Cheap Seat Queen

Back to the arena

2010-10-20T14:42:00.002-05:00

Last night was my first game back at the Bridgestone Arena for the 2010-2011 season. I was on a cruise during the first 3 home games. It felt good to be back, but the game sure was a snore. The good things to come out of it: the Preds have at least a point in every game this season. I'm pretty impressed.

I was on a pretty big high last night after seeing Shea skate out as captain. I am still so proud of him. Last night, he proved why he got that letter. Suter went down after just 1 shift after getting hit knee on knee. Shea ended up with almost 30 minutes of ice time and did a good job of keeping Iginla in check. This morning we heard that Suter may be back next Thursday. The team put him on IR, so that means Sulzer will get a chance to play a few games. You never want to see anyone get hurt, but I'm glad Sulzer will get to play. I feel like he got cheated out of a spot when he was injured last year. Franson is in the spot that I feel like Sulzer should be in. I'm a known Franson hater anyway, much to my friend Ciara's dismay, but I can't wait to see what Sulzer can do.

Pekka's first game back could have only gone better if we had won. He stopped everything, and looked like he hadn't missed any time at all. From what I heard, Lindback held his own while Pekka was out. I was nervous about our goal tending before the season, but now I feel pretty confident. I'm loving what I've seen of this team (which isn't a lot, but I have this feeling), and I can't wait to see how the rest of the season plays out. This could be a great year for us. I feel like I can see a lot of change in players I questioned last season. I'm attributing it to the Arnott trade. Him being gone is having an enormously positive ripple effect through the team. Dumont is putting forth effort, and Sully is a man possessed. I've even seen improvement in Klein's game. Arnott was a cancer. He was lazy, and I feel like that carried through the rest of the team. Weber is going to be a positive influence, leading by example. I couldn't have picked a better person I'd want leading by example than him. I am so excited for this season.

Thursday the Penguins are in town. I may or may not have borrowed Jenn's Winter Classic Crosby shirt (I totally did borrow it and will probably wear it). I've turned into a Crosby fan. I don't know how this happened. Still want my Preds to win, but preskate will probably have me on the other side, scoping out Sid the Kid. :)

This requires Ben & Jerry's

2010-08-30T08:23:00.004-05:00

It's been since April since I've posted, but today I feel like I need to write something.
Classes started today, but seeing as how I only have class on Tuesday & Thursday, I'm laying in bed.
I decided to make today my official Paul Pity Party day.
I bought good junk food yesterday & don't plan to get dressed until I have to work tonight.
I've got The Lake House & The Replacements ready to watch because Keanu Reeves totally looks like PK.
Still can't wrap my mind around the fact that Kariya won't be playing this season.
And the fact that no one knew about his concussion symptoms, and he obviously played through some of them, makes me so sad for him. He loves the game; you can tell. I want him to have his name on the Cup.
I can barely remember the last game I saw him play in. I know it was against my beloved Predators, but other than that, it's all fuzzy. I remember a game back in November when he scored on Shea, and made him look foolish. Holy conflicted feelings on that one! It was amazing. It's going to be odd not being a traitor for him for a couple games next season, but his health is important.
So Paul, I pray you have a speedy recovery and come back next year better than ever.

An explanation

2010-04-01T07:41:00.002-05:00

They blocked Blogger at work, hence my lack of posting. The whole reason I started blogging was so I could pass the time at work. I just don't have a lot of time outside of work to blog. Guess I'll have to find a way to fit it in. But I just wanted to let my readers know that I am still alive, just like the Preds in the playoff race. 3 points and we clinch. Gonna be an interesting 2 weeks.

Paging the Nashville Predators

2010-03-09T17:52:00.002-06:00

It doesn't seem like that long ago when Preds fans everywhere were riding the high of the 7 game winning streak we had going. Remember how much fun that was? Things are definitely different now, for both the fans and the team.

I have no idea where that team went. The team we've been watching since the Olympic break is barely hanging on to 7th place in the West. Teams behind and in front of us are playing a lot better than we are, and with some consistency.

If we fall out of playoff contention and I have to hear the injury excuse again, I'm going to lose my mind. Weber is missing his second game tonight. Grebeshkov is missing his first game of what will be a 1-2 week injury after taking a shot to the groin. According to the Canadian papers, he had to have emergency surgery on one of his testicles after the game Sunday. Ouch! Get better soon new guy! None of our forwards are injured (knock on wood), so there are no excuses for us not scoring goals. Weber isn't the offensive powerhouse like he was last year. His numbers are nothing to scoff at, but the scoring needs to come from the guys making millions to do it. I'm looking at you Arnott, Dumont, Sully, etc.

Speaking of those three, I was thoroughly disappointed to see that line reunited after the Olympic break. All they do is make each other lazy. Rumors are that Wilson was seeing top line time at practice, with Dumont demoted to the fourth line. While the Atlanta game has started, I'm stuck at work and can't confirm what things are looking like. These young guys have their chance to prove why they belong up here. Personally, I think Wilson should never be sent back down. He is the total package, and I think he'll only get better. O'Reilly I couldn't care less about. I'm not impressed, and would have liked to see him gone before Jones, but such is life.

With about a month left in the regular season, this team needs to access their upper level. We all know it's there. We know how they can play when they're on, and they need to be on for every single game left this season. Win out and we're in. All we can do is win our games. The scoreboard watching helps nothing. If they go out on the ice and play 60 minutes, they'll have no reason to be checking the scores around the league.

About that...

2010-02-27T14:15:00.003-06:00

So the Olympics are about a day away from over and I have posted nothing. I'm awesome.
The main thing that needs to be noted is that it's Canada vs. USA for the gold medal tomorrow afternoon. It was someone's bright idea to start the game at 2:15 central, when I'm stuck at work. Lame. So it looks like I'll be missing all but the 3rd period. I'll DVR it in case anything awesome happens. If nothing else, it should be one heck of a rematch. Hopefully with a different outcome than the first time when Team USA took it to Canada and won 5-3. Either way it turns out, 2 Preds are coming home with medals, and that's pretty awesome.
We'll see how this game goes, but I'm not sure anything can top the Canada vs. Russia game. Watching Weber, Neidermayer, et al dominate Ovie and company made me grin from ear to ear.
3 days until the Preds are back on home ice. It's been too long. Definitely looking forward to getting back to the arena.

New England & Olympics

2010-02-13T14:57:00.003-06:00

Despite working for what seems like the past 4 weeks, I have had no time to sit here and work and blog. So depressing. But today, I have a spare few moments to post some thoughts.
The Predators are in up in New England making fools out of themselves. Starting with a loss to the Islanders. Yes, the Islanders. Because Erat took a dumb penalty in the last minute of the game. We did beat the Rangers, who were Gaborik-less, so I'm not insanely impressed. Ellis played lights out in that game though, so mad props to him. Last night we fell apart in the third period to hand the Devils a 5-2 victory. I didn't see the whole game, but man did Suter and Weber look weak in the third. Hopefully that play doesn't continue into the Olympics. I want Shea to bring home that gold medal, and he won't be if he plays defense like that. Rinne (and some blown coverage) also provided Kovalchuk with his first goal as a Devil, which apparently is a hat trick in New Jersey...weird. Hats were on the ice, and I was thoroughly confused. Jacob and I both agreed that Ellis should have started after his solid performance against the Rangers. Guess we'll see what Trotz throws out there against the Pens on Sunday. Not looking forward to that game, but I'll be at work, so if it's a massacre at least I'll avoid it. Goc may return Sunday, while Smithson is questionable. Wilson is showing fire, and I am so glad he got called up. I really love this kid and hope they keep him around.
The Olympics started last night amid tragedy. A Georgian luge athlete died during a practice run yesterday morning. NBC showed the video of the crash several times (which I thought was pretty distasteful). Needless to say, it was hard to watch. I couldn't help but bawl my eyes out. That poor kid was only 21 and he died trying to live his dream. Thoughts and prayers are with his family as they try to deal with this horrible accident.
I haven't seen the whole ceremony yet, so I can't comment on that. I did go through the broadcast schedule to find the events I wanted to watch. Hockey, figure skating, and speed skating are all going to be filling up my DVR for the next 2 weeks.
The Preds aren't back on home ice until March 2nd. It seems like a long time, but the break is doing me some good. Catching up with school stuff and staying focused is never a bad thing. It's good to have a break from the thing you love every now and then. It's especially good with the way they've been playing. It's not worth the stress, and some of the enjoyment has been taken out of it. So I'm trying to bring everything back into perspective. Hopefully this break will allow me to do that.

Maybe I'll do some Olympic blogging....
Although from the looks of it, I've sucked at even keeping up with my Predators blogging.
Sorry to all my loyal readers. :P

Back to back fail

2010-01-23T13:34:00.003-06:00

Phoenix game Thursday night = lame
Colorado game last night = more lame

Yes, I know the sky is not falling. It was two games, two losses, and we are not out of the playoff race or anything like that. However, as a fan who lives and dies (in theory) by this sport, I am so beyond frustrated.

The Phoenix game was in our hands. We dominated the whole game, expect the third period. Play 60 minutes for Christ's sake! Former Pred Upshall scored a natural hat trick in the third period. Lame. Seriously. Two of our supposedly good defensive forwards were both -3 in this game: Ward and Smithson. Seriously, so not happy that Smitty is back. Klein and Hammer were full of fail again. Ellis wasn't terrible, despite the loss. Legwand has looked really good the past few games, even if it's not showing up on the scoreboard.

The Colorado game was just crap. The team was shorthanded 9 times. 9 freaking times! One particular penalty that was complete BS was the goalie interference on Hornqvist that resulted in a waived off goal. It would have been the game tying goal. Anderson was out of the crease and it looked like he initiated contact, so that's crap. Every goal scored last night was on special teams. Colorado scored twice on the power play, and Franson scored on the power play for us. Some more stuff that irritated me was the lack of urgency with the empty net. I feel like the last few times we've pulled the goalie, no one on the ice seems to be really pushing hard to get a goal. That kills me. Act like you care! Fight to keep possession of the puck!

Unlike the Phoenix game, it's hard to pick out players who did well last night. Pekka was pretty much the only decent one on the ice. I felt like every d-pairing sucked, and our forwards pissed me off to no end. Ward was out with a groin strain, but Dumont, despite the flu symptoms that kept him out of the game in Phoenix, was back in the lineup. Legwand had another pretty strong game. He's been really good on the forecheck lately. If only he would bury a few goals.

Belak had another pretty uneventful fight. What's his purpose again? Sully had a fight that I had to laugh through. The guy had like 6 inches on him. Hilarious. But the ref wouldn't let Weber pound some punk, so Sully had to take care of business.

I was angry at Arnott all game. He is the laziest piece of crap EVER. On one shift he was checked behind the net. He lay there whining, pretending to be hurt trying to get a call. Meanwhile, the play goes to the other end and Colorado gets a good scoring chance. We were basically shorthanded while Captain Douchetard took his sweet time getting up and back to the bench. His post game interview pushed me over the edge. He was talking about being happy they were going to have a couple days off before playing in Columbus. Said it would be nice to relax. Considering he takes more shifts off than anyone, he should be plenty relaxed. Don't make me get back on my "Rip That C Off Arnott's Chest" soapbox.

This 3 game skid has put the Preds in 6th place in the West. With us not playing until Tuesday, we could be on the outside looking in very shortly. Here's to hoping the ship is righted the next time the team takes the ice.

More evidence....

2010-01-21T12:16:00.002-06:00

...that Carey Price is a douche.

Now, I'm not the biggest Cam Janssen fan, but come on. I looked at the game summary on NHL.com this morning and saw that Price wasn't given a penalty, not for roughing, not for anything.
Now, watching the play, Janssen is going for the puck and Price is out of the crease. Explain to me how Janssen gets the roughing call when Price is the one trying to throw punches. I'm pretty sure Price drops his gloves, ummm hello?!
The Blues ended up on the short side with Janssen getting a minor for roughing and Conklin getting a minor for leaving the crease. Please hold while I laugh out loud. Leaving the crease, really? Because Price wasn't way out of the crease. Conklin didn't do anything. He didn't grab, or beat down any of the Canadiens even if he did skate towards the action. One of the Habs got a penalty for roughing, but it should have at least been 4 on 4 because Carey Price is a doucher.
Watching the highlights, he should have at least had 3 out of the 4 Blues goals. He let Kariya bank a shot in off of his own butt. Sorry, but that was awesome. And McDonald's OT winner was from how far out? Once again, Price proves that he's overrated.
I might watch this video a million times, simply because of what it's called. "Cam Janssen DRILLS Carey Price" How can that not make you smile?

D-man fail

2010-01-19T21:04:00.001-06:00

The Preds announced today that they extended "defenseman" Kevin Klein 3 years.
See what I did there?
That will keep him here through the 2012-2013 season. The terms are 3 years, $4.05 million total.
That sound you heard earlier in the day was me screaming obscenities.
I have been on the "split up Klein and Hamhuis" campaign all season. Separately, they aren't terrible, but put them together and I will almost assure you that a goal will be scored by the opposition. Case and point: both were a glaring -3 last night against Toronto. Another thing I took from this deal is that it all but assures Hamhuis will not be here next season. Whether he's gone at the deadline or the offseason, I doubt he is in Nashville come this fall. Now, I don't know what kind of money Hamhuis thinks he can get, or will get, but I would rather have him than Klein. However, I understand that Klein is the cheaper option. But until they find a good partner for him (NOT HAMHUIS) he will be in my doghouse. I'd still rather see Sulzer on the ice than Klein. Poile may also be setting himself to be able to keep both Suter and Weber in the future. Weber will be up after next season, and Suter the following season. The money they will save by potentially not signing Hamhuis will allow for what will likely be very nice raises for Suter and Weber.

Either way, Klein and Hamhuis still suck as a d-pairing, and last night's "game" just makes me angry.
Really glad they went back on the road. I don't have to pay to watch them on TV. So if they blow chunks, I don't get as upset.
The upcoming schedule looks like this:
In Phoenix on Thursday, where my BFF Sarah will be in attendance. Hope she gets to see a good one.
In Colorado on Friday.
These two games are also the annual Father's trip, so hopefully that will be some good motivation to play well.
Then we move back East with visits to Columbus and Detroit.
Time to rack up some points against teams below us in the standings.

I guess we have to talk about it

2010-01-19T20:35:00.003-06:00

Leafs 4 Preds 3

And once again, the score does not tell the story. The Predators played maybe 10 minutes of the game last night. Unfortunately for us, the Leafs played more.

It started out bad. When you're down to the Leafs 0-3 nine minutes in, you've got problems. After the second goal, I was screaming for Pekka's head. Every goal was soft. Every single one. Finally after the third goal, Ellis made his grand entrance. Granted, the defense didn't help Pekka out much, but he should have had at least 2 of those goals. One (maybe the first goal) was simply because he wasn't hugging the post. Basic stuff here folks.

Thankfully, Ellis came in and played amazingly. He had the best save of the season on Stempniak (who I love and wish still played for the Blues, or for us). Find it on a highlight reel somewhere. I'm at work and the internet hates me today, so I can't provide a link.
Goc scored the first Preds goal in the second period by doing what the team had failed to do all game: go after rebounds. We were having trouble getting shots through, so Goc's was a big goal. The team made their short appearance in the third, and the crowd rewarded them. After we had tied it at 3, there was another epic standing ovation TV timeout. I'm not sure the team deserved it, but the few shift before that certainly showed some life and gave the crowd reason to cheer. The building was rocking, and we all but willed the team to score. Unfortunately due to some more Klein and Hamhuis fail (see rant below), Kessel walked in and scored the game winner with about 5 minutes to go.
As for the last minute or so, I have never seen a team play with so little urgency as the Preds did last night. Once Ellis finally made it to the bench, the team just seemed so slow, with no one really fighting to tie it up. Definitely disappointing.
Arnott and Smithson were back last night. Arnott definitely showed some rust. As for Smithson, Thuresson should have that spot over him. I would much rather a rookie get the experience. I am praying that the front office let's Smithson walk this summer. I can't handle much more of this. In other news, Tootoo should be back in Phoenix on Thursday, but Spaling will not be sent down. Thank God.
I made the comment several times last night that I'd rather be blown out than have the team come back only to lose late in the game. At least in a blowout, you don't get your hopes up. I definitely thought we had a chance once we tied it up. Just goes to show, playing 60 full minutes of hockey really does make a difference. The effort exerted last night is inexcusable. Losing to the Maple Leafs at home is inexcusable. Anyone else starting to think we're resembling the Blues and their home woes? Let's just hope we don't need the guys to start staying in hotels in Nashville. I expect a better effort when they're back on the 30th.
Sucks that it was such a crappy effort on the last game before a decent road trip, not to mention the good crowd, and the fact that it was Military Monday. The team sure did lay a couple of eggs for the military this year: Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto. I sense a trend. Meh, whatever.

Break out the brooms, Canada

2010-01-16T09:20:00.003-06:00

The 6am alarm for work came way too early this morning. I was up until almost 11 watching the Preds vs Flames game.

Thankfully for Calgary, Kipper kept them in this one early on. The Preds came out on fire. Every line was generating really good scoring chances, and they were stonewalled by Kipper, who should also be called a douche simply because he told Finland he would only play in the Olympics if he was the starting goaltender.
But back to the game, the Flames came out much better in the second. They starting attacking the Preds and not giving them so much space. I thought the Preds did a good job of adjusting and were still getting good shots on goal and pressure around the net.
This one was a nail biter going into the third. I think everyone watching was just waiting for one of the teams to make a mistake. You could feel that whichever team scored first would win. Fortunately for myself and other Preds fans, it was Calgary who made a crucial mistake. Horny banged the puck home right in Kipper's 5 hole. Perfect example of what going to the net can do. We managed to hold them off for the last 5 or so minutes of the game. Dan Ellis even took a shot at the empty net; again, love this guy. His post game interview was entertaining, as usual. Was really happy for him to get the shutout, his first of the year and tenth of his career.
With that win, the Predators swept this Canadian road trip. For the season, we got 10 out 12 points out in Western Canada. That's success if I've ever seen it.
The team is looking really good now. My only concern is us getting guys back from injury. With the team gelled the way it is right now, is throwing Arnott, Tootoo, and Smithson back in the lineup going to mess with all of that? Personally, I am fine with the way the young guys are playing right now, and it would be a shame to see Spaling, or Thuresson get sent down in favor of Smithson. However, I do want Tootoo back in the lineup. Belak is not a good fighter, as evidenced by the whooping he got last night. At least Tootoo's fights have energy. Belak bores me and contributes nothing. Watching him try to forecheck last night just made me want to laugh. Even if he had stolen the puck, he wouldn't have known what to do with it.
The team made it back to Nashville last night, and there's not another game until Toronto is in town on Monday. I'm ready for some hockey. This Olympic break is creeping up on me, and I am none too thrilled about the prospect of a month between attending games.

Let's talk about goalies

2010-01-15T18:05:00.003-06:00

I got pretty bored at work today, so I read through a bunch of my old posts. One that caught my eye was a post I wrote back in July about free agency.
Quoting directly from the July 2nd post:
"Joining the Blues is Ty Conklin. Snort. Good luck with Howard Detroit; not sure that's gonna pan out too well."
I am prepared to eat my own words here. Howard is now pretty much Detroit's number 1 goaltender.
Comparing stats here:
Howard: Games started: 28, Wins: 17, GAA: 2.17, SV% .928
Osgood: Games started: 18, Wins: 7, GAA: 2.81, SV%: .897
It's clear that Osgood is not the same goalie he used to be. I still really like the guy, but his play this year has been less than impressive. Contrary to what I said, Detroit made a wise choice in putting their eggs in Howard's basket.
Conklin isn't doing bad in St. Louis, but Mason pretty much has a firm grip on the number one position out there.
The Preds, in my opinion, do not have a number one goalie at this point. We have pretty much been rotating between Ellis and Rinne, with Ellis back in net tonight against the Flames.
Stats for our goalies:
Rinne: Games started: 28, Wins: 18, GAA: 2.74, SV%: .907
Ellis: Games started: 19, Wins: 10, GAA: 2.71, SV%: .911
The numbers are pretty close for the two, save the fact that Ellis has a higher winning percentage. Both have about the same number of losses as well. The GAA is inflated due to a few bad blowouts sprinkled throughout the season so far. However, I think both goalies have played fairly well. Ellis has definitely improved on his glove save, likely from watching Rinne. Both need to improve a little on their rebounds, especially when Klein and Hamhuis are on the ice. *insert vomit face here* Both goalies playing well could be bad for the Preds come July. Both will be unrestricted free agents this summer. I would very much like for Poile & Co. to lock one or both up before the season is over. Potentially losing both come July 1st would be a nightmare scenario. But let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Oil Spill

2010-01-13T18:20:00.003-06:00

Creative title, I know.
But they are worse than I expected this year. They are sitting in the bottom of the Western Conference, and on a two game slide.
I have no recap for the game last night.
I went out to The Front Page Deli with some friends for drinks.
The owner is a big Preds fan, but the game wasn't on when we got there.
Ciara's sister works there, so Ciara took it upon herself to call and tell our waiter to put the game on for me. She still has Clarksville connections and knows how to use them.
He came over with my drink and said "Some chick literally just called and asked me to put the game on for you."
The look on Colton's face was priceless. He was like "Wow, you have power."
It was hilarious!
Despite the game being on, we were pretty wrapped up in our conversations so I didn't watch much.
I saw the final, and of course was getting text updates throughout.
Sucks that Pekka lost his shutout. And apparently the second Oiler goal was all on Weber. But he got a goal, so I'll let it slide.
The boys made it to Calgary today and did some team building curling exercise. The winning team: O'Reilly, Rinne, Sullivan, and Weber.
Days like this I really love Twitter. It gives you that inside look at what the team is like off the ice. I don't know of any other sport like it.
Preds take on the Flames Friday night 8 pm central.
I'll be back Saturday with the recap from work.

Burrows vs Auger (with some game recap)

2010-01-12T15:47:00.003-06:00

I've read several blogs and articles about this mess with Burrows and the officials, and all I can say is that if it's true, the league really needs to nail Auger to the wall. The word is that Auger told Burrows that he made him look like a fool on the misconduct he called on Smithson on Dec. 8th in Nashville. Now, I watched this game online because I didn't have tickets, and I yelled a lot of mean things at Burrows. He very clearly lifts his head after the hit to make sure there will be a call. No doubt in my mind he milked it. The league rescinded the misconduct on Smithson after the game, but the ref still made the wrong call. But how was he supposed to know that Burrows is a fantastic actor? Acting or no, Auger is an idiot if he actually told Burrows he was going to get him back for it last night. Either way, Burrows did get it back last night. The phantom diving and interference calls were enough, but he got a misconduct at the end of the game for what I'm sure were not very appropriate things he said to Auger. All of this evidence is circumstantial. There is a video of Auger and Burrows talking before the puck drops, but everyone except Auger and Burrows is only speculating about what's actually being said.

As a Predators fan, I should hate Burrows because is throws , is a diving, acting SOB, and is an awesome player who scores against us. Unfortunately, as a woman who has pretty good eye sight, he's pretty good looking. He will always be hated when we play them, but you gotta get the guy props for what he's done after not being drafted. He's turned into quite the hockey player.

As for the game, it started out not quite the way we had hoped with Legwand getting the first weak call of the game. The green men were back next to the box, but the focus soon changed to Ward scoring on the grease monkey short-handed. The Preds looked solid in the first period. Ellis was playing well, as was most of the rest of the team. Hammer and Klein still suck paired together. Burrows' first goal of the game was all because Hamhuis just stopped paying attention and let Burrows get behind him, not even realizing he had the whole backdoor open to shoot at. The Preds second period was sloppy. We need to reiterate the "play 60 minutes" thing that we've been beating to death. Luckily, we came out of the second tied 2-2, with Burrows getting another goal on a good screen. Ellis had at least 4 guys right in the line of the shot from the point. More crap officiating came in the third. Bad calls on both sides, but one that blew the game was the tripping calling on Henrik Sedin that put the Preds on the 4 on 3 power play. Henrik had already gone to the box earlier for interference on Ellis. The ref called it interference because dry humping isn't a penalty in hockey. Imagine that.
The tweet from Ellis says it best: Hey henrik sedin...stop trying to ride me like a horse...I am not into guys
I love that guy. Really.
Weber blasts one by the grease monkey to give the Preds a 3-2 lead with about 5 minutes left. We hold on and walk out of GM Place the owners of 2 points and in a tie with the Coyotes for 5th in the West.
Terrible night for the officiating, but for once it resulted in a win for the Preds. Can't argue with that. But it will be curious as to how this thing with Burrows and Auger is handled.

Just not today

2010-01-12T00:16:00.003-06:00

Tonight's game against Vancouver deserves a recap, but I am wiped.

It's way past my bedtime.

Again, I hate you west coast.

Tomorrow I will write, but tonight I have one thing to say:

Shea Bay Bay :)

And FSN, he scores the game winning goal, and you interview Hammer sucks trade him? Umm he did nothing to deserve an interview.

Recap after work, but before the bar and Edmonton game tomorrow night.

Promise

Overdue recap

2010-01-10T13:23:00.007-06:00

Once again, I know I suck at blogging. I haven't read, nor have I posted since I got back from the trip last week. I need to post a recap, but I'm sure it won't be worth much since my thoughts are all but scattered at this point. But here goes nothing:
Have I mentioned how boring Illinois is? Until you get to Chicago, there is nothing to look at. Have I also mentioned how much I love Chicago? They have the Cubs, which ultimately is all that matters, but they also have the United Center, which I happen to love. That arena has so much energy, it's insane. From the anthem to the game ops, I walked out thoroughly impressed once again, not so much by the outcome of the game, but whatever. At least this game was better than the home Hawks game the night before, in which the Preds laid down and died in front of the first sellout of the season. We walked out of this one losing by 1 goal that came in the last 40 some odd seconds of the game. The game ended with a scrum because Seabrook, who is now also a douche, crosschecked Erat after the buzzer had blown. Horny and Weber came in to defend his honor, and then Marty started spouting off. The ref literally had to push and pull Erat over to the bench. Watching it again on DVR, Marty sure used some big boy words, and it was awesome. We had these drunk guys in front of us, who were actually pretty funny. My Hawks shirt did not go over too well at pre-skate. I was afraid Belak was going to charge through the glass and kill me! It was all but decided then, that the Blues jersey would not make an appearance in St. Louis.
Milwaukee was pretty fun. We got to see Sulzer, since the Preds had literally sent him down right after the Chicago game. He had a great comeback to the Admirals. It was an exciting game against the baby wings. We got a free cowbell and the Admirals won. I could not keep the Santorelli brothers straight for the life of me. Mike wears 18 when he's in Nashville, but wears 19 when he's there. And Mark wears 11. I gave up trying after about 2 periods. Me and Ciara both caught shirts. I gave mine to some kid, and Ciara gave me hers to give to Jenn. I got sicker than a dog the next morning. Needless to say, do not take all your pills on an empty stomach. Capri-sun and Malibu does not taste as good coming back up.
We went on to St. Louis the next day. The GPS took us through BFE and was totally gay because it was trying to avoid tolls. We did eventually make it to St. Louis. And then we felt like stalkers. We were in the same hotel as the team and rode the elevator with Legwand. I almost ran down Pekka and Andreas in the lobby. Both look great in suits by the way. Sully and Horny were spotted walking to Starbucks and in the lobby. So needless to say, pre-skate was quite interesting. Horny decided to be a douche and make faces and mess with us the whole time. Belak still wasn't over the Hawks shirt because I was still scared out of my mind. Kariya was out for this game because Buffalo douchers elbowed him in the head :( This was a nasty game. Both Klein and Marty went out in the first period. Jackman with a dirty knee on knee on Erat, with no call. Tkachuk crosschecked Klein in the back of his neck, again with no call. Dumont was high-sticked, but this actually resulted in a 4 minute penalty. The Preds had a lengthy 5 on 3, but only scored 1. This game was 4-1 in the third, and the Preds almost let it get away from them. The final ended up 4-3. There was an awesome Preds fan a section or two over from us. He had on an Ellis jersey and was a dancing fool the whole game. It was hilarious. We had Preds fans 2 rows in front of us. On the way out, we talked and I, being a little intoxicated, started a "Let's Go Predators" chant. Hindsight being what it is, that was not the best idea. Now knowing that the Blues had only won 6 home games this year, I feel really bad. They actually fired Andy Murray last week, much to my dismay. I like him, and it's not his fault the team has a whole lot of quit in them. The Westin in St. Louis is the best hotel ever. I got the best sleep of the trip there. Unfortunately, we were only there for one night.
We hit the road to Columbus, after finding out Weber had made Team Canada for the Olympics. This girl was very happy. Go Canada!
After what seemed like the longest car ride ever, because we left so late, we made it. Kelly and Ciara decided to go walk around and explore, but I needed some quiet time. So I stayed in the room. They came back awhile later and said that they had found the arena district and had probably seen Ryan Jones out drinking. We decided to hit the arena district for a drink or two. Having never been there, I really like the layout they have in Columbus. The arena was nice, and the area around it was pretty cool too. We went to some sports bar and caught part of the Sharks game on the big screen. John Glennon and another writer for the Preds were there too. Some guy came over and chatted us up for awhile. Kelly got trashed and we had to leave. That night was not particularly fun, and my buzz quickly wore off. When we finally got Kelly in bed, Ciara and I stayed up till about 4:30 just talking. Forgot how much I had missed that girl. We slept in the next day, but did go explore and find a Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. It was our chill day, with nothing to do until dinner and the game. We went and met Aubrey for dinner, which was an experience. The place wasn't at all what I expected, but they had yummy drinks :) We had some fun with the paper cover on the table. That's why you carry pens in your purses ladies. I would have loved to see the face of whoever cleaned off our table. We finished dinner a little early and had to stand in the cold for a little while before the doors opened. We saw some Nashville folks we recognized, and promptly avoided them. Some people you just don't want to be associated with. We made it down to pre-skate, which was filled with familiar faces. Seems a lot of people from Nashville made the trip for New Years. We mocked some of them, just because they deserved it. Aubrey discovered just how big of a person Shea Weber is. Hopefully she didn't drool too much over her new second team.
-Aubrey, it was a pleasure to finally meet you, and I hope you can make it to Nashville one of these days. :)
As for the game, we had pretty good seats, but it was a bit of a snore. The Preds looked sloppy, and Ellis got caught over-committing on the Jackets only goal of the game. It was 1-0 well into the third period. Eh yo Andreas beat Garon and tied it with about 6 minutes left (if my memory serves). If Steve Mason the douche had been playing, I'm sure the Preds would have been dominating. Garon was on his game and really kept the Blue Jackets in it. As has been the case between these two teams this year, this one went to overtime. Unlike the previous 2 games, the shootout was not needed. David Legwand took about 28 seconds to score on a very similar play to the one Andreas scored on. Both goals were completely because of Joel Ward and his work behind the net. Props to him. Nice to see the boys so happy after this one because it easily could have gone the other way. As good as Chicago and St. Louis are with their in game production, I was disappointed with Columbus. As much as a lot of Preds fans hate Krazy Kyle and the organ, it is a million times worse there. And they played that God awful tic tic boom song a million times, and not the good tic tic boom like I had thought. All in all, the arena was really nice, and the fans were not as bad as I had expected, but we were around mostly families, so I'm sure that played into it.
We were smart enough to go back to the hotel and change out of jerseys before heading out to celebrate New Years. Unfortunately, the team was on a plane back to Nashville and didn't get to celebrate properly. But we're pretty sure we saw some drunk Blue Jackets players. We celebrated the new year in this Irish pub across from the arena. It was a good time. We watched the end of the USA vs. Canada world junior game, which was exciting. Ran into Ryan from Nashville and had a chat. I probably had a little too much to drink, but it was one heck of a New Years. I had a blast and can't wait to go back to Columbus.
The drive home always seems so long. And me not bring able to drive the whole trip about killed me. I had a sprained ligament in my neck (as diagnosed at the ER the day we got back), and was in a ton of pain the entire trip. I could hardly turn my neck to one side. Other than that, the trip was a big success. The Preds got 4 out of 6 points, and I had a blast. I can't wait to be out of college and have a big girl job so I can take plane trips instead of car trips though. That was a lot of driving, and even with my Blackberry, I got bored.
It was nice to meet a fellow blogger, and hopefully the game pushed her closer to being a full on Preds fan :P

There have been 4 home games since we got back. We beat the Ducks last Saturday, lost to Calgary on Tuesday, beat Carolina on Thursday, and lost to the Ducks last night.
Last Saturday is a blur because I was on some pretty good drugs, but I had a DD to and from the game. lol
I worked Tuesday and it wasn't televised, so I have no comments.
Thursday was funny. There was a "snow storm." Bread and milk were scarce. As were the 15,000 odd fans at the game. No way that many people showed up, but those were the tickets sold. If we had lost to Carolina, that would have been embarrassing. We managed to win, and I managed not to die with all the idiot drivers on the perfectly clear roads back up to Clarksville.
Last night sucked. The game was boring, the team showed no effort, and we lost. The score 2-3 is deceiving. It was 3-0 going into the third. Horny was trying to do it all himself. Marty, on his first game back after douchy Jackman took his knee out, looked good, but not great. Our defense was bad. Weber and Suter were bad. It's awful when the pairing of Franson and Sulzer were the best. Bouillon was out with flu like symptoms. Arnott and Ward were both out as well. But that is no excuse. No one was trying, and Anaheim had Getzlaf and Selanne back in the lineup. No one even tried to stop them. Horny and Erat walked away with goals, but I was disappointed with the effort. It was a sellout crowd and the team laid an egg, just like the Chicago game. These third jerseys are just bad news, but again, no excuses. This team has to do better in front of these good crowds. If last night had been my first game, I would not have been impressed.
The team left for another Canada swing this morning. Hopefully the success on the road will continue. They come home On the 18th to play the Maple Leafs, but I'll reserve judgement until after that game. Back to back on Monday and Tuesday. Keep your focus Preds.

At least with the team on the road, Ellis and his tweeting and driving self isn't a danger to Nashvillians :P
If you're curious, follow him on Twitter @dellis39
His tweets are quite entertaining.

Ok, this is hella long and I am so not going back through to proofread, so I apologize for any bad grammar or spelling. But hey, this just wasted 2 hours of my 2 and a half hours at work. Score!

This is goodbye....until 2010

2009-12-26T14:49:00.002-06:00

I won't be blogging for the next week, but when I get back there will be a serious blog with all the awesome details of our trip.

Me and the girls are hitting the road at 6 am tomorrow morning.

Chicago awaits us tomorrow night.

Milwaukee and the Admirals are on deck for Monday.

We move on to St. Louis Tuesday.

Things slow down a bit for Wednesday. We'll be spending Wednesday and Thursday in Columbus.

Driving back to Tennessee on New Year's Day.

There's a hectic week ahead, filled with tons of hockey. For now, I'm off to Nashville for the first game of our home and home with the Hawks.

Let's go Preds! Make this trip worth every mile driven, every penny spent, and every drink downed.

Recap Preds vs. Ginger twins, grease monkey, and cheating sob

2009-12-22T23:37:00.003-06:00

Since it doesn't seem to be working, we're gonna try a different angle here, so hang with me.

Keep Klein and Hamhuis together forever. Never split them up because they are simply awesome together. They read the play well, clear the slot, and make great decisions. In my opinion, this pairing is much better than our so called top pairing of Weber and Suter.

So glad I stayed up late to watch some fail. I think we're all in agreement that Ellis is the number two goalie on this team. Time to look past the couple of average performances he had in those wins and put Pekka back in net where he belongs. I expect Pekka will be back in Saturday against the Hawks. With the back to back, I'm not sure what we'll do. Guess it depends on how Peks does Saturday and how he's feeling.

Positive from this game: Weber is venting some more frustration. That man is on another angry streak. I don't know if he's mad at himself for not playing as well lately or if it's something personal, but I like angry Shea. Tonight he beat up Kesler, who happens to be the only Canuck I tolerate. I'm not sure I've ever seen Kesler fight, so this one caught me off guard. But nonetheless, it was awesome.

There were these 2 guys next to the Preds penalty box in green body suits taunting whoever was in our box. I don't know how our guys kept a straight face. I was cracking up on the couch. It was so original.

Smithson took a shot off his hand and missed most of the game. My thoughts: meh. Point streak my foot. He is everything that is wrong with the second line. I hate him on the line with Ward and Leggy, but the paper was all about praising him and saying how well he's doing.
Bouillon missed most of the second period after taking what I think was a puck to the face. He came back for the third with a nice mark on his face.

Weber and Franson had pretty decent games. They looked better than they've looked in awhile. Suter was a little weak tonight, as was Dumont. But Dumont has been on my list for awhile. As is often the case in games like this, no one really stood out. The team looked weak as a whole; some more than others.

Taking 4 out of 6 points on the Western Canada swing is nothing to scoff at. We're still second in our division, behind the Hawks.

The boys will finally be back on home ice Friday before taking another three game trip.

This Blackberry outage is killing me. Missed so many e-mails today. IM and Twitter aren't working. I feel so disconnected. Hopefully it's fixed when I get up in the morning.

Luongo is a grease monkey.

And that is all.

A letter to the west coast

2009-12-22T21:10:00.003-06:00

Dear west coast hockey markets,

I hate having to stay up so darn late to watch games when my team is out there. By the time the game in Vancouver is over, it will be around midnight. I worked about 11 hours today (between babysitting and my actual job). I am spent and the puck doesn't drop for another 30 minutes. If you could be so kind as to make like Calgary did on Saturday and have afternoon games, I would be eternally grateful.

All the best,
Kelsey

Getting up and making it to work at 8 tomorrow seems highly unlikely after being up half the night. I am a grandma, and I enjoy, nay, need my 10 hours a night. There is no shame in that, and I know I am not the typical college student, seeing as how I am in bed by 10 almost on a nightly basis. Taking that into consideration, New Years should be interesting. This road trip is going to dramatically affect my sleep schedule. Ciara and I already decided there may be some cranky times in the car. It may be best if I leave my Blues jersey here at home and not push Kelly that far. haha

I'm going to go back to watching the Sharks play at a decent hour. By the way, thanks a lot 20 cent for ruining Nabby's shutout for my fantasy team.

The Canada swing continues

2009-12-19T14:15:00.004-06:00

Boy am I glad I didn't go to bed Thursday night after the Preds were down 2-0 to Edmonton within the first 5 minutes. That turned out to be quite the game. The final was 6-3. And the Preds have now scored 5 or more goals in the last 3 games. Yes, the Predators, who were so offensively inept earlier this season. Again, we're seeing fire from the team of nobodies.

They're in Calgary today. Unfortunately, I won't get to see much of this game. I don't get off until 3:30, and then I have to babysit. Thank God for DVR.

Per twitter, Ellis is in goal this afternoon. Maybe Pekka needs a break. He was certainly not a happy camper after being pulled Thursday. But neither of those goals were on him.

Klein and Hamhuis still suck and need to be split.

7 days until the boys are back on home ice.
8 days until the boys, and us girls are in Chicago

By the way, the 10 day forecast for Chicago calls for snow the 2 days before we go and the day we get there. Pray we don't end up in a ditch somewhere :)

Mid-game Note

2009-12-17T20:58:00.002-06:00

SPLIT HAMHUIS AND KLEIN NOW!

Play Sulzer and bench Klein. This is ridiculous.

Now that's what I call a hockey game

2009-12-16T16:30:00.003-06:00

Nashville 7 Tampa Bay 4
A nightmare game for both goalies, that's for sure. After a less than stellar first period, the Predators came to play in the second. It was 2-1 Tampa after one period, our defense looked like crap, and I was worried.
Every qualm I had about this game was gone after the second. The Preds scored 5 unanswered goals in the second. Yes, 5 goals in one period. Shea "Freaking" Weber had the best fight of the season. That man is scary when he's angry, and it is so hot. I hate that he was off the ice for 5 minutes, but Downie must have really pissed him off. I was in Wendy's seats again last night. She was on the glass over in the corner, and had a great view of the fight. But I had an even better view of Shea in the box. Needless to say, the love hate relationship I've had going with him is totally back to love. I was hoping for a goal so he'd have a Gordie Howe last night, but oh well. Hopefully that fight is what he needed to turn his game around. After looking weak on two breakaway goals, he looked a lot more solid after returning from serving his major.

One thing I loved about this game was that despite scoring 7 goals, no one had a hat trick or scored more than once. We had 7 different goal scorers. Belak, Klein, Bouillon, and Sulzer were the only ones without a point, besides Pekka.

There were 3 fights, if you will. First was Weber's awesomeness, Klein gave it a pretty good go next. Then Smithson "fought" Malone. It was not a fight. But both got 5 minutes. They had exchanged crosschecks and face washes, then Malone knocked Smitty down on the ice, so I guess that warranted a fighting major for both. Meh, whatever.

I haven't been that into a game in awhile. So glad that the team put on a great show in front of a respectable crowd for a Tuesday night.

Jacob brought up a good point last night. He and Willy were talking about what they'd most like to see on the ice. Jacob asked our group. After we all gave what turned out to be the wrong answers, he pointed out that Smithson has yet to record an assist. He has 5 goals, but no helpers. I don't know why, but that is so funny to me. Smitty's career high is 7 goals, and we're not even halfway through the season yet. I hate that he always turns it up in contract years. They always bring him back, and I'm over it.
*Jacob and Willy both work for the Preds and the radio station that broadcasts the games and player shows

This was Nick Spaling's first NHL game, and he collected an assist. He looked pretty good out there, despite seeing limited ice time, as he was on a line with Belak. During warmups, they had him with Hornqvist and Jones. I don't know why they didn't try that line for the game because I think it just might work. They were all in Milwaukee together. But Trotz probably didn't want 3 young guys together. Whatever.

Apparently Franson was called up today. I have no idea what the deal is there. Does that mean Sulzer sits tomorrow against Edmonton? I like both of them, and want them both to play. But everyone knows that Trotz doesn't have the stones to sit one of the vets who have been struggling *coughKleincough*

Still harping on the "break up the boyfriends" thing. Sulzer and Weber spent most of training camp together, and they were stellar. Why we don't try that in a game situation is beyond me. I know they won't do it, but I just want us to spread the talent. Maybe giving Weber and Suter a break from each other would help the rookies we've got at the blueline. Franson grew up with Shea, so I think it goes without saying that there could definitely be some potential for Shea to help him improve his game.

I'm not going to focus on the stuff I'm still irritated about because that game was too awesome for that. The only downside is that we don't have another home game until December 26th. It seems like forever, even though it's only a week and a half. The team has a tough Canadian trip ahead of them. Edmonton tomorrow, Calgary on Saturday, and then Vancouver on Tuesday. Calgary has been struggling lately, so hopefully the story will be a little different than when they were in town a couple weeks ago. The last two games should give the team a pretty nice boost before heading out though. Hope we come back with at least 4 points. 6 would be nice, but I would not be disappointed with winning 2 out of 3.

West coast games mean late nights, but thankfully my last exam is tomorrow. It's easier to get up for work than for classes. Money is a funny little motivator when you have a road trip and booze to pay for. 11 days and one more paycheck away

Dear Steve Mason, Suck it!

2009-12-14T21:40:00.002-06:00

What a game! Sully nets the hat trick, thus telling Steve Mason the douche to suck it.

I love that Pekka is having a better year than Mason this year. Basically, Mason is overrated. And he wears #1, so he's a douche. Pekka didn't play tonight, but Ellis had a decent game. Both goalies were giving up some pretty big rebounds, but Ellis and the good guys came out on top.

My only other pet peeve from this game was the penalties. Columbus had 8 power plays. EIGHT! One or two of the calls were bs, like the "trip" on Weber when he didn't even touch the guy until he was already falling down on the ice. That call gave the BJs over a minute of 5 on 3. Fortunately, they didn't even get a shot on goal. Despite giving up 2 power play goals, I don't think the PK did terrible. Those guys must be pretty tired though.

Hope our penalty killers get a good night's rest because they have to be ready to battle Tampa Bay tomorrow.

I'm assuming Pekka will be in net. I know I would feel better with him playing. That's not a knock on Ellis, but his game just makes me so nervous.

The next time the Preds play the Jackets, I will be there. And I can't wait. I can only hope the game is in similar fashion to tonight's.

Random Monday Musings

2009-12-14T16:52:00.002-06:00

I was too drunk Saturday night to have much recollection about the Wings game. Thank God for DVR. I wasn't feeling well today, so instead of spending all day at work, I came home early, made some soup, and watched the game again.

Suter and Weber had bad games. Both were -2, and Weber was really undisciplined. Before that game, he had 4 penalty minutes. Afterwards, he had 10. Pete and Terry remarked that he was playing like he was frustrated. Whatever it was, he needs to get a handle on it. Him being in the box that much is not acceptable, no matter how hot it may or may not be.

Why in God's name did we start the overtime period with the D pairing of Hammer and Klein? This is the worst pairing since Zidlicky and Koistenen. They sucked earlier in the year, so they split them up. And now they're back together? Wtf? Someone please enlighten me. Needless to say, I was not surprised when Bertloser came in and scored the game winner 25 seconds into overtime.

As much as I hate to say it, it might be time to break up the boyfriends (Suter and Webs) and spread the talent.

The team sent Franson down to Milwaukee yesterday. Guess that means Sulzer will be playing. I'm torn on this one because Franson has been much better lately. But I am glad that Sulzer will be seeing some ice time.

Weber broke another teammate. Literally. Tootoo is out 3-4 weeks with a broken bone after taking a Weber shot to the foot.

As of right now, the Preds haven't made a call-up. Unfortunately, that means Belak will be playing. With Franson sent down and Belak in, the Preds will not have any scratches. Not sure I like that move. Anything could happen at pre-skate. If someone were to get injured practicing, we'd have no replacement.

Maybe they'll make a move and have someone here in time for the game against Tampa Bay tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the last home game until the day after Christmas. Me, Ciara, and Kelly leave for Chicago 2 days after Christmas. Less than 2 weeks until the epic road trip. Hope those northerners are ready for us.

Puck drops in Columbus in an hour. Here's hoping for no overtime. I can't stand giving away points to division rivals.

Meh

2009-12-04T19:02:00.002-06:00

No more streaks. Not seeing any in the foreseeable future. The team that was on the ice during that 7 game streak has disappeared. Someone should put them on a milk carton.
I don't want to talk about the Minnesota game. Many profanities were screamed, and it resulted in me being chewed out for not acting like a lady. Umm guys love me. Until I can't get a guy because I'm too into sports or have a mouth too much like a sailor, I won't consider this a problem. And that game and our defense deserved to have the "F" word screamed at them multiple times.
Chicago and their big fat contract handing out selves tonight.
I'm at work till the puck drops.
We'll blog about this tomorrow at work, provided no crazies call and I've gotten caught up on Grey's Anatomy.

One ends, and one begins

2009-11-29T18:44:00.002-06:00

Unfortunately, the steak did not continue on Friday night. The Blues came in and stole the game 3-1. Mason was spectacular in net; I really do miss that guy. He's a class act. Kariya ended his drought. Somehow I knew it would happen against us. Hate that it happened that way. Nothing more awkward than jumping up and being excited when someone scores against the team who's jersey you're wearing. Talk about being conflicted.
The Preds were back in action against the Panthers last night. Somehow Vokoun manages to never play when Florida comes up here. Can't say I blame him, but it sure would be fun to yell that he sucks. Miss him too. Hated the way he left. Tootoo had two fights, neither of which were too spectacular. He ended up on top of the guy both times, but neither were a great victory. Legwand has been on fire this past week. He has a point in every game since the birth of his son. Let's hope he keeps it rolling.
If they hadn't won last night, I'm sure many of the fans, myself included, and maybe even the players, would have been calling for the new third jerseys to never be worn again. Thankfully, the team walked away with a 4-1 win, thus beginning a new streak. Let's see how far this one can go. Calgary is in town tomorrow. It's Military Monday, so I'll be going of course.
Hey Shea, show Phaneuf who's the better defenseman. Eat shit you overpaid vampire. :P
Iginla, I love you, but please don't do anything tomorrow night.
Even though Ellis had a great game last night, I expect to see Pekka back in net tomorrow night. Puck drops in 24 hours. Get ready boys.

What a nailbiter

2009-11-26T13:35:00.002-06:00

Make that a seven game winning streak.
The second period last night against the Avs was the worst period I've seen the Preds play in awhile. It looked like they got a little cocky, and Colorado took joy in slapping them in the face. Despite blowing a 2-0 lead, the Preds squeaked out a win in overtime. Sucks that they gave away a point to another Western conference team, but at least they walked out with 2 points. That's all that matters.
I think Shea must have read my blog last night because he unleashed the cannon. He blew one past Anderson to tie the game at 3. No more goal scoring drought!
Kariya, on the other hand, must have missed me calling him out. The drought extended to 12 games without a goal against Dallas last night. The Blues did win in a shootout though. They're spending Thanksgiving in Nashville in preparation for the game on Friday.

Hope the boys are enjoying their Thanksgiving with family. Enjoy the day off, and come back to the rink ready to play tomorrow. It's gonna be a tough one.
Mason vs. Rinne
Erat & Legwand vs. Kariya
Brewer vs. Weber
God, I wish I didn't have my foot so deep in both camps. But I'm a Preds fan first. So let's make it eight boys!

No pinching required, this is real

2009-11-25T18:27:00.002-06:00

Six game winning streak

Let that sink in for a minute

The Nashville Predators are on a six game winning streak. This team is playing some really, really good hockey right now. Pekka is lights out, and our offense is showing sparks. We're scoring on the powerplay. Hell, Erat had a 2 goal game against DETROIT. Legwand scored a shorty. It doesn't get better than that. Throw in Belak taking a stupid penalty for "hooking" Jared Boll in the man junk against the Blue Jackets, and I've been pretty entertained for the past few games. It's been quite enjoyable sitting in Wendy's seats three rows from the ice. Friday is my last game there, and we're playing the Blues. "How epic is that going to be?" you might ask. Jenn is sitting with me, so pretty damn epic. That's for sure. There is going to be a ton of "That's hot," "Mchotty," and many other musings throughout. All I ask it that no one smush Kariya too hard. My heart can't take it. I can't wait for this game. It's been on my radar since the season started.

Some bad to go with the good:

Weber is in the midst of an 8 game goal scoring drought. Kariya is on an 11 game goal scoring drought. What the hell guys?!

Sulzer was sent to Milwaukee in favor of Franson, who is terrible in my opinion. He looked awful against Detroit. He is too slow. It would be best to send him back to Milwaukee and let him work on getting his game up to NHL level. Sulzer is already there. We all know he can play, and it sucks that he's been sitting in the pressbox.

Preds vs. Avs tonight at 8 central
Make it seven, boys

No, I'm not dead

2009-11-15T14:55:00.002-06:00

I'm a terrible blogger. School has encompassed my life in the past month. This semester has been hell. So as much as it sucked, it was good that the Predators had 2 weeks between home games.
They beat Montreal last night 2-0, while peppering Carey Price the douche with a franchise record 55 shots. We outshot them 24-4 in the first period alone. I love the "shoot first, ask questions later" attitude that this team has adopted all of a sudden. Steve Sullivan was a man on a mission last night. I loved seeing that little man flying around the rink.
The highlight of the night wasn't the 2 goals or Pekka posting a shutout. It was Carey Price, the aforementioned douche, ducking into the net when Weber blasted a slapshot towards him. I laughed so hard.
And in case you're wondering why Carey Price is a douche, let me fill you in. Not only is he overrated, because he is, but he high-sticked Sully and got away with it. He also sold a BS goaltender interference call resulting in a waved off goal. Plus he looks like an idiot. I just don't like him, so he's a douche. :)
It felt good to be back in the Sommet. I sat with Laury in the lower bowl and discovered that her and Jenn have pretty awesome seats. Much better seats than I could afford, that's for sure. I got my tickets from Wendy for the upcoming Blue Jackets, Wings, and Blues games. 3 rows from the ice, yea I'm pretty excited.
There's a lot of hockey in the next couple of weeks. I'm not missing a home game for awhile, and that's kind of nice.
Still really looking forward to the ballin' road trip in December. Only about a month and a half left until we invade 3 out of 4 of the Central division's arenas.

Finally

2009-10-23T11:48:00.003-05:00

The Predators FINALLY won a game. The losing streak extended to 6 after the loss to Boston on Wednesday. By that point I was sick of moral victories. You don't get 2 points for those. I must say, I was glad I was on a plane and out of town so I didn't have to witness the 6-0 Dallas slaughter, the loss to Chicago, or the loss to Washington. The Boston game went much better, but we should have won. They didn't have Savard, and we still couldn't do it. But there wasn't much time to dwell on it; the boys went on to play the Senators in Ottawa last night. This game started out like you dream for games to start out. 3-0 lead. Yes you read that right. The Preds actually scored 3 goals, not in one game, but in one period. Shocking. Cody Franson got his first NHL goal! :) The second was pretty much uneventful. The third is where it all went to hell. Now, if you're reading this thinking "But the Preds won, why are you complaining?" then let me be the first to tell you to take off your blinders. If anyone watched that game and was happy and not upset at all just because they won, you're an idiot. The Sens mounted a serious comeback. Not only did they tie the game at 3, they tied it and 4 and 5. The 5th goal coming with 1.6 seconds left in the GAME. Pekka went to play the puck and turned it over. Suter had the guy in the corner but was way too soft on him. He ended up getting the puck back to the net. Weber should have been paying attention to the guy behind him who put it past Pekka. WTF?! I was in shock. Not sad, but pure angry. I was in a rage watching them play the last 20 minutes of that game. I am not happy with a single person after that fiasco. Yes, we ended up scoring in the OT, but still. Yes, Weber scored the goal, but no that does not mean he is awesome. If they had lost, that probably would have been it for me, honestly. I cannot stand watching the team skate around with no heart. That's the worst. I'd rather have a team of Fiddler's and Ortmeyer's who bust their asses every shift than have a team who lays back after getting an early lead. Never give up. I don't care if the score is 15-0 and you're winning. You'd better be jumping on every puck.
Now, don't go back on another losing streak. Chicago is next tomorrow. The United Center is tough, but it would be great if we can go in and steal 2 points. Ah who am I kidding? Sharp is going to make us his bitch. Meh, at least he'll be hot doing it.

Arizona Recap

2009-10-23T11:00:00.002-05:00

I had the best time in Arizona last week. I was so sad when I had to leave, but I was really glad I got to see Sarah and hang out for a few days. I flew to Tucson on Wednesday, and we drove out to Phoenix (Glendale) on Wednesday. We got there about an hour before the doors opened, so we walked around. The area right around the arena is really nice. The Cardinals stadium was right next door, and there were a bunch of shops and restaurants in a little shopping area. The setup was pretty much awesome. They also had a really cool fountain in front.

When we got inside, I wasn't blown away. To be honest, the arena reminded me of the Bradley Center where the Admirals play in Milwaukee. It wasn't too fancy. They had a nice pro shop, but not a ton of stuff, much like the Predators.
To my surprise there were actually a good amount of Blues fans there. We went down for pre-skate after the usher nazi said she'd look for us to come back up. "Um have you never had people go down for pre-skate before?" Dumb cow.
Some pre-skate pictures

I didn't take a ton of pics during the game just because I actually wanted to watch and not get hit with a puck.
Got some of former Pred Vern Fiddler

But screw him. He assisted on the game winner in OT. And I don't think he went offsides once. WTF? Go to Phoenix and now you stop sucking?
The game started off really good. No scoring in the first, but the Blues were flying. Mason looked spectacular. In the second, Backes started the scoring with a beautiful goal, in more than one way. :P The Coyotes tied it up about 6 minutes later on Doan's first of the season. Then the best part of the whole game happened. Kariya was forchecking, and the Coyotes player had the puck behind the net. As he went to come out with it, Bryzgalov wasn't paying attention. Kariya stole it off his stick and tapped it in. Unfortunately it happened on the other end from where we were sitting, but when that red light went on, I jumped up and was so excited! I love that man :) The Blues ended the second up 2-1. However, in the third Upshall tied it. WTF former Preds? The last 10 or so minutes of the third were so intense, but we ended up going to OT. The Blues dominated the first 2 minutes of overtime. They had numerous chances and were flying out there. However, Jovanovski got a lucky goal that was reviewed for several minutes. The Blues ended up losing, but still got 1 point.
I still had a blast at the game. It's always fun to go to other team's arenas. The announced attendance was under 7,000, but there is no way there were that many people there. It was empty and quiet. It sucks, because they have such a nice area. I don't anyone to lose their team, and it would suck if the Coyotes moved.
Sarah and I ended up sitting next to 2 Blues fans, also from Tennessee. One of them had an Oshie shirt on, which is awesome. So we high-fived when the Blues scored.
For $55 this was the view from our seats

Yea, it was awesome.

The opposite of road trip...air trip?

2009-10-13T18:48:00.003-05:00

Me & Sarah are invading the Jobing.com Arena in 2 days.
Blues vs. Coyotes
Honk Honk Honk Let's go Blues!
We'll be 3 rows from the ice in the Blues attack twice.
I'll be home Monday night, so pics and a recap blog will follow Tuesday.
By the way, first time on a plane since I was 4 and we moved back from Germany. I'm a wee bit nervous.
Look for us if you have Center Ice! I'll be in my Blues jersey of course :)

Well that was fun?

2009-10-13T08:10:00.002-05:00

Deciding to go to the game last night didn't turn out to be the best decision ever. I got off work early, so I decided to head down. It was Military Monday, so I got the best available ticket for $20. Can't beat that.
I guess I should have been listening to the radio stream on my way because by the time I parked my car, it was 3-0 Edmonton. I walked in at the end of the first to a score of 4-0. Jenn and I went to the bar and got drinks, so maybe that's why I just didn't care the rest of the game. It wasn't worth getting upset over. I wasn't going to expend any effort if the team wasn't. They didn't deserve it. By the end of the second period, myself and the guy sitting next to me cheered when Edmonton made it 6-0. It just became funny. Maybe the loss didn't bother me as much just because it was so hilarious and ridiculous in nature. It wasn't all bad; Colin Wilson made his NHL debut. Due to the score, he ended up with more minutes than both he and the coaching staff had anticipated, but I'm glad it went down that way. He looked really good out there. With all the line shuffling, I never saw the line I wanted to. Seeing Wilson with Erat was part of it, but I wish they had put Santorelli out there with them instead of Ward. Ward sucks and I don't get the hype. Our defense is pathetic. Our so called top defensive pairing has been invisible. Yes, they surprisingly ended even last night, but they didn't make and spectacular plays. I'm disappointed. Hammer sucks trade him is definitely living up to his name. He was a fabulous -3, only escaping his -4 because he was on for Arnott's goal. His partner Klein had a glowing -4 though. Vomit. That pairing clearly sucks. Break up Shea and Suter and Hammer and Klein. Something's gotta change. In the 3rd I was expecting the D pairings to get shaken up. Everyone but Shea and Suter were switched. Clearly they need a break from each other. Splitting them in the 3rd would have been a good thing, but whatever. The Cube sucks and I wish Sulzer or Franson were up here. On the offensive side (can't believe I just said that because our offense is non-existent), Arnott gets another lucky goal. He's still a lazy douche who loafs around. After he scored, there were no high fives or celebrating on the bench. And do you know why? Because at that point it wasn't worth it. Don't pat yourself on the back for getting lucky when you've been gripping your collective ankles the whole game. Erat had his ice time cut by 7 minutes. Maybe it'll light a fire under him for Dallas. He and Legwand have been dismal. For as much as they're making, I'd have hoped they'd be doing some scoring by now. Sad that only our top line is scoring goals. And if Trotz demotes Santorelli, I'm going to be pissed. He's the only one on that line worth a damn. So, he'd better not get punished because those two tools suck at life.
Hammer ended up being the guest at the post game show, and it took all I had not to yell Hammer sucks trade him. Freaking grease monkey. The team had a closed door meeting after the game, and I can only hope some serious ass chewing went on. Now's the time for our leaders to step up and take responsibility and right the ship. Yes, it's still early. But remember last year when we were struggling to make the playoffs wishing we had started out the season better? Remember all those points we gave away to the teams we were fighting with? Well, it's next season, and now is when you start out better.

So, there was a game last night....

2009-10-09T17:50:00.003-05:00

Opening night is supposed to be exciting. So tell me why I wanted to sleep through the first two periods last night? That was such a boring game. The 3rd period was pretty exciting, but that's about it. The guys came out lazy, took bad penalties, and were bad on special teams. For a home opener, I was not impressed.
Some sporadic notes:
Grant proved why he was sent down to Milwaukee. He took two dumb penalties that led directly to Avalanche goals.
Hornqvist was forgettable until the 3rd period. I think the disallowed goal really lit a fire under him. He netted two and it was awesome.
The disallowed goal was BS. Arnott did not make a kicking motion. His stick missed, and it just happened to be his skate that slid the puck into the net. Whatever. That non-goal drove the team to get the 2 others it took to win the game.
Where was Shea Weber last night? He was forgettable, minus the assist on the last goal. I noticed maybe one hit, and it wasn't even a really good one. Step it up Shea! Just because you have the "A" now doesn't mean you can be lazy like Darshmont was when he had it.
The optional helmet pre-skate is quite nice. The guys look more relaxed, and the scenery makes me smile. :) Minus Smithson. Put it back on PLEASE
I missed Sarah last night. Watching the game alone isn't nearly as fun. I can't wait to go to Phoenix and get to watch a game together again.
Our Power play sucks. As I tweeted last night "Year after year the Preds power play never disappoints to disappoint." At one point last night, Sully skated around the entire net with the puck and failed to take a quality shot. I was ready to scream. But the kid in front of me already hated me, so I let it go.
Our penalty kill was bipolar. We gave up a goal within the first 10 seconds on a power play and then killed off one only allowing them to score at the last possible moment. I miss Nichol.
I don't like Goc. His name is pronounced like crotch. And he does not deserve to wear the #9.
Ellis saved our defense's ass last night.
We may have a goalie controversy on our hands all over again. Unless Peks comes in and stonewalls Buffalo tomorrow, which I hope he does.
"Ryan Miller, well ain't you one pretty little bitch. Only goalie got panties and a brassiere underneath."
Preds are 2-0 and leading the Central.
Only cuz the Blues lost to the Thrashers last night. Screw Rich Peverley.
Good news for our division, Franzen from Detroit is out at least 4 months with a torn ACL. Tough break for him and the Wings though.

I suck

2009-10-06T16:56:00.003-05:00

School is encompassing everything. I haven't read any of the blogs I follow in more than a week, let alone update my own. I may end up only being able to update this 1 a week or so, unless things calm down soon. However, seeing as how I'm about to throw hockey back into my schedule, free time is all but gone. I'll be blogging from work on the weekends, unless we're crazy busy like we have been. Basically it comes down to this: I'm getting into all the upper division courses, and they're much harder and more involved. I work at a medical clinic, and it's getting to that time of year where everyone gets sick. So, we've been slammed. Not to mention the whole swine flu paranoia. Needless to say, I'm pretty glad I didn't go with the full season tickets this year.
Some quick sports stuff:
Baseball season is basically over for me. Playoffs are starting and the Cubs are out. There's always next year right Chicago?
The Preds won their season opener on the road in Dallas.
Santorelli had the winning goal in the shootout that went to 5 rounds.
I love this kid.
No one has looked as good as he does with Marty and Leggy since Kariya left.
Hammer sucks, trade him.
Home opener this Thursday.
Blues are 2-0, Wings are 0-2
And Vancouver sucks so far.
Some odd stuff going on in the NHL.
Oh and Markov is out for like 4 months, thus royally screwing fantasy owners, including myself, everywhere. Good, productive defensemen are so hard to find on the free agent market. I want to not suck this year.
Speaking of sucking, I'm getting killed again in football. I should just give up. Year after year, I continue to suck.
Oh, and my Titans are 0-4. The team with the best record from last season has yet to win a game. Maybe this will bump Preds attendance.
Favre beat the Packers last night on Monday Night Football.
He has now beaten every current NFL team. I think that's awesome.

I have off, am done with school for the day, and am not going to the Meet the Team party tonight, yet I have so much stuff to get done. Just stopping in to let everyone know I'm still around.

It's official: My uterus is under attack

2009-09-24T16:52:00.004-05:00

There's a problem with my favorite hockey team being so accessible and personable. Mr. Shea "Freaking" Weber plays for the Predators. Having met him and seen him on ice many many times over the past few years has had an effect on my view of things, namely other men. Today I realized just how much after seeing this picture:

This is when I stole the phrase I've read in a couple places:
Shea Weber is trying to kill my uterus.
I have always found him attractive, but the gun and the ACUs put it over the edge. I have always been told to stay away from the military boys. GI = Gross Intentions Scott was a Marine, so I didn't totally stick to that, but forget him. He's not even on the same planet as Weber. Doubt Shea is that big of a douche. LOL
It has officially happened; Shea has ruined all other men for me. Totally awesome guy in my Business Law class; he's a Cubs, Preds, and Weber fan. However, he's only mildly attractive because Shea has set the bar that high. Yes, I am aware that this will never amount to anything, but women look at and admire famous, or mildly famous, men all the time. He's just that hot. And that talented. For my money, he's perfect.
I wish the guys at Austin Peay were half as good looking as Shea is. I love the eye candy, but I will probably never land a husband that hot, or that awesome at hockey for that matter. Hell, it may be better for my sanity if he's not even into hockey.
Shea is hotter than any guy I have dated or have wanted to date, and I love him. Not love, love, but he's amazing. :)

The only other guy even close to that spot in my heart:

First hockey loves die hard. But this second one sure is a doozy.

Sorry to those of you who read my blog for non-chick, actual hockey stuff. Had to girl out a bit on this one.
Opening night in 14 days. Don't know where I'll find the time to keep up and update this with as fast as the season moves, but I'll make it work.

CLB vs NASH 9/19

2009-09-20T19:16:00.002-05:00

Got to attend my first preseason game of the year last night. It felt pretty good to be back in the arena and back at the glass. Me, Jenn & her daughter, and Laury had free seats up at the very top, where I usually am. After the first, it was clear that there were plenty of open seats down low. We ended up sitting by Wendy 2 rows from the ice.
Now for some game notes:
Tootoo knocked this dude out in the first period. I don't think it was one punch, but the last punch and him hitting his head on the ice, was enough to do some damage. They brought out the stretcher, but he was able to be helped off the ice by his teammates. Heard he went to Vanderbilt, but was expected to be fine.
Grant got the most ridiculous penalty I've ever seen in the first period. One of the Blue Jackets came at Grant from behind and the ref assessed Grant with an unsportsmanlike. Umm WTF? That was a really bad call IMO. The refs last night were pretty bad.
There was no scoring in the first.
In the second, Columbus came out really well. They ended up going up on the Preds 2-0. The second goal was a fluke, but Pekka was pulled afterward. It was planned, not because of his play. It was the plan for him and Ellis to split time. Ellis came in and stonewalled them the rest of the game.
Jones ended up scoring our first goal. It was pretty much awesome.
Arnott tied it up in the 3rd with an odd give and go with Dumont, but it was a goal nonetheless.
Just when things looked to be heading to overtime, the Preds got a late powerplay. The Predators have a pretty abysmal powerplay, but with 29 seconds left in the game, Shea Weber released a blast that went past the goalie. There is only one word that can describe how awesome it was to be sitting down low and seeing this goal: AWESOME
Shea ended up being the number one star of the game, so it was fantastic to be down there. Love Wendy for that :)
Santorelli played last night despite having played in Carolina the night before. He didn't click well with anyone like he does Marty and Leggy, so if they send him down based on last night, I'll be pretty upset. (Plus I just drafted him in one of my fantasy leagues)
Sully ended up tweaking his groin and leaving in the first period. He had tweeted about icing his groin all week, so I think they were being safe. Either way, no reason to get hurt this early on. Watching them try to plug someone in with Arnott and Dumont was painful though. Tootoo, Ward, and Jones have no business on that first line. None of them should even sniff above the third line.
I suck at writing game recaps just because I have an awful memory and focus on tons of random stuff, but it's preseason so cut me some slack.
Either way, it was good to see some live hockey, even if it did seem to be moving a bit slow. It's always nice to beat the Blue Jackets.

Fan Relations Fail

2009-09-18T21:28:00.002-05:00

I'm not one to complain often, but I'm irritated with the Preds fan relations lately. For starters, it took until the day before the first pre-season game for the tickets to arrive in the mail. It has never been that late before. Usually I get my tickets a couple weeks before the pre-season games. I saw on the website that the meet the team party is on Oct. 6th. Again, just 2 days before the regular season home opener. Granted, I didn't get a full season, so I can't go anyway, but it's always been earlier than that. Now, none of the young guys will be there. Honestly, I don't care to meet anyone else on the main roster. I've met all I care to meet. The rookies and new guys were the only reason worth going to that. I don't know if whoever does the scheduling for stuff took the summer off or what, but the way things have gone so far has been pretty piss poor. The thing that pushed me over the edge is the fee that will be charged to additional purchases. They are going to charge $5 per order for buying additional tickets. That's just about as bad as getting tickets through Ticketmaster. I am a season ticket holder; shouldn't there be some sort of incentive for me to buy extra tickets and bring more people to games? They are getting enough of my money as it is, and now they want to tack on more? At this point, I'm honestly not sure it's worth me buying an additional 6 tickets. That's another $30 in fees. Now, I haven't had my season tickets as long as some people have, since I'm just 20, but I have been loyal for 3 years now. This year, I know of at least 2 people who had their select a seat times before me. That is unfair. It was supposed to go by seniority. If they had gotten seats that I was interested in, I would have been pissed. Granted, I didn't move, or plan on moving, but it's the principle of the matter. I also found out that first time season ticket holders are getting all kinds of perks. This is total BS. If that's the case, I'll start canceling my account and making a new one over the summer. Fan relations is driving away the people who have been loyal just for the new accounts. Now, I'm not saying that new accounts shouldn't be given some sort of incentives, but those of us who have been around for awhile should get some of these things too. The 2/20 plan was a good idea, but there have been so many others things handled wrong that I'm starting to get frustrated with the whole thing. I don't want to be that bitchy woman who calls and complains all the time, but seriously, this is getting ridiculous.

NHL training camp

2009-09-16T18:33:00.002-05:00

I went to the Preds training camp today for the scrimmage. It was refreshing to see NHL players back on the ice. It was Team Blue vs. Team Silver. The rookies and vets were split between the two teams. There were a lot of people there watching, which I was surprised at because it started at 10am, but whatever. I got to see Wendy and Lisa again, which was nice. And Jenn came a little later. The Blue team started out strong with 2 goals from Mike Santorelli (the older one). He looked really good with Erat and Legwand. Ellis was in goal for Blue, and Rinne for Silver. Dumont was noticeably shook up on a few plays. Didn't really look like he trained too hard this summer, so hopefully he won't end up injured all season. He, Arnott, and Sullivan were all over the ice setting up gorgeous plays for the silver team. Really love them together. Weber and Suter looked sharp on the blue team. They were paired for a little while, and then they weren't. The D pairings varied throughout. The one pairing I would have liked to see was impossible. I wanted to see Weber and Franson together, but Franson was on the silver team. Klein and Blum were together for much of the game, but they weren't really noticeable. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. Maki was skating around hitting everything that moved. Same with McKenzie. Yonkman is still huge, and still sucks. He's too slow, and was on the wrong end of more than a few decent breakaway chances. The blue team ended up losing 4-5, but Mike Santorelli was a bright spot. He will challenge for a spot this year. Spaling was also really good, but it didn't show up the same way on the score sheet. After the scrimmage was over, I stuck around to watch the goalies run some drills with Coach Korn. A few of the rookies helped out too. Ellis looked really strong. I think he's worked on fixing whatever it as that plagued him last year. So here's hoping we have an awesome goalie tandem in him and Pekka.
It was nice to get to catch up with Wendy and Lisa, who I haven't seen all summer. But more than that, it was nice to have professional hockey back. Over the summer you tend to forget how fast the game is. But being in the Sportsplex today brought me back to that, and it was awesome. Only a couple more weeks until the opening game, but my first pre-season game will be this Saturday. And my tickets finally came in the mail today. And yes, they are hot.

A few notable countdowns

2009-09-12T15:11:00.003-05:00

22 days until my 21st birthday. Finally!
26 days until opening night vs. Colorado
32 days until I fly to Tuscon and get to see my BFF Sarah :)
33 days until Sarah and I sit 3 rows from the ice in Phoenix to watch my other team, the Blues
105 days until myself, Ciara, and Kelly invade the United Center in Chicago
106 days until the group of us gets to watch the Admirals in Milwaukee
107 days until we invade the Scottrade Center in St. Louis (Part 1) Honk Honk Honk!
109 days until we finish it out in Columbus. The first time there, should be a good time. And we'll be meeting a fellow blogger, and new Preds fan, Aubrey. Ringing in the new year in Columbus. Still haven't figured out how I'll manage to get of work on New Year's Day, but we'll see. If they all think I'm hungover, then so be it.

After the new year, things look pretty tame. But knowing me, that could change.

Rookie Camp

2009-09-11T13:17:00.003-05:00

I had no plans on attending any of camp, rookie or training, this year. My work and class schedules didn't mesh. Honestly, I was fine with that. For some reason, I woke up this morning and did not want to go in to work. I was laying in bed thinking about getting ready and hockey thoughts jumped into my head. I looked up the schedule, and on a whim, decided to skip scholarship work and make the trek to Nashville. I can always make up those scholarship hours. After all, I have until December to get them all done.
This was a new way to watch camp. I didn't have a roster, so the only way I knew guys was by the names on their backs, half of which I hadn't heard of. I had my planner with me, so I took some scattered notes. Some hockey related, and some not.
Best names:
Vandall
Latta: looks like a mini Sidney Crosby, but certainly does not have anywhere near the same skills
Sheahan: Pretty much just funny because it's almost "Shea hand" which for some reason, I found very funny. He stretched in front of me, which was also fun, just given my training camp and practice experiences with Shea. He played pretty rough, but I wasn't too impressed.
Some things I noticed:
Blum: Plays a physical game. He's pretty big, but I'm not sure he can beat out Franson for one of the D spots. Guess we'll see how training camp plays out next week.
Smith: When I first got there, he was having trouble with his 5-hole. It looked better as practice went on, so I don't know if one of the trainers said something to him. If it's a constant issue, it's something he needs to work on. Mason had the same problem a couple years ago, and we don't need a repeat of that. On the plus side, he had a pretty good glove save.
Ellis: The new draftee, not the goalie He is TINY. I knew he was small, but I wasn't expecting that. Yay for undersized defensemen! /sarcasm He had a staring problem. Looked like he was checking out the stands during some of the trainer talks. Maybe he was just trying to take it all in, or maybe he's training to be the next Tootoo. Who knows.
Pickard: One word- Baller This guy is awesome. If something happens, and we trade Ellis (Danny) for a forward, I think Chet would be a good back-up. If not, he should do pretty well in Milwaukee. He's also pretty darn adorable.
Brannon: Noticed him standing around a lot. At one point, one of the trainers yelled at him to move it. He reminded me of Arnott, minus the size.
Spaling: This kid is amazing. He plays hard, skates fast, and has a great shot. He seemed to be having a lot of fun, and I really like to see that. He might just be a call-up this year. If not, I can see him in Nashville in a year or two.
And because I'm a girl and it's natural, some non-hockey musings:
Beck is good looking. Reminds me of a mini-Josh Hartnett. Makes some weird faces though, but killer smile.
McKenzie is pretty big and pretty hot. He didn't skate too incredibly slow, despite his size.
Mark Santorelli: Not sure if I've blogged about it before, but I love both of the Santorelli brothers. I expect Mike will be in training camp next week since he's not really a rookie. Both brothers are pretty. :) I was really excited when Mike was called up last year, but he didn't do too great. But it was his first NHL experience, so you can't hold it against him too much. Anyway, back to Mark, besides looking adorable, he had a pretty good day. He's a good skater, and was going around today like he had something to prove. Maybe it's got some brotherly rivalry to it, so he wants to look good next week. Regardless, I think he and Spaling did pretty well today, and I was impressed.
Colin Wilson does not look like Colin Wilson with his helmet on. I barely recognized him. But he had a pretty good day. Needs some work on his one-timers, but again, would love to see the kid in Nashville if we don't bring in another second line forward.
Martin Gelinas was on the ice today. He was helping with the training and on ice stuff. He's a good guy, but his hair was killing me. It looked like he had rolled out of bed. Either that or he gelled it up trying to look younger. haha
Saw Trotz and Company for a little while. They looked to be in good spirits, laughing and carrying on.
Anyway, it was good to be back in the rink watching "professionals." Watching Mike's game with Mutiny don't even compare to watching even the rookies. I missed the whooshing and freezing my ass off for a taste of hockey. It was totally worth it. Work sucks anyway, so I'm glad I skipped.
Maybe I'll skip again next week for some actual NHL skaters.

Hey Chicago, What do you say?

2009-08-30T17:17:00.004-05:00

I read an article recently, or maybe it's a blog, I'm really not sure. Regardless, I feel the need to voice my opinion on some of the stuff I read. I've got some strong opinions, and I'm not afraid to share them.
The original post can be read here: Cubs Article

First, he says this: "Don't pink slip general manager Jim Hendry."
Ok, this is stupid. After the offseason moves the Cubs made, I think it's clear that this exactly what needs to happen. I'm not convinced that he knows what this team needs. He traded away DeRosa, a SOLID team guy, and he brought in Milton Bradley, who I like to call the big fat epic fail of this season. Bradley has been with 7 different teams over the past 8 years, and has proven attitude problems. Yet, Hendry gives him a 3 year $30 million dollar contract. So we gave up a great team guy for a whiny diva with sub-par stats. DeRosa was versatile and was an everyday man. Bradley sits in the outfield and hopes the game only goes 9 innings so he can be out there the least amount of time. Who would you rather have on your team? Hendry also let Kerry Wood walk. This one is a toss-up. Wood wanted years and money, but Hendry brought in Gregg, who is also making stupid money. Well guess what? Gregg lost the closing job two weeks ago to Carlos Marmol, who has also been shaky. The bullpen is a mess. They don't know their heads from their asses. Throw in the questionable contracts of Soriano and Fukedome, and I'm even more convinced it's time for Hendry to get a change of scenery. He has done plenty of good things for the Cubs, but people can get complacent. There's nothing wrong with shaking things up and getting some fresh ideas up in the GM's office.
Next: Don't sit in those front-row seats right next to the Cubs' dugout.
This part of the piece I semi-agree with. Firstly, if you paid all that money for the team, sit wherever the hell you like. Secondly, I like the idea of grabbing a random fan or two and having them sit and chat with you throughout the game. It's a good way to keep the game personal and not get too caught up in the business side of it. If you want to keep the fans coming back and happy, you have to know what they want. What better way to do that than to ask them? I also agree with the writer saying "Don't touch the big three" The ivy, the red marquee sign, and the scoreboard in the outfield are all landmarks and what makes Wrigley Field what it is.
The only other major thing I disagree about is this: Don't wait on Piniella. I'm pretty sure it's clear Piniella wants to be here. And frankly, I want him to be here. He calls out Bradley on his crap, he still gets angry and gets ejected, and I like what the team has done since he's been here. As far as giving him 24 hours to state his managerial intentions, what do you want him to say? Given the sub-par team this year, I think he's done just about all he can. He goes to bat for his guys and has done a fairly good job managing the team day to day. What more do you want? He can't magically make Bradley into less of a girl, or make Gregg stop giving up homers in the 9th. But he can and did do something to change the situations. Granted, he may have been a little slow on removing Gregg, in my opinion. And maybe he should have had a real hard talk with Bradley before the season started to let him know his old crap wouldn't fly in Chicago, but these are big boys and Lou can only do so much before it has to be the team that takes it to the next level.
The biggest thing that got me with this article was the Hendry and Piniella comments. I just wholeheartedly disagree with the sentiment of keeping Hendry and dumping Lou. So there you have my strong disagreement. As for the other half....
I agree with most of the other things said. Honestly, I think it is time we traded Zambrano, and the Soriano deal was not a good one. Making these changes now would show the fans a commitment to finding the best players and trying to get over this World Series hump. And for the love of God, don't raise ticket prices! Cubs fans are the most loyal and abused in the world, since the Red Sox finally got over their curse. Don't make us hurt in the wallet as much as we've hurt in our hearts since becoming fans.
This is all coming from a Cubs fan who has been stuck in Tennessee for far too long, and has been born and raised a Cubs fan. So take my opinion for what it is, an opinion.

Fortunately for those reading this, I found out we're 10 games behind St. Louis after having already typed this up, so no too terribly angry rants.
We gotta believe!

Is it that time already?

2009-08-30T14:42:00.003-05:00

It looks like three weeks from yesterday will be my first taste of the 2009-2010 season. The 19th will be the first pre-season game I can attend, since I have to work on the 17th. And it doesn't look like I'll be able to make training camp like I have the past two years. I'm pretty sure the first Saturday they have on ice activities, I have work. I'm not too upset about it. Yes, I'll miss the chance to catch up and socialize with everyone I haven't seen all summer, but the regular season is just around the corner. That's what pre-skate is for.
I'm excited to have the boys back in Nashville. It's been a long summer, unusually long since I'm not used us not making the playoffs. The break from the game is always nice, just because it's good to step back and focus on other things for awhile. Now that the offseason is just about over, I've got to find a way to fit the boys back into my schedule.
Guess I need to prepare myself to jump head first back into hockey season.

BTW, when is the front office planning on sending out tickets? Aren't they usually here by now?

Don't you go breakin' my heart

2009-08-22T19:29:00.002-05:00

It is August 22. The Cubs have 41 games left in the season. While this seems like a lot, the season comes to an end on October 4th, my 21st birthday. Last year on that date, the Dodgers completed a sweep of the Cubs in the first round of the playoffs. With the way things are going, being swept in the playoffs seems like a far off dream. We are currently 7.5 games out of first in the Central, and we only have one series left with the division leading Cardinals. Unless our offense turns things on, the Cubs may be on the outside looking in come mid-October. 101 years may become 102. All I can hope for is that they win a World Series in my lifetime. I figure they've got about 70 years to do so.
This week, Gregg lost his closing job. This move was a long time coming. Although, I am less than confident in his replacement, Carlos Marmol. Marmol has had issues with control even in the set-up position. Let's face it, the bullpen is less than stellar. We're paying Gregg a lot more than I care to imagine, and he hasn't been anywhere near solid this season. On the other side, the $10 million dollar man, Milton Bradley, hasn't been impressive either. The Cubs did not make wise moves this offseason, and I am still not happy about DeRosa's departure. If they miss the playoffs this year, all I can hope for is some radical changes. I know Lou has been unhappy, and when Lou's unhappy, ain't nobody happy.
Don't read this as me giving up on the team, because that is far from the truth, but after watching them strand ten runners against the Dodgers today, I'm becoming a little more realistic. There is still time, but the club needs to turn things around sooner rather than later.

Trips, stress, signing, hair

2009-08-15T18:42:00.003-05:00

I am fully aware that I have sucked at blogging lately. However, now my summer class is over, so maybe I'll have more time. We've actually been working at both jobs, which is where I do most of my writing. It's pretty easy to write blogs in between answering phone calls.
Guess I'll use this blog to follow up on the last one about trips.
I bought my plane ticket to Tucson to see Sarah in October. Nothing has been finalized beyond the flight, but I'd really like for us to drive to Phoenix and see the Blues play the Coyotes. This'll be about 2 weeks after my 21st birthday, so I think that would be pretty awesome. Me and Sarah will do some planning and see what we can work out.
As for the Chicago/St. Louis trip, the AHL released their schedule this week. As fate would have it, the Admirals have a home game the day between the Chicago and St. Louis games. So we'll be hitting three games in three nights. Part of me kinda wants to try to add Columbus onto that, but I know Kelly has to work. Depending on money, me and Ciara may try for it. Now it's my turn to talk people into things. haha It's about as far as Chicago from us, but for some reason we haven't gone up there yet. That will leave Detroit as the only arena we haven't visited in the Central Division.
Opening night is in about two months. Hopefully by then, my stress level won't be so high that I won't be able to enjoy the games. Once classes start up in about two weeks, I'll have a feel for how this semester will be, as far as the involvement in classes goes. Then I can gauge how much hockey I can handle. There are some games I don't have tickets for that I'm eyeing up.
Since we last "spoke," the Predators have signed Ryan Jones to a two year contract. I'm indifferent on this one. He's a young guy with some promise, but I wasn't impressed last year. I like that he goes to the net because we've missed that since Hartnell left, but I hope he takes it up a notch this year. I also hope he doesn't grow that nasty hair long again. I don't care who he donates it to; it looks gross. We got rid of Pihlstrom and his gross hair, so please don't make me look at the mullet! This team used to be about good hair: Kariya, Weber, Erat. What is happening?
This turned into a tangent. Time for my fantasy football draft.

Hockey trips

2009-08-01T13:46:00.002-05:00

I guess I haven't posted anything since the schedule came out.
So let's see, what to talk about.
How about potential trips? Hockey fans travel better than a lot of other fans, and I'm no different. I don't travel for football, simply because I think I'm losing my interest in the sport that seems full of thugs and prima donnas. Plus, football tickets are outrageously overpriced. I usually make a trip a year for baseball, but finances are preventing my Chicago trip this year. However, I manage to make a few trips for hockey every season, largely in part to allowing myself to be talked in to things rather easily.
Trips on the docket:
Oct. 14-19 Phoenix, Arizona Blues @ Coyotes
This would be a chance for me to root for my second favorite team without feeling guilty. The main focus of this trip would be seeing my BFF Sarah, who ditched me to move with her husband. What a cow right? :P It's partly over fall break from class, so I'd only miss one day, but get to have almost a week with good friends. The planning is on hold until Jenry hears something about a job, so pray for them!
Dec. 26/27-30 Preds @ Chicago, possibly an Admirals game, and Preds @ St. Louis
This is what I got talked in to. Kelly and Ciara are horrible friends who love to ruin my wanting to be financially responsible. I'm sure this one will be a lot of fun, mainly because we'll finally all be 21. So if the Preds have a firm grip on the ankles like the last time we saw them in Chicago, we can drown our sorrows accordingly.
Mar. 20-21 Preds @ St. Louis
This would be what has now become the annual girls trip to St. Louis, which started last year. Seat on the glass, behind the bench, a fancy hotel, amazing Italian food, and an open bar. The only thing that sucks this year is that the game is on a Sunday, and we have a home game the Saturday before. Still plenty of time to plan, but we'll have to make some decisions. Last year's trip was pretty epic, what with the overtime goal by one Mr. Shea Weber, so we'll see if it can be topped.

I had also thought about going to the Atlanta game that is over spring break, but I really need to save the money for Chastity's Florida wedding in May, Ciara and I both need to save. I'm fine with giving that hockey trip up for what will amount to about a week of laying on the beach with a drink in my hand.

Free Agency Update

2009-07-18T13:40:00.002-05:00

Ortmeyer & Nichol are San Jose Sharks.
The sentence I just typed is full of Predators fail. Not so much on the Ortmeyer front though, because his injuries have hurt him. However, Nichol was a veteran guy with lots of heart. On what's shaping up to be a team full of rookies, Scooter would have been a great guy to have around. Looks like we'll be relying on Sullivan to provide the bulk of the leadership this year, because frankly I'm not sure Arnott and Dumont know ow to say the right things anymore.
Some rumors floating around have Bonk playing in the KHL and Pihlstrom going to Europe. All I can say is that I hope Bonk head checks a certain traitor over there. Can you say concussion? Karma is a funny thing ain't it? As for Pihlstrom, from what I gather, the problem is that he wants a one-way deal and the Predators are offering a two-way deal. Not sure I'm understanding why this is an issue. He played at the NHL level for more than half of last year. He's fast and gritty; a good guy for the 3rd or 4th line. Give the kid a one-way deal and be done with it. He's got some NHL level experience under his belt, unlike some of these other kids. Hate to say it, but Santorelli's time in Nashville was anything less than spectacular. I'd rather see Pihlstrom playing up here.
I am still hoping for another forward signing. I've got my eyes on Sykora, and I hope Poile does too. The jokes I would endure over the course of the season would be totally worth it. I'm willing to take the abuse and laughs at my expense if it means we have a bonafide top two scoring lines.

A break from the sports world

2009-07-10T13:21:00.003-05:00

I did this on Facebook and thought it was fun and that I should put it in my blog. So enjoy :)
If I get bored at work tonight, I may add on additional artists.

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. Repost as "My life according to (band name)."

Pick your Artist:
Garth Brooks

Are you a male or female:
She's Every Woman

Describe yourself:
Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)

How do you feel:
Learning to Live Again

Describe where you currently live:
This Ain't Tennessee

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
The Beaches of Cheyenne

Your favorite form of transportation:
The River

Your best friend is:
Two Pina Coladas

You and your best friends are:
Friends in Low Places

What's the weather like:
That Summer

Favorite time of day:
The Night I Called the Old Man Out

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Shameless

What is life to you:
The Dance

Your relationship:
Unanswered Prayers

Your fear:
If Tomorrow Never Comes

What is the best advice you have to give:
Do What You Gotta Do

Thought for the Day:
She's Gonna Make It

How I would like to die:
The Thunder Rolls

My soul's present condition:
What She's Doing Now

My motto:
I Don't Have to Wonder

______________________________________________________
Don't hate! I was, and still am, a Backstreet fan girl.

Pick your Artist:
Backstreet Boys

Are you a male or female:
Poster Girl

Describe yourself:
One In A Million

How do you feel:
Incomplete

Describe where you currently live:
Weird World

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
Back To Your Heart

Your favorite form of transportation:
Set Adrift On Memory Bliss

Your best friend is:
No One Else Comes Close

You and your best friends are:
Never Gone

What's the weather like:
Shining Star

Favorite time of day:
Love Will Keep You Up All Night

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
I Want It That Way

What is life to you:
Hey Mr DJ (Keep Playin' That Song)

Your relationship:
Quit Playin' Games With My Heart

Your fear:
Lose It All

What is the best advice you have to give:
Get Another Boyfriend

Thought for the Day:
How Did I Fall In Love With You?

How I would like to die:
Don't Wanna Lose You Now

My soul's present condition:
Time

My motto:
As Long As You Love Me

There are no words

2009-07-04T19:59:00.003-05:00

I know I said this would mostly be a blog for hockey, with the occasional post about the Cubs, but today calls for a post about football. One of the men I grew up watching is dead. Steve McNair was shot in the head in Nashville earlier today. Details are still unknown, but that doesn't change the fact that he is gone. The man I watched lead my Titans to Superbowl 34 is dead. I so enjoyed watching him scramble and run around, always keeping the defense guessing. Even without stellar receivers on the Titans, he found a way to make things happen. He brought us within a yard of a possible Super Bowl victory. But beyond that, he played through countless injuries, and was a workhorse for the team and Jeff Fisher.
I am in complete shock. Air McNair was a cornerstone for the Titans for many years, before leaving for the Baltimore Ravens. He was always the picture of leadership, sportsmanship, and work ethic. He is the kind of guy I miss having in Nashville. McNair, Wycheck, George, and Mason were the great ones for this team. They were good guys; good in the community, always giving back, and people that kids could look up to. Now we have crybaby Vince Young, and went through the drama of Pacman Jones.
I wish there were more guys like Steve out there, and it just pains me to think of his life ending the way it did. Nashville, and the world, lost a great soul today. I can only hope for peace for his family, wife, and kids he left behind.
RIP Steve "Air" McNair

Free Agency Part 2

2009-07-04T14:34:00.003-05:00

Since I talked about the guys we lost in the last blog, I figured I should mention those who's fates are still unknown. Nichol, Bonk, DeVries, and Ortmeyer ar all UFAs who have yet to be signed by anyone, including Nashville. I guess I'll give my take on these four.
Nichol: Of the four, I think Nichol is the only one who should be signed. If we can get him cheap, I'd be happy with seeing him do fourth line and PK duty. Granted he can lose his head sometimes, and he's had some issues with concussions. However, I think he's a good leader and someone I'd like to keep around.
Bonk: This was a gross overpayment two years ago. One which I haven't been too pleased with. I will not be sorry to see him walk. Yes, it was fun to yell his name when he had the puck, but the play just is not good enough to warrant another contract. I'd much rather see a bunch of the young, energy guys doing third and fourth line duty next season. That doesn't mean I won't forget his awesome contribution to the comeback in Montreal in 07-08, but it's time to move on.
Inside joke note: "You just got Radeked" is twenty times more funny than "You just got Bonked!"
DeVries: Or Disease, Febreeze, and Dinosaur as he has so lovingly been called over the past two years. Veteran defenseman or not, I will be so glad to see his grossly oversized salary off the books. If the Preds decide to bring him back, it had better be for much less than he was making. He's another one of those who is a terribly nice guy off the ice, but I just can't stand to have on the ice. He wouldn't make a horrible 7th d-man, but I'd rather have the rookies in the top six.
Ortmeyer: Oh Jed, you lovable man you. Jed Ortmeyer might be the most adorable thing to ever put on a Preds uniform. He is another amazing person, note person, not player. Injuries screwed him the past couple years, and he spent some time in Milwaukee last season. Again, with the younger guys coming up, I'd rather see them playing limited minutes to get the experience at the pro level. Love him to death, but he's more like a career AHLer.

Now, I'm still hoping for another FA signing. Would love for that signing to be a forward so we don't have to watch Ward on the second line with Erat and Legwand, but budget constraints will likely see this dream fail. Nothing is set in stone now. And things can change throughout the season. The first glimpse of how the team will shape up won't come until September, so I guess I've got a few months to speculate. Although, rookie camp starts next week. Too bad work will all but prevent me from seeing any of it. Oh well, the time off from hockey can be nice. I've been enjoying the outdoors and the joys of being an adult and juggling two jobs. My summer class starts in two weeks, so no hockey is actually a very good thing right now. Free agency is about all I have time to keep up with.

Free Agency

2009-07-02T15:22:00.004-05:00

The whirlwind that was July 1st is over. Okay, so whirlwind may be an exaggeration. After all, people have jobs and don't have time to sit and refresh the computer over and over to see who their team got. For those like myself, who were at work a large part of the day, we relied on text messages to spread the news. Not surprisingly though, my phone was not lit up with texts about the Preds. We made a whopping two signings. Both of which happened pretty much after I had gotten home from work.

Ward signed a two year deal and will be making 1.5 million each year, which I believe is an overpayment. He had one semi-good year. But hey, I'm not a manager; what do I know? And how do I know that money may not have gone to better use getting a bonafide top six power forward? Nevertheless, the deal is done, and we'll just have to see how things play out.

Considering the calendar had reached July without a deal with Sullivan, I assumed he was as good as gone. Around roughly 5 pm, via Twitter of course, it was revealed that Sully's house was not for sale and that a deal had been reached! It's a two year deal, worth a little more than 3.5 million per year. I am satisfied with that. A full year of , Sully, Dumont, and Arnott may make them seem less lazy. But if the SAD line sucks it up and Arny and Darshmont are lazy, I'm calling them on it.

The only thing that makes me nervous about these two year deals is this: Arnott, Sullivan, Ward, and Weber will all be up after the 10/11 season. Sullivan may very well be done after this, but I don't want us to screw ourselves financially and not be able to keep Weber. Granted, he will be an RFA that year. However if he keeps improving like he has, he'll be due a nice raise from his 4.5 million per year contract.

On the UFA front for losses, the Preds have definitely lost Fiddler and Zanon. Fiddler will be making 1.1 million per year for two years in Phoenix. I hate to say it, but see ya! He was one of the nicest guys off the ice, but the on ice Fiddler is not worth that contract. He can go bother Phoenix with all his offsides antics. Zanon went to Minnesota and will be making close to 2 million a year for three years. Again, nice guy, but there are too many young guys in Milwaukee for us to pay Greg that kind of money. I'd rather watch a rookie make mistakes than see Z take himself out of the play blocking shots.

As for the rest of the NHL, I was sad to see Gomez go to the Canadiens. The also got Cammalleri. Lucky d-bags. Winchester is staying in St. Louis, which I love. Joining the Blues is Ty Conklin. Snort. Good luck with Howard Detroit; not sure that's gonna pan out too well. Last, but certainly not least, for now at least, Hossa signed a TWELVE year deal with Chicago. His contract will be up 2021, in which he will be making "just" $750,000. The deal is ridiculously front loaded. For the first seven years, he will make just under 8 million each year. By the end of the deal, he will be 42 years old. Will he even be alive?! Sweet Jesus. I just don't think the Hawks made a very wise decision seeing as how they are paying Campbell and Huet stupid money and Kane and Toews will be demanding significant raises in the near future. But if one of the young guys must go, please send him to Nashville. We haven't seen the likes of a pure scoring forward since Kariya left. This is the Predators fan in me talking, but I hope Chicago shot themselves in the foot with this contract. I would love nothing more than for Hossa to be a complete bust. This is a text I sent after his "fight" with Suter earlier this season: "anyone who has literally been undressed by Ryan Suter should never be allowed on the ice again." Hossa, I hope Chicago fans treat you with the respect you "deserve." Try not to cry the first time they feel like voicing their opinions about your play by booing the daylights out of you.
/angry Hossa rant

It's almost 4 pm July 2nd and the Preds have done nothing else. Not like I'm expecting much. Another forward is clearly too much to ask. Poile better pray Shea nets about 30 goals this season.
/angry Predators not getting scoring forwards rant

Say it isn't so

2009-06-28T10:28:00.002-05:00

Before I discovered Ryan Theriot, pictured above, my favorite Chicago Cub had to be Mark DeRosa. He was versatile, genuine, and level headed, everything I believe a Cub should be. So naturally I was more than a little upset when the Cubs traded him in December of 2008 to the Cleveland Indians. Following the Cubs closely, like I do every year, it is evident just how much we miss Mark. Last night I got a virtual dagger through the heart. DeRosa was traded to the Cardinals, visual approximation below.

I HATE the Cardinals. As a Cubs fan, I was brought up to despise Mark McGwire and Tony LaRussa. We hate three things: The Cardinals, the White Sox, and the Brewers.

It's basic common sense for Cubs fans. North Side > South Side
I just cannot even being to imagine seeing DeRosa in that awful red jersey.
Now I don't know if I'm mad that DeRosa is playing for the Cardinals or if I'm mad that he's doing so while we have to continue with the services of our resident child, Milton Bradley. Signing this guy for 3 years and giving him $10 million a year might be the dumbest thing we've ever done. His production is disappointing, and his attitude is ridiculous. I don't think I acted that childish even when I was a child. He's a thirty-one year old man that is carrying on like a spoiled teenager. Sure hope management is happy that we have Bradley and his .236 average, 5 homeruns, and 16 RBIs instead of DeRosa and his .270 average, 13 homeruns, and 50 RBIs.
For comparison, Bradley has 50 pounds on Theriot, who is not and has never been a power hitter. However, this year Theriot has 6 homeruns and 28 RBIs. They've got about the same amount of HRs, but Theriot has almost double the RBIs. If you're not scoring runs and you're not getting runs scored, then what the hell are you doing? Oh that's right, you're striking out and yelling at the umpires. Bradley, let me take this opportunity to tell you to STFU because you suck.
DeRosa, I miss you more than any other player that's left over the years, and even though you now play for the hated red birds, there's no way I can ever hate you as much as I hate the rest of them. But if you could suck and strikeout when we play you, that would be great.

Another defenseman? #^&%$%#@!#*

2009-06-27T21:35:00.005-05:00

The sarcasm in my last post about the Preds drafting a defenseman was supposed to be just that, sarcasm. But low and behold, David Poile comes through for the faithful and drafts a defenseman with the 11th pick. A midget no less. Ryan Ellis is a 5'9" d-man. Just what we need. He'll be our Ville Koistenen if he ever makes it to Nashville. I'm not sure my readers know how much I despise Koistenen. He's horrible, and I pray to God we don't give him an offer and he's someone else's problem on July 1st. So the fact that we drafted a younger version of him irritates the crap out of me.
The Predators drafted 7 forwards and 3 defensemen this year. None of these forwards are going to make the team in the fall, so we still need to find the answer to our scoring problems through free agency. Sullivan may very well be gone. If he is, we will have 2 gaping holes in our top 6 forwards. Even if he does re-sign with us, we'll need someone to put with Legwand and Erat, both of whom haven't looked the same since Kariya left. His contract with St. Louis is up after next year, and he likely won't be commanding the $6 million dollars he's making now. A girl can dream that he will want to come back. But until then, we need someone for those two. And Ward is not the answer. He'd be a really good third line guy, but putting him on the 2nd line will not solve our problems.
I'm nervous about next season, to say the least. Unless Poile & Co. make a splash, Nashville may very well be in for another long season. I didn't think it could get worse than this past year; I suffered through some ridiculously boring hockey games. However, without Sullivan, Ward, and possibly having several rookies in the line-up at D and forward, it could get ugly fast. There is no room for error, and we cannot afford for Pekka to have any kind of sophomore slump. He needs to be stellar night in and out, and Danny Ellis needs to find his game for us to have any sort of chance.
I guess this is a long winded way of saying that I was disappointed with our first round draft pick and am nervous as hell about free agency.
It all begins, or ends, on Wednesday.
Bring it on.

Finals, Awards, and Draft Oh My!

2009-06-20T13:41:00.002-05:00

Hockey season is over. The Penguins won the Cup, and me, Ciara, and Kelly mocked every bit of it. The hits on the Fugly Raisin were praised even if they were a tad dirty. The Dirty Mexican was mocked mercilessly. And Fluery's buckteeth were imitated. On the other side, Hossa tears were cried. If he didn't cry, which I'm sure he did, we made enough wah sounds for him. Poor Zetterburg, Osgood, and Datsyuk were apologized to, even though now they go back to being the enemy.
I can't comment much on what happened after the clock ran out. We were too busy being pissed off and yelling mean things to really pay much attention. It was a fitting way to send off the season though. At least, I thought so. heh

The NHL Awards were earlier this week, and man were they horrible. It really shouldn't be that hard to read off a tele-prompter, but Roenick sure did struggle. High points were Michael Buble and Sullivan winning the Masterson. Low points were Ovie being a tool and the "entertainment." Sullivan's victory was a much deserved one. I was really happy for him, and even squirted out a few tears. Freaking SEM. I'm almost positive he'll be testing free agency. I can only hope Poile makes a splash in the free agent market so we're not down a couple of top-six forwards.
Not sure I'll watch the draft. I don't know too much about prospects or what to expect. But it's the Predators, I'm sure we'll get a nice defenseman. Snort.
The Preds took another $44 out of my bank account last Monday. I sure hope next season the on ice product is more entertaining than this past year. Some nights it was downright painful to watch. Still not sure how I feel about the half-season. I'm sure I won't be so worn out towards the end, but I keep thinking about the good stuff I'll miss. Center Ice just costs too much, and I don't know that I'd use it enough to justify the cost. Being a responsible adult about this will pay off eventually, just have to get through the discouraging parts first. One day I won't have to be in the last row at the top of the arena if I don't want to.

Baseball just isn't the same

2009-06-07T14:38:00.002-05:00

I love playoff hockey. It's exciting to watch. I only wish the Preds were in it. If they were, I may have had an easier time following it. I've only gotten to watch the first two games of the Finals. I was at the Sounds vs Cubs game for one, babysitting for another, and working during the other. I have to work the night of Game 6 as well, but hopefully I'll be out in enough time to catch maybe the second and third periods. It's very possible that will be the last game of hockey season. It's a weird feeling.
The Cubs are blowing chunks this year, so it's gonna be a long summer.

More about my hockey obsession...

2009-05-22T18:48:00.004-05:00

Got this from Aubrey at
Buckeyes Are Deadly Nuts

Should provide some more insight into my madness.

1) What's (Who's?) your favorite team? Nashville Predators

2) What's your least favorite team? Columbus Blue Jackets, Pittsburgh Penguins, Vancouver Canucks

3) Who's your favorite player? Shea Weber, Paul Kariya

4) Who's your least favorite player? Thomas Holmstrom and Johan Franzen

5) Favorite American team? umm The Preds?

6) Favorite Canadian team? Calgary Flames

7) Favorite International team? Canada :)

8) Who's your favorite goalie? Cam Ward and JS Giguere

9) Least favorite goalie? Roberto Luongo

10) Favorite fighter? David Backes ;)

11) Least favorite fighter? Darcy Hordichuk (Darshy Hordisuck)

12) Favorite jersey/uniform/outfit/sweater? St. Louis's third jersey, Carolina's third jersey, Nashville's away

13) Least favorite jersey/uniform/outfit/sweater? Penguins third jersey

14) Do you like home, away, or "third" jerseys best? So far, the away. Until Nashville's third gets released. If it looks like the mock ups I've seen, that may become my new fave

15) Who do you want to win the Cup? Carolina

17) Which player would you most like to sit and have coffee with? Patrick Marleau

18) What about a beer? Shea Weber ;)

19) How about just watch the game with? Ryan Getzlaf

20) Have an in-depth hockey conversation with? Paul Kariya

21) Do you collect hockey cards, memorabilia, etc? I collect memorabilia: pucks, pictures, giveaways, etc.

22) If so, what's your favorite card? No cards, but I do love my stick autographed by the 07-08 team. And my Shea Weber picture that Mike printed out for me and I had signed. :)

23) Which is worth the most, and what's it worth? My stick and autographed pucks may be worth a little. The jerseys autographed by Weber and Kariya may be worth a little more.

24) Do you live by any hockey players? No. I live an hour away from hockey. Doubt any of them commute that far. haha

26) Do you play hockey? I played roller hockey back in the day.

27) What do you wear to hockey games? Jeans and a jersey. Or if the jerseys have been deemed bad luck, some other Preds paraphernalia. Or if it's the end of the season and I'm doing reverse mojo, a Blues shirt. :P

28) Do you have any "watching hockey rituals" or anything anyone might consider weird? umm I used to have to stand on the ledge behind my seat during the whole 3rd, but I quit doing that. People might consider some of the stuff I yell weird, but me, Sarah, and Ciara always though it was funny. lol

29) What's your favorite hockey memory (as a fan?)
2007 playoffs vs. San Jose when Dumont scored shorthanded
2008 playoffs vs Detroit when Legwand came back on a bad foot and scored
2009 regular season vs Detroit when we WHOOPED Detroit 8-0
February 21, 2009 when me, Jenn, Britney, and Kelly sat behind the Predators bench in St. Louis and Weber scored the lone goal of the game to win in overtime

30) What's your favorite hockey commercial? Verizon--"Best baby in the world!"

31) Who's the nicest player you've met? Brooks Laich, Paul Kariya, Pekka Rinne, Shea Weber, Jarome Iginla. Hell most of them have been decent.

32) Rudest/meanest/most annoying, etc? Boyd Gordon was kinda rude. Ovechkin is a douche.

33) Who's the best looking (AKA 'off ice favourite') Paul or Shea Don't judge :P

34) Other off-handed/off-ice comments? The commentating is half the fun.
"Weber gets it in deep." HAHA

35) Why do you really like hockey? Its fast-paced, excitement when the goal horn goes off, hard hitting, non-stop action. The feeling I get sitting in my seat, waiting for MY team to take the ice. Telling the other team they suck. Telling the other goaltender he sucks. The hour long drive I make to have that experience. The heart and soul of every single player on that ice. Watching them give everything they've got to get a little piece of rubber past the goaltender. Fighting for them and their teammates honor. The gratitude they feel towards me, the fan. Feeling like my being there makes a difference. Knowing that my sadness at the season being over doesn't even match the feelings they have.
But more than anything, the fact that it's unlike any sport on earth. Nothing is as physically and emotionally demanding as hockey.

Withdrawals already?

2009-04-30T18:55:00.003-05:00

I miss the Predators.
I miss being at the rink with thousands of other crazy hockey fans.
I miss having that as my escape.
The extra money in my bank account is nice, but life without hockey is boring.
Not having been in my perch atop 305 with Sarah in almost a month is an odd feeling.
I'll miss my hockey buddy next season.
O'Doyle rules!

Let's talk playoffs

2009-04-25T09:23:00.003-05:00

I didn't think it would be so weird to be watching playoff hockey from my couch and not my seat at the Sommet, but it totally is. I am jealous of the fans of the 16 teams in the playoffs. They get to, or got to in the cases of the Montreal, St. Louis, and Columbus fans, sit in the most exciting atmosphere for hockey. There's nothing like a playoff crowd, and I'm sad we didn't have that in Nashville this year. However, my number two team did make the playoffs, and I struggled with the urge to drive to St. Louis to catch a game. Sadly, the Blues were swept in the first round by Vancouver, whom I despise. I hate Luongo and his greasy hair, the Sedin twins and their creepy faces, and Burrows and his cheating ass. Yea, I'm bitter. Sue me. As far as sweeps go, the two others that happened in the first round made me happier. Columbus was swept by Detroit; yes I was a Red Wing fan. Suck it Mason. Seriously, who picks number 1? Go hang out with Luongo or soemthing. Barf. Montreal was also swept by Boston. Those were some exciting games, and once again it was shown just how overrated Carey Price is. All Star material he was not, but it's the Canadiens and their fans and their 100th season. Whatever. The Sharks are down to the Ducks, who may be the most dominant 8th seed ever. The Canes/Devils series has been pretty exciting with lots of last minute goals. And the Chicago/Calgary series has been physical. I just hope Calgary comes out on top. Iginla deserves a cup, and I really want that for him. He's a terribly nice guy, and a hell of a player. As for the rest of the East, I don't really care. I'm sick of both Crosby and Ovechkin, so I'm on the Philadelphia and New York wagons. Was pretty awesome to see AO not score a goal until last night. Way to go Rangers defense.
Regardless of who I want to win or who wins, it doesn't even come close to cheering for YOUR team in the playoffs. Hopefully next year the Preds are back in contention. With a full year of Pekka, and maybe a full year of healthy Sullivan, we can do it. There will be some changes for this team next year, with a lot of our borderline AHL/NHL players contracts being up, but hopefully it'll give young guys a chance or even allow us to chase some free agents.

Some praises

2009-04-12T13:27:00.003-05:00

Since the last blog was more of a downer than anything, I figured I needed to point out some of the good things that came with this season.
Steve Sullivan returned to the ice after nearly two years of rehab with his back issues. I never thought I would see him on the ice again, but him proving me wrong was awesome. That guy has all kinds of heart, and I sincerely hope he's back next year. Shit eating midget or not, he made Arnott and Dumont better. Seeing that line together again took me back to my first season as a fan. If only we could get Leggy, Erat, and Kariya on a line again. *Drool*
Shea Weber is a beast. That's all there is to it. Yes, he is my favorite player, but that in no way influences my opinion of his season. He broke the franchise record for goals scored by a defenseman and also ended up breaking the record for shots. That is quite a year for a 23 year old kid, who just last year struggled through injuries and missed a ton of games. He also made his first all star appearance and was paired with Scott Neidermayer in the game. Talk about an honor. I am so proud of the season he had and hopes he comes back bigger, stronger, and ready to carry this team for years to come.
I will be the first to admit that I am one of Jason Arnott's biggest critics. I've called him and Dumont lazy bastards more than I can count, and the assessment still stands true for Dumont, leading scorer or not. However, after coming back from his concussion with only a few games left in the season, I saw what he means to this team. He picked us up and carried us. He was the reason it came down to the last game of the season. He went to the net, pushed people around, and gave it all. The only knock I have on him is that he takes shifts off. Why can't we have seen this Jason all season? I used to want to rip that C off his jersey, but he earned it in the last two weeks of the season. Congrats to him for tying his career high goals for a season and setting a new record for the Predators. Now, this isn't saying that I won't call him lazy next year, but I am commending him now.
Pekka Rinne became the workhorse for this team. He made saves that left us all in awe. We owe us even having a sniff at the playoffs to him. He was tired at the end of the season, and it showed, but he was what we needed him to be for most of the season. It sucks that Ellis had to have such a rough go, but Pekka stepped up when he did. If it wasn't for that douche Steve Mason up in Columbus, I think he'd have a real chance at the Calder. If he can be brilliant over the course of the whole season, and Ellis can come in and be a reliable back up to him, this team could do some damage next season.
Regardless, these guys are class acts and I'm proud to have them on our team.

That's all she wrote

2009-04-11T12:00:00.003-05:00

The Predators season came to an end last night. No 5th consecutive year of playoffs for this team. We were destroyed 8-4 by a Wild team that was clearly playing for everything, even though they too were eliminated last night with the Ducks win. Our normally consistent penalty kill gave up 3 power play goals. That's simply embarrassing. Throw in the shorthanded goal, the two empty netters, and several breakaways and you get a devastating loss for a team that pushed so hard to get where they were.
It's hard to take any positives out of last night's game seeing as how it was just plain hard to watch. Pekka was human, and not on his game. He's better than that and most of the Preds fans you ask would know that. Honestly, I'm shocked he wasn't pulled after the 4th goal, and then again after the 5th. We needed something to shake things up, and I don't see how putting Ellis in would have hurt anymore. But it doesn't matter this morning. This morning Preds fans everywhere are either packing it in and enjoying another off season, making plans for money previously set aside for playoff tickets or finding another team to root for in the playoffs. I'm not done watching hockey. I plan on watching all the games that get broadcast on NBC or Versus. And I am a Blues fan. Yes, it sucks that they're in and we're not. Yes, it sucks that every Central division team made it except us. But that team fought back, much like the Predators. They had a crazy amount of injuries to the core parts of their team, and they had rookies that came in and made an impression. TJ Oshie came out of nowhere to become a pretty big piece of the St. Louis puzzle. Throw in Andy McDonald's late season return, and talk about a Cinderella story. Would be nice for them to get their hard work rewarded. Of course, with Paul Kariya nearing a comeback for their first playoff appearance in years, that just makes it sweeter for me. Yes I'm upset that the Preds are setting tee times, but my second favorite team is in, and I hope they make a heck of a run.
As for the Preds, we had an amazing season. It was an entertaining one, that's for sure. And we'll be back come September, hopefully stronger and ready for another run. I'll be there for the next 2 years. Did a half season renewal for the next two years, and I can't wait to be back atop 305.

An unlikely scenario

2009-04-10T18:13:00.002-05:00

The Predators lost to the Blackhawks at home on Tuesday. Talk about demoralizing. But just last night, this dog showed us it has a whole lot more fight in it. After being down to Detroit 3-1 in the 3rd period, the Predators came back to win in 4-3 in a shootout. That made the season series 4-2 with the Wings. We took the series with the Wings, but struggled against the Blues? How odd is that? Nashville plays its last regular season game tonight against the Minnesota Wild. With a win by the Preds and a loss by the Blues, the Predators clinch a playoff spot for the 5th straight year. Talk about stressful; it's never good to have to rely on other teams to do things for you, but with the way the Predators struggled before the All-Star break, I'm ecstatic that they're even in playoff contention. The problem with the game tonight is that Minnesota is a desperate team. If they win tonight, they still have the slimmest of chances at a playoff appearance. They'll be throwing everything they've got at us, and we'll be coming off a very tough game last night. The boys can't come out slow or tired, because once the Wild get a lead, they will trap the neutral zone all night. We need to put this one away early and get a couple goals. The Preds have to take care of their business and worry about the Blues game later. We need a favor from Columbus tonight. The pukc drops in thirty minutes; Let's go boys.

Lose one, win one

2009-04-06T17:45:00.002-05:00

Since I last posted, the Preds lost the Blackhawks at the United Center and beat the Blue Jackets at home. We're still in 8th at the moment. Win out, against Chicago, Detroit, and Minnesota, and we're in. Lose any of those three games and we have to rely on other teams to win or lose for us to make it in. The Hawks come into the Sommet Center tomorrow for our regular season home finale. It will likely be a playoff atmosphere, and we'll need the team to bring it all. The we end on the road with a back to back. Will be tough, but we can do it.
Good news came for the team Saturday; Jason Arnott was back in the lineup for the Preds. And he made quite an impact, scoring twice and racking up an assist in his first game back. Him coming back may have been the boost this team needed to finish out this season. We've gotta play at a high level for the rest of this week, but it can be done. And it will prove to be an exciting finish, with the Preds and St. Louis fighting for the 8th spot.

Every streak has to end

2009-04-01T18:06:00.002-05:00

After getting points in eight straight games, the Predators lost to the Blue Jackets in regulation last night. Thankfully, I had to work. So I only saw the 3rd period, but that was enough. We looked slow and confused. I haven't seen Weber play that bad in a long time, but it pissed me off. And apparently is pissed of Pekka too. My Dad told me Pekka was ticked after the BJ's first goal and that he was jawing at Shea. I can only imagine he deserved it. With him being our best defensman, we cannot afford for him to start sucking. We are still in the playoff race, but things look a little less shiny after a loss. The boys came home last night and had a day off today (not that I think they deserved it).
We had another casualty in the game last night. Pihlstrom is now day to day with an upper body injury. With none of our other injured forwards ready to return, we'll either see Koistenen dressed as a forward or another call up in Chicago on Friday. Both options make me cringe. I hate VK, and I can't think of anyone left in Milwaukee. This leaves me wishing even more that we had made a move at the deadline, but hindsight is 20/20.
Let's hope the boys bring the fire in the United Center come Friday.

84 points and 7th place

2009-03-30T18:05:00.003-05:00

Sunday's final: Wing 3 Preds 4
Game winning goal by Ryan Suter. Quite an entertaining game. Back and forth, lots of good chances, and a season ending injury for Erat. 90 seconds into the second period he was fighting for space with Lidstrom in front of the net. Weber shot a blast from the point that caught Marty on the leg. Found out later last night that it's a broken leg for Marty, and he is surely out for the rest of the regular season, and if we make the playoffs, probably a good part of the first round.
Also found out today that Legwand is done for the rest of the regular season. Awful news for the Predators. They've called up Mike Santorelli from Milwaukee. He had good chances while he was here earlier in the season, but we'll need him to play much better, which means he'll be under a lot of pressure in a top 6 role. I want him to do well; he's part of the future of this team and may even have a spot up here next year.
Still can't believe the Preds knocked of the Wings with what equates to 2 top 6 forwards.
We're 2 points behind the Blue Jackets and we head into their barn tomorrow night. We need Pekka to be absolutely outstanding. He can outplay Mason; I've seen him do it. The Blues are one point behind us. Yes, the entire central division is currently in playoff position. How awesome would it be the end the season like that? If we keep winning our games and the Blues win theirs, it could happen.

Dethroning the Kings

2009-03-29T13:52:00.004-05:00

Overtime against the Kings in unacceptable in my book. There was no reason for the game to go the way it did. The Predators looked slow. They definitely were not putting forth their best effort against one of the worst teams in the Western conference. If they expect to have any chance against the Wings tonight, they have to come out stronger than that. If not, I expect a murderous game. We know the goal tending for Detroit has been shaky, and we need to take advantage of it. Again, doing so with a depleted lineup.
I'm sure there's at least one Predator thankful for the injuries to our top two centers. Cal O'Reilly is up with the big club. Going to be playing his fifth NHL game, second against the Wings. The first having been that 8-0 tromping about a month ago. Cal scored his first NHL goal last night, and it was awesome to see him get that. The kid was hustling all night and looks like a strong player for the future of this team. Also scoring last night was Shea "Freaking" Weber. This was surprising considering how LA had a man on him at all times. They were not going to let him get open to release any kind of shot. But when he did get a chance, he blasted that puck past Quick. Gotta love a defenseman with 21 goals. Despite the somewhat lazy performance from the Preds, they came out with two points on and overtime power play goal from Sullivan. I'll take the two points and 7th place, but I wish it hadn't have been so nerve wracking.
With St. Louis beating Columbus in a shootout last night, they are tied with Edmonton in points, but the Oilers have the tie breaker so St. Louis is in 9th. Would be awesome if the Predators and Blues would win today and Edmonton lose to Minnesota. That would put the entire Central division in the playoffs. Although Minnesota losing is probably better for the Predators because it would almost assure them being out of it. The Preds close their season out in St. Paul, and it would be nice to not have them fighting tooth and nail to still make it in. Suck it Liepold! Suck it Zidlicky!
As for Detroit, they got embarrassed the other night, being shut out by the Islanders at home. Sobering stuff right there. Osgood (Osnotsogood) will be in net for the Wings, and as I'm writing this, Trotz hasn't made his decision as to who will be in net for the Predators. Pekka has looked tired these past few games, and I think it would be wise to give him a game off and hope Ellis comes in and plays strong. We have crucial games with Chicago and Columbus coming up, and I think we'll need Pekka to be at his best. Giving him the Wings game off could be a good decision. Ellis is capable of making awesome saves and stealing games. We have to hope that he can do that today. I believe he can. He knows what playoffs mean to this team; he's in the locker room. I think it's time for Dan to have a chance, and what time is better than the second game of a B2B with the Wings?
Side note: Lilja is still out for Detroit from the ass whooping that Weber put on him about a month ago. Awsomeness.
Puck drops at the Joe in two hours.
Let's go Preds!

Shark bait

2009-03-27T18:58:00.001-05:00

If you had told me at this time yesterday that the Predators would beat the Sharks 3-2 in regulation without Arnott and Legwand and that Greg Zanon would score the game winning goal, I would have laughed in your face. Today, that is a reality. It really happened. I went into the game last night telling myself that if it was that bad I would leave after the second and go home to study for my test at 8am today. With the score at 3-2 at the end of the second, I stayed planted in my seat at the top of the arena. And I am glad I did. What an exciting third period of hockey. Back and forth chances, stupid penalites, and a battle of the goaltenders. I am glad I stayed (and the test ended up going fine). The Detroit 8-0 blowout was amazing, but this game was hard fought the whole way through and it really showed the heart this team is playing with. Whatever was said in that locker room in the first intermission really turned it on. The Predators played a very well rounded game. They had good passes, which is out of character for a team I have been screaming at for months for their passes to each others skates. I walked out of the arena with a smile and woke up with one too. It was a good night of playoff style hockey in the music city. And I can't imagine having been anywhere else.

And we sit in 9th

2009-03-25T18:11:00.002-05:00

How fitting that the day after I blog about injuries David Legwand takes a deflected puck to the face at practice. He left practice for X-rays and is now doubtful for tomorrow night against San Jose. We just lost, arguably, our best player for the past month or so. It's not making the fact that we lost to the Ducks last night any better. The game at least went to OT, so we got a point. But that was a crucial game we had to win at home. Honestly, we need to beat San Jose tomorrow and the Kings on Saturday. Do that, and this team is back in playoff contention. Get less than 4/4 points and things start to look ugly. With the exception of St. Louis winning last night, every game went the right way for us. We just couldn't do it ourselves. Was an odd game; could tell that neither team wanted to be the first one to make a mistake. As soon as we did though, Anaheim capitalized. If it wasn't for Weber's blast on the power play, that game would have ended in a regulation loss. The Preds played a good third period, but looked off for the first two periods. And the crowd reflected that; didn't really get into it until Weber tied it. Playoff type game, yes. Playoff type crowd, no.
Will be interesting to see if a call-up is made before the game tomorrow. Would really love to see Santorelli get another shot. The kid has been awesome for Milwaukee, and with the right line mates I think he can do some offensive things here in Nashville. However, calling someone up and putting them on a line with Smithson and Tootoo and then having Fiddler center the first line is idiotic, which probably means that's what will happen if Legwand can't play. As nice a guy as Fiddler is, I just hate seeing him getting time on the top two lines. It forces him to take dumb penalties because he is so outmatched skill wise. And pleas for the love of God, don't put him in the shoot out again. He has ONE move, and everyone knows what it is. Stop the madness.
Time to move on and get ready for San Jose tomorrow. Minus Legwand, this is nearly impossible. With Legwand, this is nearly impossible. The Sharks are just so big and physical that they can come in and beat teams down. We have to come out firing and not let them take it to us. Here's to hoping it's a battle.

Injuries

2009-03-23T18:51:00.002-05:00

This part of the season is where injuries start the creep up. Lots of players fight through them and continue to fight with their teams to make the playoffs. However, some injuries can't be played through. Arnott is fighting a concussion right now, and that's not something to mess with, and it can't be rushed. The Predators should be getting Bonk back tomorrow night against the Ducks.
Injuries are helping the Predators too. Koivu is out for Minnesota, which makes it a little tougher for them. If they struggle and lose some games, we can gain some ground for our playoff run. You never want to see guys get hurt, but some good things can come out of it for other teams.
Let's just hope the Preds stay relatively healthy because we're going to need all the guys being able to give 100% every night if we intend on playing past the first week of April.

Hockey blogging

2009-03-22T20:38:00.001-05:00

Decided to make a separate blog for my hockey thoughts.
The Predators have been gone for a week and a half. While this has been GREAT for my wallet and gas tank, I've missed them terribly. They had an extremely successful west coast trip. Grabbed 6 out of 8 points. Taking the Ducks and Sharks to OT. Didn't think they played their best hockey. Actually, I thought they looked sloppy against everyone except San Jose, which just so happened to be the second night of a B2B.
As I type this, we sit in 8th place in the West. We haven't played since Thurdsay night and don't play again until Tuesday. Definitely has been a lot of scoreboard watching going on around Smashville. We can't do anything as far as playoffs are concerned except win our own games. We have to do this for ourselves. Relying on other teams to beat the right teams is not an option. If we expect to go past the first round ever, this team has to learn what grit is. We have to play through March and April like it is the playoffs.
Still being in college and working part time has made money tight, but I'll do whatever it takes to pay for playoff tickets, hopefully beyond the first round.
I'm going to make every effort to keep this updated because I have yet to find another blog by a chick about the Predators.