Hawks Win the Cup, Toews Passes It to Hossa, and Thursday Thoughts

Photo from @NHLBlackhawks

In a most unusual ending to the NHL season, Patrick Kane slipped the puck under Michael Leighton's pads 4:06 into overtime to clinch a 4-3 victory for the Chicago Blackhawks over the Flyers in Philadelphia on Wednesday night.

For the first time in Stanley Cup Finals history, there was confusion on the game winning goal where it had to be reviewed before the official celebration could begin. Kane knew it was in immediately but the official was slow to react, the red light never went off, and none of the broadcasters had an immediate call.

For 56 minutes, the Blackhawks had had dominated the game, out shooting the Flyers 41-24 and carrying a 3-2 lead late into the third period. Scott Hartnell tied the game at three with 3:59 remaining in regulation and the Flyers held on to send the game to overtime.

After much debate over the last few days as to who would get the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP, Chicago Captain Johnathan Toews was announced as the winner by Commissioner Gary Bettman.

Another storyline that was getting thread bare came to an end when Toews raised the Stanley Cup and then passed it to Marion Hossa who had been on the ice for the losing team the past two seasons. Even if you are not a Hossa fan, you had to fell the emotion of Hossa finally getting to lift the cup.

As always, the final game is bitter sweet for fans as it is the highlight of the season to see the winner crowned but it also marks the start of the off season when fans who have seen live hockey for eight months have to go cold turkey and wait for camps to open in September to see the teams return to the ice.

A true highlight of the evening was Jeremy Roenick's reaction after the game to the Blackhawks winning the cup as seen in the following clip. Roenick said before the game that he has never touched the cup and that he never would have the opportunity now that he was in broadcasting.

As he watched the celebration, there is no doubt that he was living vicariously through the young Blackhawk players. Roenick has indicated that if he gets the call from the Hockey Hall of Fame that he would go in as a Hawk. His reaction shows the power of the Stanley Cup and how much is is coveted by all that every played the game.

Calder Cup Update...

In Wednesday's other game, the Hershey Bears defeated the Texas Stars 4-2 to tie the AHL series 2-2. John Carlson's power play goal with 2:08 left in the game was the game winner. An empty netter was the final goal.

Texas will host game five which is their last game in the series on Friday night before the action moves back to Hershey for game six and seven if necessarily. Remaining games will be on XM Radio and potentially could be picked up by the NHL Network.

In Pred Nation...

Dirk Hoag gets his pencil out and does some fancy figuring to point out how miserable that the Preds were in the face off circle. I did not realize that they were the worst in the league on the power play. That would account for losing so much time chasing pucks to the far end of the ice.

Dan Hamhuis gives his thoughts after being on the ground in Haiti on his NHLPA trip.

Here's news from yesterday from @Sullivan26: On my way the CMT Awards Show. My beautiful wife and I are walking the Red Carpet.

Word is that Patten "We Are Nashville" Fuqua of Section 303 will be throwing out the first pitch at the Nashville Outlaws game on Friday. He also will be involved in the "We Are Nashville" Flood Relief Benefit on June 17th at the Red Rooster.

Around the NHL...

Now that the season is over, Down Goes Brown has some ideas of things to do.

A story has leaked that Rob Blake is planning to retire in a few days.

In a rare bit of common sense, the IIHF president may consider not holding the World Championships in Olympic years.

Rumors abound that Guy Boucher will officially be announced as the new Tampa coach later today.

Mike Chen has a wrap up of the 14 playoff teams that aren't in the finals.

Mirtle has the list of increases by market in TV/Internet usage during the playoffs.

Follow this link to read about and help Mandi Schwartz, a 22 year old hockey player at Yale, who has leukemia and needs a stem cell transplant. A friend's son needed a transplant about ten years ago and I was tested and listed at the National Marrow Donor Program. If you have never been tested, it is a great thing to do and may save someones life.

In more sad news, Flyers fan Katie Able passed a way as a result of a June 3rd auto accident. Friends petitioned the Flyers for a moment of silence at the game yesterday.

Our friends at The Program now have a forum. Check it out.

Speak of the Devs provides a list of unofficial team hashtags.

Odds and Ends...

Tony Hawk set up a traveling half pipe in the backwoods of South Africa bringing skateboarding to folks who otherwise would never get the opportunity.

The last scheduled space shuttle flight will probably be moved until 2011 and an addition flight could be added next summer.

This isn't right. Southern Living has an article on "How to Do Bonnaroo." The hip-ness Bonnaroo had has been severely damaged.

Avoid the area around Third Man Records tonight as it will be a madhouse. Jack White and Conan O'Brien are slated to appear.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Game Six Looms as a Potential Elimination Game Tonight and Wednesday Wrap-Up

Today is one of mixed emotions for hockey fans. On one side of the coin, it is exciting that a new Stanley Cup Champion could be crowned with the traditional cup raise and "no words" type situations in just a matter of hours.

On the other hand, it would mean sadness in that there would be no more hockey for over three months until next year's pre-season kicks off.

A third scenario would be that Philadelphia beats Chicago tonight starting at 7:00 on NBC and that we would have a true winner take all game seven on Friday night.

After Monday's game where the Blackhawks had one of their better efforts on home ice, it will be interesting to see if the Flyers will match that effort tonight to extend the series.

Chris Pronger had one of his worst career playoff games, being on the ice for six of Chicago's seven goals. On top of that, he was shoved into the boards by Dustin Byfuglien on a hit that has been shown hundreds of times over the two off days.

My expectation is that Pronger and the Flyers will use Monday's poor performance as an inspiration and come back and play well tonight. After all they have been through this season, they will not roll over and give up the ghost on one poor effort.

A Flyer win would set up a Cup final game seven that hockey fans everywhere covet. It that happens, I have to believe that it could be a great game where either team could win on a fluke play or one team could want it more, and take it. In a series that has had more goals scored than any in 20 years, it would be a great game to see.

So for tonight, let's go Flyers. I want one more game on Friday.

Programming Note...

I appeared as co-host on Ryan Porth's RLD Radio on Tuesday along with Anthony Curatolo. It was an excellent show and well worth a listen.

Agent Jay Grossman, who represents several of the biggest free agents of the summer, including Ilya Kovalchuk and Anton Volchenkov was the first guest. Jay provided great insight into the role of an agent, how the KHL agent system works, and how he prepares his young clients for the upcoming NHL Entry Draft.

The second guest was Nick Bjugstad who was Mr Hockey for the state of Minnesota this past season as a high schooler. He is slated to attend the University of Minnesota in the fall. He is projected to be a mid first round pick and could possibly be available when the Preds make their first pick in the 18th slot.

The show wrapped up with a discussion of tonight's game and arguments for several folks in contention for the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Listen to internet radio with Ryan Porth on Blog Talk Radio

Coyotes Ice Edge - Glendale City Council Vote...

Before last night's city council meeting, Jerry Reinsdorf withdrew from process for the purchase of the Coyotes.

That left Ice Edge Holdings as the only viable entity left in the process. The City of Glendale approved the a Memorandum of Understanding giving them exclusive rights to negotiate the arena lease for 60 days.

It looks like that if Ice Edge really has the funding that they will need that they will own the team. If not, then next season would probably be the last one in Phoenix for the Yotes.

In Pred Nation....

Mark Willoughby writes that "Thank-You is Not Enough". A huge thank-you needs to go back to Mark for giving everyone the opportunity to prove that "hockey fans aren't like other fans". Mark also has some pictures from the event.

Bryan Mullen talked to David Poile about the Pred's free agents. He also posted a few leftovers yesterday at Inside Predators. The news is that nothing has really changed.

Dirk Hoag takes a look at ethics in sports blogging. It is an interesting piece that was spurred by last week's Blogs with Balls conference. Our friend, George @stackiii Scoville offers the idea of "verified" blogs in the comments section.

Paul McCann's Slap Shot Radio will have another great episode tonight before the game at 6:00 with Bill Clement, Jesse Rogers & Terry Crisp. Catch it on WNSR 560 AM. Paul also updates the Pred's free agent and draft situation at Hockey Buzz.

Jim Diamond has more movie casting with the Pred's defensemen.

The City of Hope Celebrity Softball Tournament was held at Greer Stadium on Monday night. J.P. Dumont and Wade Belak participated. The Sen's Mike Fisher was also there. Anyone wonder why?

Around the NHL...

The Blue Jackets officially named Scott Arniel as their new head coach.

Adrian Dater updates the Av's ownership and the decision to keep it all in the family. I love Adrian's discussion with Gary Bettman on the topic. It's worth a click.

Tapeleg comments on Pronger and Byfuglien. Good Stuff!

Steve Lapore takes a look at the New Jersey Devil's coaching situation.

As we get ready for game six tonight, Matt Reitz has 10 questions answered in game five.

Elliotte Friedman has another list of 30 thoughts. These are always interesting.

Michelle Kenneth has more on the pending Ilya Kovalchuck free agency.

The heat should be on based on this from @ViewFromMySeats: So in the last 24 months, the #TBL have landed the sniper everyone wanted (Stamkos), the d-man everyone wanted (Hedman) & now the GM & coach

A new hockey league? from @dchesnokov: A new European hockey league called 'Nordic Trophy' may be born with clubs from SWE, FIN, CZE, GER, AUT and SWI.

The Sabres have cut off negotiations with their top pick from last year, Zack Kassian, after his arrest last month at a Windsor bar.

It's good to see Sarah Connors take over as the head of "Something's Bruin". Sarah was an guest early on in the history of POTG Radio and we wish her well.

Intent to Blow has the news of the NHL Summer Classic that hopes to draw on the popularity of the Winter Classic. The Lightning and the Panthers will be this initial participants but it could be expanded to cool weather sites in thefuture. Also, Byfuglien gave up. Just call him Smith.

In a piece that is no joking matter, Richard Roeper bashes hockey asking if it is a "white thing"? I've never been to a game in Chicago, but the Predators attract a good mix of folks and prove that "Hockey is for Everyone."

Odds and Ends...

Congrats to J.R. Lind and #TeamBowTie for a great run on Jeopardy. Sorry it had to end.

The New York Times looks a how humans respond to the constant stimulus of information.

Here's a guide to BB Messenger. I don't use mine much but this explained a few things that I didn't know.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

POTG Radio Live at the Nashville Flood Relief Tweet-Up and Weekend Wrap-Up

The day for the Nashville Flood Relief Tweet-Up has finally arrived. The event will be from 6:00 to 9:00 tonight at the Tin Roof at 1516 Demonbreun St. in Nashville.

An updated list of auction items can be found here. All proceeds from the event will go to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Flood Relief Effort.

Scheduled to attend and meet and greet with fans are Barry Trotz, Brent Peterson, Peter Horachek, Mike Santos, Pete Weber, Terry Crisp, Tom Callahan, and Stu Grimson.

POTG Radio will broadcast live from the Tin Roof at our regular time of 7:00 p.m. CDT. We will have Chris Wassel of The Program running the board and co-hosting while we talk to coaches an fans who are able to join us. Ryan Porth will also join us and we will have Mark Willoughby on as well.

Join us live on BlogTalkRadio or on iTunes.



Hawks-Flyers Game Five...

The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 7-4 in what may have been one of the Hawks better games of the post season. Dustin Byfuglien lead the Hawks with two goals including an empty netter to end the contest.

The Hawks came out with plenty of jump and went up 3-0 in the first period. The teams alternated the next eight goals with the Flyers never cutting the lead to less than two. The Hawks picked up two power play goals after struggling on the man advantage in the first four games.

As good as the Flyers looked in Philadelphia, they looked even worse in Chicago. Chris Pronger was a minus five (and on the ice for a PP goal) for the evening and was drilled into the boards by Byfuglien in what was probably the statement play of the game.

When the game ended, Ben Eager was certain to make sure Pronger did not add another puck to his collection. After his poor performance, you would hope Pronger would have more on his mind.

The series returns to Philadelphia on Wednesday where the Flyers will try to keep the streak alive where home teams have won every game in the finals through five games.

Calder Cup...

The Texas Stars continued to confound the experts by beating the heavily favored Hershey Bears 4-3 again in game two on Saturday night. The game was tied with 45 seconds left when Travis Morin broke the tie and sent the Stars back to Texas with a 2-0 lead.

Tonight's game in Austin will start at 7:30 and will be available on XM Radio.

Special Thanks...

Thanks go out to one of our favorite sites, Intent To Blow, who named us as the Team Blogger of the Week. If you are not following them or making the site a regular stop in your daily reading, you are missing out.

In Pred Nation...

From @dchesnokov: According to reports in Russia and Sweden, KHL Dynamo Minsk' Jonas Andersson is close to signing with the #Predators.

Paul McCann has an idea about Jason Spezza coming to Nashville as well as game five thoughts.

Jim Diamond takes a look at prospect Gabriel Bourque. Bourque's junior coach wouldn't be surprised to see him play a few NHL games next season.

Jay Levin at Preds.com has a look at the draft with Adam Kimelman.

Blake Geoffrion was named the College Player of the Year by USA Hockey. He will receive the award on June 12, in Colorado Springs at the "Night of Tribute Dinner".

Around the NHL...

Hawknut has a good assessment of "bandwagon" fans and why teams need them at VFMS.

For what it is worth, here are the results of the KHL Draft held on Friday. Not many familiar names on the list. Pred's prospects Roman Josi was drafted 95th which makes little sense as he signed an entry level contract with the Preds a couple of weeks ago.

It looks like Ice Edge has taken the upper hand again with a vote scheduled for Tuesday night on an exclusive agreement to negotiate with the City of Glendale. Here is an analysis of the proposed agreement. This post also mentions a name change to the Arizona Coyotes.

Guy Boucher has been offered the Columbus Head Coaching job per the Columbus Dispatch.

Patrick Hoffman has another interview in his series with hockey bloggers. This time he has James "Tapeleg" Gralian in a really good piece.

Dmitry Chesnokov has a good piece about Ilya Kovalchuk's options in the free agent market at Puck Daddy.

Twtapps has a nice mention of Dani Muccio's NHL Tweetup page and use of Twtvite.

Odds and Ends...

The legendary John Wooden passed away Friday night and Sports by Brooks has another great one, Vin Scully's reaction.

Local writer and Preds fan, J.R. Lind was on Jeopardy on Friday and will return tonight to try to extend his win streak. Here is the big win at the end of Friday's show.



Evolutionary biologist Mark Moffett looks at the social structure of any colonies and how it mimics human behavior. I wonder how it would change if they developed a Twitter app and could talk to other colonies?

SpaceX's Falcon 9 had a successful first launch on Friday after the first attempt was halted as the countdown clock neared zero.

Here is a brief history of how Foursquare came to be from Wired.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Game Four Tonight and Friday Round-Up

Game four of the Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks kicks off tonight at 7:00 p.m. on Versus. After Wednesday's 2-1 win by the Flyers, all thoughts of a short series appears to have vanished.

A win tonight for the Flyers is almost as critical as the one in game three. If the Flyers can win, the SCF will be shortened to a best of three series. If the Hawks win, they will have a chance to close out the series on home ice on Sunday night.

Fans have had a unique opportunity to experience the ebbs and flows of the playoffs this year in a way not possible in the past. To an extent, last year was the first year that several hockey writers and other media were using Twitter to report the hour to hour nuances that flow during the Stanley Cup finals.

This year, the list of folks Tweeting notes, comments and especially pictures has increased many-fold. The Ron MacLean story (below) ran rampant on Twitter almost immediately after it happened. Pictures from the games as well as around Chicago and Philadelphia have taken on almost iconic stature. We've seen an unlimited pictures of food, statues, and national treasures.

Twitter has also bonded folks together in a national network of folks and led to gatherings in remote cities like the Tweet-up for Flood Relief in Nashville on Monday. If you don't have someone to talk hockey with next door, it doesn't matter because you can have hundreds from all across North America that will discuss any topic you want to bring up.

In prior years, a few AP style write-ups a day was the best you could expect, but with Twitter fans can almost experience the "being there" feeling that has never been possible before. It will be interesting to see where technology takes us in the next few years to provide even more minute by minute coverage of the SCF and other big sporting events as well.

AHL Playoffs...

The Texas Stars did the unthinkable on Thursday night as they beat the Hershey Bears 2-1 in game one of the Calder Cup finals. Hershey had not lost a home game during the playoffs or in any game since March 21.

Deep in the heart of Texas, over 750 Stars fans gathered for a viewing party in the midst of summer heat. Scott McCulloch scored the GWG 2:10 in the third period. Goalie Matt Climie held firm stopping all 12 Hershey shots.

Game two will be Saturday night in Hershey.

In Pred Nation...

David Boclair brings clarity to the rash of recent Predator draftee signings.

The evidence is in that everyone had a good time at the very successful Rink Rebuild Event put on by Paul McCann and SlapShot Radio on Wednesday night. Here is the photographic evidence.

AJ also has a report on the evening at PMFF.

Dirk starts his season reviews with Ryan Suter at OnTheForecheck.

Mark from 111 has his weekly View. Don't ask a psychiatrist for a second opinion.

Predators sponsor and investment broker A D Vallett has been accused of fraud by the SEC. The Preds denied that he was more than a team sponsor. Here is a more detailed report from the Nashville Post.

Around the NHL...

Brian Burke is shopping Thomas Kaberle and is not happy with the negative spin he's been getting from HNIC. He also indicates that he doesn't want his staff with nothing to do on the first day of the draft.

For those of us south of the border, Puck Daddy brings us the video of the HNIC Bettman-MacLean visit on Wednesday night along with some unofficial scoring.

Ron MacLean still had enough in him to help pull a guy out of the Delaware River yesterday. Here's the video interview with MacLean giving his account of the incident.

Adam Proteau has a look at some of Bettman's other recent actions.

Fanhouse has a ranking of the top 50 Free Agents. Dan Hamhuis is #4 and Dan Ellis is #45. Michael Leighton at #40 is a bit of a surprise.

Versus did well in Game 3, and the first three games have the best ratings since 2002. Steve Lapore has the story.

The Wings have allegedly locked up Tomas Holmstrom for two more years.

Intent to Blow finds out that Kerry Frazier was really the umpire that cheated Armando Gallarraga out of his perfect game.

Forbes TV has a nice piece on how the Prudential Center has helped revitalize Newark.

Kingscast goes public with their bloopers in episode 62.

Matt Reitz wants an uncensored version of the "sounds of the game."

Odds and Ends...

There is a Firefox plugin that will replace any mention of BP with an oil smudge. There's also one to erase any mention of Justin Bieber. I could ruin my daughter's online experience if I installed that one on her netbook. Hmm...

Today is National Donut Day. It was started in 1938 by the Salvation Army to honor women who served donuts to soldiers during WW1. Dunkin Donuts gives a free donut wit drink while Krispy Kreme will give a free donut with nor purchase required.

More weird weather oddities in Arizona where dust storms are routinely closing I-40 east of Flagstaff.

I'm not an NBA fan but you can get a Lakers or Celtics badge on Foursquare just by shouting.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Flyers Make It A Series and Thursday Thoughts

Folks we have a series!

The pendulum finally swung the other way last night as the Philadelphia Flyers took advantage of the home ice change to get more beneficial match-ups and beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 in overtime.

Claude Giroux scored the game winner on a redirection 5:59 into overtime to send the crowd home with a victory.

The Flyers' Simon Gagne had a goal waived off earlier in overtime but Giroux's goal was clearly in the net and the deciding factor.

The game was a back and forth affair with both teams having the lead at times. Chicago's only lead was at 3-2 and lasted for only 20 seconds early in the third period. Patrick Kane put the Hawks up 3-2 and then Ville Leino came back and scored on the next shift to make it 3-3 which is how regulation ended.

Giroux was clearly the hero as he played well and assisted on two other Flyer goals. Patrick Kane broke out of his scoreless streak for the Hawks with a goal and an assist.

Game four will be tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. CDT on Versus.

Oddly enough, for the second game in a row, I had the winner and correct score. However, I did not pick OT. So a wise person would go the opposite way of my choice tomorrow since my luck has obviously been used up.

AHL Playoffs...

In the midst of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, the AHL Calder Cup Finals start tonight with the Texas Stars traveling to Hershey to take on the Bears. This is Hershey's fourth appearance in the finals in the last five years.

Hershey will be the heavy favorite after a season that saw them set the AHL record for wins with 60.

The AHL did a good job of staggering games so that they are played on Stanley Cup off nights up until games 4 and 5 that could conflict with SCF games 6 and 7 if the series goes that far. All games will be carried by XM Radio unless games 4 and 5 conflict with the NHL finals. Here is the complete schedule.

2010 Calder Cup Finals

Game 1 – Thu., June 3 – Texas at Hershey, 7:00 ET
Game 2 – Sat., June 5 – Texas at Hershey, 7:00 ET
Game 3 – Mon., June 7 – Hershey at Texas, 8:30 ET
Game 4 – Wed., June 9 – Hershey at Texas, 8:30 ET
*Game 5 – Fri., June 11 – Hershey at Texas, 8:30 ET
*Game 6 – Mon., June 14 – Texas at Hershey, 7:00 ET
*Game 7 – Wed., June 16 – Texas at Hershey, 7:00 ET
*if necessary

In Pred Nation...

Brandon Felder crawls out from his corporate hole and accesses what has changed for the Preds since their playoff exit. It's good to hear from you Brandon.

AJ has part three of A Tale of Two Cities.

Forechecker has the story of Dan Hamhuis heading to Haiti to visit kids at a TB hospital. Here's the NHLPA release.

Aaron Sims makes the case for Claude Noel as permanent coach in Columbus. I'm not sure that would inspire the locals from what I've heard. He also notes the Lane Lambert-Steve Yzerman connection for the Tampa job.

Jon Blum is number three in the top five rookies in the AHL playoffs. Number on is Jamie Benn who leads Texas into the finals against Hershey.

The Cincinnati Cyclones announced their protected list for players that they hope to sign before the July 1 deadline.

Rumor from @HockeyJordan "Preds offered BC boy Dan Hamhuis for #canucks prospect Hodgson and 1st round pick but Gillis declined (Via 1040).

Jim Diamond has the details on the Brent Peterson's Celebrity Golf Tournament to benefit Parkinson's research.

Forechecker has news on an auction to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Around the NHL...

To no one's surprise, the Coyote's Don Maloney was named the GM of the year at the GM meetings. David Poile of the Predators was a finalist along with George McPhee of Washington. It appears that the award was given to the GM with a quick turnaround as opposed to Poile who has had long term success building a competitive franchise on a limited budget.

The NHL GM's also have proposed a more permanent rule on blindside hits. It will now head to the competition committee.

The finalists were announced for Mark Messier's leadership award. Shane Doan, Ryan Miller and Sidney Crosby will find out who the winner is at the NHL Award Show in Las Vegas in three weeks.

NHL Entry Draft ticket's are free for a $1.25 download charge at the Kings website starting on Saturday.

Stever Yzerman post a letter to fans at the Lightning site.

Matt Reitz loves Ian Laperriere and has a fine article about his storied career.

With the off season looming, Michelle Kenneth has a list of hockey movies to take in this summer.

Intent to Blow reveals that Chris Pronger has won the Asshats of America award every year since 1996. ITB follows Pronger on an off day to see how he does it. Down Goes Brown also details Pronger's history.

Ducks Blog has a few suggestions for NBC. I have another issue with the sound. They can't seem to hit the right mix of arena sound and announcer sound. Maybe they should offer a SAP channel with no announcer at all and put the announcers in the forefront on the regular broadcast.

The LA Kings site now has a Fight Club.

Odds and Ends...

I'm not sure why this hasn't received more attention but the Journey's Backyard BBQ Tour will be at Cool Springs this Saturday.

There's a new theory that the US is more susceptible to hurricanes during low sunspot activity.

The flood ravaged Opryland Hotel will not reopen until November 15. In the meantime, 1700 employees are being let go as of June 12. I can't imagine that restaffing won't be a nightmare after five months.

Here's a blow to iPhone users, ATT just got rid of their unlimited data plan. Hopefully, Verizon doesn't do anything this stupid.

Interesting stuff on the new AP Stylebook that came out yesterday.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Hawks Win 2-1 With Back to Back Goals and Tuesday Thoughts

The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 to take a 2-0 series lead to Philadelphia on Wednesday night.

The game was all defense and goaltending for the better part of two periods until Marion Hossa and Ben Eager scored back to back goals 28 seconds apart at the end of the second period. Hossa's goal was on a scramble beside the net, but Eager's goal was one goalie Michael Leighton would love to have back.

Simon Gagne scored for the Flyers early in the third to make it a close game down the stretch.

After a wild 6-5 contest in game one, both teams chose to focus on clogging up the neutral zone and pushing the puck to the opponents boards. It was a very effective strategy and led to a much more physical game.

Dan Carcillo played his first game in the finals and found plenty of folks to hit and shove, turning up the hate meter between the two squads.

Leighton played a good game in taking the loss, but Antti Niemi was very sharp and kept the Hawks in the game until they were able to get the lead.

Going into Wednesday's game three, the Hawks have statistics on their side as the home team has been 32-2 when taking a 2-0 lead on the road for game three. One of the two was last year's Pittsburgh Penguins.

The first two games could have gone either way but the Hawks have come out with one goal victories in both. Fans wanting a long series hope that the Flyers will be able to break trough with a win and extend the series.

This series has a similar look to the way the Hawks beat the Sharks in the conference finals where the Sharks were never really out of it but still never won a game. Wednesdays game will go a long way in seeing just how long a series we may have.

Programming Note...

I was on SportsTalkSoup Radio on BTR after game one and correctly predicted a 2-1 Hawks win in game two. That just proves that a blind squirrel finds a nut every one and a while.

In Pred Nation...

David Boclair calls for a new captain at The City Paper. He also writes about former Preds and their shot at the Cup with the Flyers.

Jim Diamond continues casting the Predators with the defensemen.

From the all knowing @SLakePreds: Reports are D Robert Dietrich in negotiations with 4 DEL teams. Likely to play in Germany next season.

Paul McCann had a look at game one and information on SlapSHotRadio's big fundraiser tomorrow night.

The Sports Betting Network labels the Preds as a surprise team for last season and looks for bigger things next season.

Kelly at Preds Fanatic bleeds blue and lives to tell about it.

Around the NHL...

Chris Johnson met with Jeremy Roenick to discuss who he was cheering for among his former teams.

Buffalo prospect Zach Kassian was arrested over the weekend after a bar fight in Windsor. Kassian was a key member of this year's Memorial Cup Champion Windsor Spitfires.

Steve Lapore has a round-up of Saturday's broadcast by NBC.

Jay Feaster writes about what Steve Yzerman faces as the new GM in Tampa. Feaster should know.

Odds and Ends...

Some of the moon rocks that were distributed to all 50 states and over 100 countries by Richard Nixon have disappeared. There is an effort underway to locate the missing rocks.

Also on the space front, there is a huge competition among museums to land one of two soon to be retired space shuttles. Discovery is going to the Smithsonian but Atlantis and Endeavour are up for bid.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Hawks Win Unusual Opener and Weekend Round-Up

After looking through a ton of projections, predictions and analysis of what to expect from the Blackhawks and Flyers Stanly Cup Finals series, I don't recall anyone saying that game one would be a wide open 6-5 game that would look like something you would expect to see in mid-October.

The game was the perfect opener for NBC and Gary Bettman who wanted to attract non-fans for the remaining games. Having ten goals scored in the first two periods provided enough action even for a casual fan that normally claims that there's not enough scoring.

The third period was more typical of what you would expect to see in a game in the finals. Thomas Kopecky's game winner 8:21 int the period was the difference in the Hawks 6-5 victory. Kopecky had been scratched the last five games and played only because of an injury to Andrew Ladd.

Most of the scoring for both teams came from lesser known players with Patric Sharp and Danny Briere being the only "name" players to score. Briere also had three assists for the Flyers. Troy Brouwer was another hero for the Hawks, scoring twice.

The much ballyhooed match between Chris Pronger and Dustin Byfuglien was a non-factor other than Byfuglien leading all players in hits with 10.

The Marion Hossa "curse" also did not come in to play as Hossa played a solid two-way game and had two assists.

Game two will be Monday at 7:00 p.m. on NBC. I expect to see a totally different contest with the teams more focused on defense. Both teams will try to slow down play in the neutral zone and push play to the boards and into the corners.

It is unclear if the Flyers will start Michael Leighton or Brian Boucher who came in after Leighton gave up five goals on 20 shots. Boucher played better giving up one goal on 12 shots and may be called on to star game two, especially if Leighton's confidence level is down after being pulled.

One thing became clear in game one. The Flyers can be competitive with the Hawks and could push this to six or seven games if they can win game two. Game one was not what anyone expected but it still goes in the books with Chicago leading 1-0 in the seven game series.

Special Thanks...

I'd like to give a special thanks to Charter Cable and Columbia Power for their quick response to getting the power and cable lines restored after a freak storm knocked down the lines in my yard on Friday night. The Power company was on the scene within an hour and the cable/Internet was only off for 19 hours. I consider that excellent response on a holiday weekend that allowed us to watch game one last night.

Programming Note...

We will not have a POTG Radio tomorrow as it would fall at the same time as Game two of the Finals. We will return next Monday with a special Nashville Flood Relief Tweet-up Edition live from the Tin Roof. If you are really dying to hear POTG Radio, check out our archive of 63 episodes at iTunes.

In Pred Nation...

Bryan Mullen of the Tennessean sits down with Bary Trotz to get the coach's breakdown of the Hawks-Flyers series.

Buried at the end of this article is a note that the NHL GM of the Year ward in which David Poile is a finalists, will be announced Wednesday.

Mark Willoughby has a great piece on the drama playing out in the sale of the Texas Rangers and the "best interest" clause that may be invoked that could decimate future financing for sports franchises. The big issue will be whether a short term solution will lead to long term problems in the industry.

Ryan Porth looks at the Predator's forwards for next season.

Big Kev goes through the Predator free agents on defense.

Around the NHL...

Steve Lepore has the game one overnight ratings news for NBC. it was the best in eleven years.

Puck Daddy gives his readers their marching orders on how to improve ratings during the Stanley Cup Finals.

From the Point reports that Sidney Crosby will sign the biggest endorsement deal in the history of hockey.

Intent to Blow has the story behind the story of Pittsburgh getting the home ice for next season's Winter Classic.

Odds and Ends...

This time lapse video of the Gulf oil splill is a little confusing due to clouds cover at times but I guess it is the best that NASA has.

Like a lot of folks, I did not know that Seattle's Best was owned by Starbucks.

Which state has the least knowledgeable drivers. According to this survey, it is New York. i imagine part of that has to do with the fact that many urban dwellers do not drive.

Talk about the bottom falling out of the luxury housing market, a house formally owned by Cecil Fielder in Brevard County, Florida that was built for $4 million in the early 90's sold at auction for $1.16 million. The video with the story is interesting.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass