Back to the arena

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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.