Tuesday Tidbits and POTG Radio Podcast

Last night's special Lighthouse Project/Islanders Edition of POTG Radio show was a good one. The podcast version runs about 80 minutes. We took extra time after the live broadcast to get into some actual hockey talk about John Tavares and what the Islanders plan to do with three healthy NHL goalies when the season starts.

We would like to thank our wonderful guests that included a panel of Nick Giglia who writes for Let There Be Light(house), Dee Karl AKA Islanders 7th Woman who blogs at her own site as well as serving as the Islanders correspondent at Hockeybuzz, and Katrina Doell, who is the Public Relations Coordinator for the Lighthouse Development Group and also writes for The Light Post.

While you might think the discussion of the Lighthouse project and the local politics of Long Island may be a dry topic, it is vitally important to the fans of the Islanders who don't want to face the possibility of of sale or relocation to another city.

Nick pointed out that he did not believe that a team that has won the Stanley Cup has ever been forced to relocate. The whole league benefits from the Rangers-Islanders rivalry so we all need to pull for a solution that will keep the Islanders in place. If you give last night's show a listen you will come away with a true appreciation for where things stand and will be willing to send support to the Islander's fans.

In Pred's Land...

From Tom Callahan, there will be a mini-Tweetup tonight at 6:30 at the Riverfront Tavern at Church Street and First Avenue. The tavern is an adult establishment so the POTG crew will wait for next week's all ages Tweetup that Tom also is planning. We will toast you from afar and watch for tweets with the #NHLTweetup hashtag.

Mark at The View from 111 has a nice post about Brent Peterson's benefit golf tournament.

Forechecker's all-time Predator team voting is going strong at OnTheForecheck. I proudly voted for Sully and Kimmo on the first day of balloting. Tuesday's Breakfast Links are done and ready for viewing too.

Jim Diamond continues his look at Team USA with a focus on defense. It is starting to look like the Pred's Ryan Suter will be a key player on the blue line for Team USA.

John Glennon covers several points at Inside Predators.

Tickets for the Preds three preseason games go on sale Saturday.

Around the NHL...

The Team USA news conference that opened with an apology from Patric Kane, was the most anticipated (at least for a few minutes) non-event that I've seen in a while.

The first day of the Team USA Olympic orientation camp was relatively uneventful as would be expected. ESPN's Scott Burnside and Pierre Lebrun gave a wrap up to Monday's activities in video and written form.

From San Jose comes word fromTodd McLellean that no one is captain . He claims that someone will earn the C's and A's in camp. It sounds like a good idea for a team that has consistently underperformed in the playoffs.

Blue Notes at Newsday has the first comments from Vinny Prospal after the official announcement of his signing with the Rangers. It appears that he is pleased to be back with John Tortorella and that Torts was a major part of his decision to take a pay cut to play for the Rangers.

The Hockey Zen has a new video with a discussion about Jeremy Roenick's potential for the Hall of Fame. I love watching the Nadeau brother's videos.

Here's an interesting note on Chris Chelios potentially sucking up to try to get a job in Toronto.

Mirtle has a piece that clarifies the ownership situation in Atlanta. The local writer that is quoted is a bit more positive than I would expect.

Chris Botta at Islanders Point Blank discusses the myth of open positions at camp. This is a good follow up to John Glennon's story last week about all the one-way contracts at forward in the Preds camp.

In the desert, Mirtle extracts 14 key scheduling issues to be considered prior to the September 10 court date. He also has additional discussion this morning from more of the 666 documents filed in the case. What a perfect number for this situation.

From XM 204's Hockey This Morning @htmbigcountry: Team USA hopeful Mike Komisarek interview on Hockey This Morning. They will continue to have interviews from the Team USA camp all week.

The moon and stars are potentially line up for labor showdowns in all four major league sports in 2011. Sports Business Journal has a capsule of each sports issues. All four leagues are represented by the same firm, details here. What would ESPN do if all venues went dark in the same year?

Psycho Puck Lady is on a roll with her top ten Puck Bunny Songs for the Office. She really needs more exposure for her wit and writings.

Finally, a look at some humerous finds from the Puck Daddy vacation in Maine.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Monday Updates and a Special Lighthouse POTG Radio Tonight

Welcome to a new week and another Monday. Tonight we will have a very special show on POTG Radio with the focus on the New York Islanders and their quest to build the Lighthouse Project which will transform the arena area into a showplace that will benefit folks far and wide on the island.

Our special Lighthouse Project/Islanders Edition of the show will include Nick Giglia who writes for Let There Be Light(house), Dee Karl AKA Islanders 7th Woman who blogs at her own site as well as serving as the Islanders correspondent at Hockeybuzz, and Katrina Doell, who is the Public Relations Coordinator for the Lighthouse Development Group and also writes for The Light Post.

This should be a fun show and help folks better understand why the Lighthouse project is needed to maintain the viability of the Islanders franchise. More detail on our guests can be found here in Friday's post.




In Pred Nation...

The guys at Section 303 with guest co-host @whatthepuck put together another great 303:30 podcast on Saturday. Guest included @JulieRobenhymer @dani3boyz & @ViewFromMySeats.

Today is the day for the Predators in NHL.coms 30 in 30 preseason preview. It is a very thorough outsider's view of the Preds as they stand right now. There is also a separate story on Sully.

John Glennon has a Monday roundup that includes a shakeup in the front office to make room for Derek Perez as the new head of marketing. Still no official release from the Preds on Perez. As we have expected, David Poile will meet with his staff this week to take a look at what is left on the free agent market. I still believe we will add a veteran or two after camp starts.

Jim Diamond at the Examiner has a story this morning wrapping up Team USA Junior version and talking about the Olympic Orientation camp that begins in Chicago today. Jim is now on Twitter. Follow him at @diamondhockey.

The View from 111 takes on finances in college athletics with a unique proposal.

Forechecker starts the week with his Breakfast Links.

Kelly at Confessions of a Predators Fanatic follows the players she likes best from each team with the ones she hates the most.

OHL Prospects blog lists ten players who may make the jump from Juniors to the NHL this season. Oddly enough, they include Ryan Ellis at #6.

There's new video up at Preds.com of Ryan Suter checking out the Northerntool.com 250. There's also vids of the cheesecake photo shoot for the calendar.

In another series of 30 dirty players in 30 days, Armchair Pools takes on Jordin Tootoo.

Around the NHL...

The Rangers were front and center in the news over the weekend signing Vaclav Prospal to a one year $1.1 million contract. They also hired Mark Messier as some type of front office adviser in which he will be groomed for the GM job eventually. I'm sure we will see a teary eyed presser within a few days.

The Junior Team USA finished off Russia 6-0 on Saturday night taking three of four in the series.

Matt Reitz who was a guest on the 303:30 on Saturday is starting a new series on New Media and Hockey. Here is the first day post.

Monday is a great day for another post from the Psycho Puck Lady. This one is about dating and is another must read to get your day started.

Former Short Shifter Stephanie Muraro who now has her own blog at Hockey Gal is guesting at The Hockey Writers.

Big announcement in Boston later today which appears to be an announcement of a lottery for tickets as this Stanley Cup of Chowder post reveals.

The Western Hockey Exchange takes a look at the product on ice in Phoenix. It's good to see hockey relates stuff on the Coyotes.

Off Topic... AJ in Nashville pointed us to this link where you can buy a homemade fail whale pillow.

Now here's something for you to ponder on a Monday.



More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

TGIF Finally! Edition and Lighthouse News

This week we have been a little more organized that usual in our preparation for Monday night's POTG Radio show and are announcing our guests earlier than usual.

We will have a special Lighthouse Project/Islanders Edition of the show with three very special guests that are on the front line in the fight to get the project moving forward that will provide development and solidify the Islanders future with an improved state of the art arena.

We will have Nick Giglia who writes for Let There Be Light(house) who has done an excellent job of supporting the project and disseminating timely and accurate information to those on the island and across the country. He has been doing such a good job that earlier this week he was accused of having "a very professional blog site" in a local letter to the editor (it was not meant to be a complement).

We will also have Dee Karl AKA Islanders 7th Woman who writes at her own site as well as serving as the Islanders correspondent at Hockeybuzz. Dee is a wonderful writer and even better person as she is adored withing the local Islanders community. She previously appeared locally on the 303:30 podcast.

Finally, we will have Katrina Doell who claims to be "the happiest person you have ever met" on her Facebook page. If that isn't enough she is also the Public Relations Coordinator for the Lighthouse Development Group. She also writes for The Light Post keeping folks up to date with the latest official happenings with the project.

So what is our stake in the Lighthouse Project you may ask? POTG as well as other blogs and fans in Nashville have been down the path where the viability of our team has been threatened. We were there two years ago and lived to tell about it. That puts us in a unique position to empathize with fans in other places that need support and encouragement.

The bottom line in the hockey world and the NHL is that it not about the Gary Bettmans and Jim Ballsillies of this world. It is about the fans and the love for their teams. Other places that have lost teams in the past still feel the pain as if there had been a death in the family.

Therefore, our support of the Islanders fans, the Coyote fans, and whatever the next town may be that will hear the foot steps of the Grim Reaper approaching, is based on the fact that we ourselves are hockey fans and feel a kinship to fans everywhere.

Maybe if the show goes as well as expected, POTG could get a backhanded complement (like Nick did) in the Long Island Letters to the Editor. That would be a badge that I would be honored to wear.

In Pred Nation...

Michael Cass at the Tennessean takes the opportunity of an inquiry by a sports authority member to go through another anal cavity check of the Pred's financial situation. One positive in the story is the fact that the current owners have placed a bid for Boot's DelBiaggio's share that is in bankruptcy court.

Forechecker has the Friday version of Breakfast Links. Be sure to nominate your favorite players for his all time favorite team.

Admirals Short Shifts has the lowdown on the Ads AHL schedule that was released yesterday afternoon. In summary, they are not pleased with it.

The Admirals are in the process of a total overhaul of their web site. It looks much better. They have done a good job. Check it out.

NHL Examiner Chris Morgan has an off season review of the Central Division. Also at the Examiner Lindsay Rutledge has an article about a few Nashville sports figures on Twitter. She was really lacking in the Preds department so I added a complete listing of the local blogs Twitter accounts in the comments section.

Jim Diamond has more detail on UAH being shunned by the CCHA. Goon's World has another perspective.

Sunday August 30 will be Preds Day at the Nashville Zoo.

Around the NHL...

Chris Wassel provides Part 2 to the NHL Worst Nightmare/Apocolypse article that I wrote last weekend. While the whole premise seems far fetched it is really not that implausible considering the way things are shaping up with team finances ans labor issues.

Mirtle has an extensive interview with Phoenix reporter Brahm Resnik about the Coyote's situation. This is one of the better pieces I've seen that deals with all issues involved. This could be a primer for where things stand right now.

After taking a closer look at the Yahoo preseason power rankings I really feel that the folks putting this together must have been under the influence of some really bad mind altering drugs. The Preds in 29th is one of many atrocities on the list.

Adam Proteau suggests that each team hire a "Yapologist" to co-ordinated effective communication. I guess then you would need an underling to be a "Tweetologist".

For some hockey action on video, Puck Central pointed out a couple of good videos yesterday that are great for a Friday morning. The first includes the five funniest hockey fights and the second has Ovechkin's top ten goals.






Finally, Preds fan Amy Dawson had a front page piece in the Tennessean today discussing her volunteer efforts during her year long job search. Having previously appearing on CNN, she has remained positive in her quest for a new position and has spent her time wisely helping others.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass