplants.

Unfortunately, this is a trend that will continue, especially in the next couple of seasons when the salary cap is projected to shrink. Teams will have to choose whether to keep young players deemed to be the future of the franchises, or hang on to older players that are in the twilight of their careers.

The Alexander Radulov situation is totally unrelated to the current phenomenon and will not be addressed here, but it was also a matter of following the available money.

The Predators are a fine example of the economics of the lessening cap. They have done a good job of signing the core of their team to multi-year contracts. Players like Weber, Suter, Legwand, Erat, Dumont and Arnot are signed for a few years to come. That leaves the remainder of the squad needing to be filled out with younger players with entry level contracts and veterans with lower salaries. Resiging Steve Sullivan or another free agent or two will also eat up available capital.

A couple of players whose contracts are expiring are Radek Bonk ($1.6 Mil) and Greg DeVris ($2.75). Given a choice of putting limited dollars into younger players or paying the veterans, there is no choice to pay the kids and let the vets move on. Neither Bonk and DeVris are prime candidates for the KHL but a players like Federov and Viktor Kozlov certainly are, on a team full of young stars that will command more money.

Teams will continue to try to lock up younger players, like the Preds will with Ryan Jones, Cal O'Reilly, and Joel Ward at the expense of letting veterans go elsewhere, including the KHL who is hungry for NHL quality players. The KHL simply can pay a certain type of player more money and if they are from Russia or other European counties, there is the side benefit of playing much closer to home.

The primary reason, the Russian and European players came to North America was money and now that it is not as plentiful, they will return to the home country to end their career for the same reason. Chris Osgood can lament all he wants, but under the current economic structure of the league something has to give and Federov, Kozlov and others in the same boat are simply following the available money. You can't blame them for that.

Buddy Oakes for PredsOntheGlass

The Day After a Three Day Weekend Round-Up

I hope everyone who was off enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend and that each of you took a few minutes to reflect on our fallen heroes, veterans and current active duty military folks. We could never do enough to thank them for what they do.

We had an abbreviated edition of PredsOnTheGlass Radio last night as we only went 30 minutes. It was a holiday and we didn't have any special guests lined up but I learned my lesson that it was a mistake to shorten the show. Chris Wassel from The Program joined us and we had a good discussion about the Predator's free agents and who would stay and who would go and we simply ran out of time. A side note, Chris's BTR show will be early this week at 6:00 Central.

After a dark night on the NHL ice, Pittsburgh will play the Hurricanes in Carolina where the Canes will try to save face and avoid the sweep. I find it hard to believe that Carolina can fall this flat after the way they played in the first two series. I expect Carolina to eek out a win tonight just for good measure. Ryan at the RLD has everything you need to know about tonight's match up.

Chicago will travel to Detroit on Wednesday for their shot at avoiding elimination. Joel Quenneville received a $10,000 fine from the league on Monday for comments made about the officiating after the Hawks were blown out on Sunday.

Big Hair Hockey has an interesting contrast of this year's Hawks team to the one of 1929.

The best hockey news of the day on Monday was a story from E J Hradek that indicated that the NHL would reconsider the potential nine day break between this round and the finals if it is all wrapped up by Wednesday night.

That is good news but not good enough for me. No matter when the series end, there simply doesn't need to be more than a two to three day break before the finals begin. Both of the apparent winners, Detroit and Pittsburgh are playing great hockey and there is no reason to slow down the momentum by waiting around for an extended period for TV or any other reason.

In Predator News...

At the Canadian Hockey League Awards ceremony, Pred's prospect, Jonathon Blum was named the league's Defenseman of the Year. This is another trophy on the mantel for a great kid who spent the end of the season in the playoffs with Milwaukee. There is a good chance he will start the season in the AHL next year but could see action with the Preds at some point before the year is out.

Former Predator Bob Boughner received coach of the year honors by leading Windsor to win the Memorial Cup on Sunday. Pred prospect Chet Pickard was nominated but did not win goalie of the year. Cody Hodgson won Player of the year while probable number one draft choice John Taveras won the Prospect award.

Around the Hockey World...

In the AHL Conference finals, Hershey beat Providence 5-2 to make the finals for the third time in the last four seasons. Houston's comeback run ran into a brick wall as Manitoba finally put the nail in the coffin winning 3-1. It is the Moose's first trip to the finals which will begin in Manitoba on Saturday. Yanni is not the problem for Hershey that will cause three games in four days, it's high school graduation according to Bangin' Panger.

News from the desert that the NHL and Jerry Moyes have agreed to an interim operating plan that will handle the day to day operations of the Coyotes. The NHL is footing the bill and is in no hurry to sell the team. Moyes wants the sale to Balsillie to go through ASAP. The question remains unresolved as to whether Moyes had enough control to bankrupt the team. The next hearing is Wednesday and the judge will probably be somewhat pleased that they agreed to the day to day operating plan. Balsillie has also applied to the NHL for ownership which will be rejected. The National Post gives their take on the agreement.

The best summary of the PHX situation that I have seen recently comes from Mirtle this morning. This is a must read to get a true sense of what is going on with Balsillie, Moyes, and the NHL.

It is reported that Patrick Roy has indeed been offered a contract as GM and Coach of the Colorado Avalanche. It would be a risky move and the Avs may be giving Roy more than he can handle but the Avs seem to be in compitition with the Habs for Roy's services. Another point is that Tony Granato is still officially the coach, leaving him in an awkward situation with a month to go before the draft.

There are rumors floating around that Sergei Fedorov is headed to the KHL next season. Japers' Rink does a season wrap up on Fedorov today.

The tradition of every player on the winning team getting time with the Stanley Cup sounds like fun but Jay Feaster gives the story of all the planning and logistics that are reqired to make it work.

The turnout for extras for the Don Cherry Movie is impressive.

Congrats to Dee Karl, NY Islanders 7th Woman, for getting a repost of her Bill Guerin story on HockeyBuzz that was linked on POTG on Monday. HB will give a nice story a much broader audience.

Way off topic... I found this article in the Examiner about hiking in Utah that actually has a picture of the Crystal Geyser erupting. I've been there twice and have not seen it go off. There is really no pattern to the eruptions. It is unique because it is a cold water geyser and is located near Green River, Utah. The rock formations around it make it a must see if you are every passing by there on I-70. It's only a few miles from the road and is something like you will never see anywhere else.

...And because you probably don't want to be at work today after the long weekend, this listing with pictures of the 12 Worst Product Names ever will bring a smile to your face.

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOntheGlass

Additions...

Here is an interesting story by John Manasso as he covered the Canes-Bruins series for NHL.com. John is another good writer looking for work in the shrinking world of the newspaper business.

The Washington Nationals spell worse than me. After the uniform fiasco of a few weeks ago, they have now screwed up a bobble head of Teddy Roosevelt.

Multiple reports indicate that the Oilers have hired Pat Quinn as head coach and Tom Renney as the assistant. A major press conference will be held at 1:00 CDT. For live local coverage, go to the TEAM 1260 or justagame.ca.

Forechecker has a profile of soon to be free agent Greg Zanon. Good he got it in now because he will be gone July 1 unless something unexpected happens.

Craig Custance writes on the emerging trend of losing veteran players to the KHL and the potential damage that will result to the NHL. To me it seems the only alternative for aging players that cannot gain top dollar in the NHL when clubs are tring to hold on to the younger star players with multi-year contracts. With the salary cap possibly going down over the next two years This will be the only way for some players to maintain their salary level. More on this in tomorrow's blog.

USA Hockey announced that among a list of awards that Pred prospect Colin Wilson was the College Hockey Player of the Year. He will receive the award on June 3rd in Colorado Springs.

In the daily afternoon breaking story from the Globe and Mail, David Shoalts reports that Balsillie will withdraw his offer for the Coyotes if the sale can't be completed by June 30. There are also numerous other items listed like that he would want control prior to the June 26 draft. If this wasn't a bluff, this would be great news for the "Save the Coyotes" crowd. The NHL Board of Governors would never meet and approve something that they wanted to do that quickly.

Afternoon update from Brian Metzer is here. I'm picking Carolina but pulling for the Pens tonight. I'm ready to move on to the finals without waiting a week or so.

Great comment on Pat Quinn that I couldn't pass on including here. From @WanyeGretz: Pat Quinn is so old he remembers Jesus as "that nice carpenter who lived down the street"