Friday, July 16, 2010

POTG Travelogue Weekly and Friday Findings

For a little something different during the off season, we will start presenting a brief story on an interesting place that folks may want to visit on a vacation or weekend get away. I have thought about writing a travel blog or book for a long time so hopefully this will satisfy that desire and give our readers something a little different while things are slow.

Our first stop this week is the HP Pavilion, home of the San Jose Sharks. While we were out west last month, we were passing through San Jose and stopped off at the Shark Tank, hoping to get a glimpse inside the arena bowl.











We went to the main entrance and asked the security guard for a quick peak. We explained that we were with POTG so he made a quick call and shortly, Ken Arnold, the Shark's Senior Director of Communication appeared and gave us the royal treatment.











He took us into the arena, through the dressing room, the weight facility, the coaching offices, and the rest of the underbelly of the facility. We exited through the the executive offices with a warm send off from Ken.

He also explained the history of the arena and we found out that it was the fifth busiest venue in North America. Finally,we learned about the dynamics of the entertainment business in the bay area. We would like to thank Ken for taking a few minutes out of his day to show some great Western hospitality to a couple of bloggers from Tennessee.











In Pred Nation...


The long saga of the share of the Predators that was owned by "Boots" Del Biaggio being tied up in Federal Bankruptcy Court may be nearing an end. The Nashville Business Journal indicates that the $25 million share that has been vacant for two years may be purchased from the court at a discount by current or new owners. With this resolved, hopefully W. Brett Wilson will be able to purchase a piece of the team that he has referred to as "my Predators" in random Tweets. Earlier this year, Wilson agreed to join us on POTG Radio "in the Fall". Maybe there will be something good to discuss.

After Adrian Dater did his top ten Goalie list on Wednesday, Puck Daddy countered with his yesterday and moves Pekka up to #8. He also has an interesting comparison between Peks and Martin Brodeur.

There was plenty of jumping in Camp Randal Stadium when Michigan and Wisconsin faced off on the ice outdoors in February. Jim Diamond gets the story of the game from Pred prospect Craig Smith who played for the Badgers.

Hockey's Future has their take on the six Predator picks from last month's NHL Entry Draft.

Predsblog starts the task of looking at 30 goals in 30 days to analyze if Patric Hornqvist is a one hit wonder as has been alleged by some.

Mark Willoughby's weekly "View" is up for consideration.

David Boclair reports that the Predators will not rotate the alternate captain slot this year as they have done in the past.

Bleacher Report throws a bone to Kevin Weekes as a possible backup goalie in Nashville.

Around the NHL...

Hockey54 has a new clip up from the Awards with Ovechkin, Crosby and Brodeur. No one does it like The Schwartz. Monday is the big day when we see if Launy gets @drafted by The Score.

Kovalchuk post of the day was slim pickings so we went with the Cupcheck. Not very good, but I liked the cross-eyed Kings ice girl.

The Mikko Koivu deal in Minnesota pretty much throws any reasonable comparables out the window in the Kovalchuk negotiations. I don't understand the deal at all. The guy had his biggest year ever with 22 goals last season.

Ryan Porth discusses the up and coming Southeast Division. With thre ex-Pred starters in goal, Mitch Korn has really shaped that division.

Matt Reitz has a look at ten players that are in the shadows and do not get as much recognition as they deserve.

With Chicago matching San Jose's offer sheet to Niklas Hjalmarsson earlier this week it gave rise to The Hockey News to make a list of 10 offer sheet scandals.

Michelle Kenneth has a post on agents to follow on Twitter.

Pavol Demitra appears headed for the KHL.

Rod Brind'Amour's jersey will be retired in Carolina next February 18.

Kevin Smith found his lead actor for the movie Hit Somebody and he doesn't know how to skate.

From @NHLschuylerb: Congrats Sabres - Team caps season tickets for next season at 14,825. Renewal rate of 98%. Over 1,600 names on wait list. This sounds about like the Titans.

This is not as entertaining an interview as the impromptu one at by Launy "The" Schwartz at the Palms food court but still a good one with Drew Doughty from the Hockey News.

We miss the Illegal Curve blog but the radio show is going full out and available at Ustream.

Russian NHLers are being called home for special military duty. Intent to Blow explains. They also have the answer as to how BP plugged the leak. It's probably not what you expect.

There is a new NHL rumor fabricator on the net. Check out Hockey Bull for more wild speculations.

Forechecker pointed to this "Hockey Musical" movie in his post yesterday. I'm almost speechless after watching the trailer. I'm not big on musicals and I guess if I was raised in Canada I would have more of an appreciation for it. However, translating it to the South, I can't see a movie with football players singing and dancing on the field having an appeal to football fans. I guess we will see how it turns out.

#NHLcupcakes was the trend of the day on Thursday as a result of this post and a little urging on Twitter. It's good to do something like this to get the Twitter feed back up to regular season levels. Here is the official story from the Isles. @Dani3boyz, will you send me one?

Coachchic.com has some hockey conditioning ideas free for a few days.

It's never too early to speculate on next year's Winter Classic sweaters and logo.

Odds and Ends...

This is one of those stories that seems really stupid. There are high bacteria levels at the Cocoa Beach pier and the health department is blaming the sea gulls. Do the people that come up with this stuff ever take a step back and look at what they are saying?

Here is the latest listing of obesity by state. Since Tennessee is the third fattest state in the US, geography must be the cause of my excess poundage. We aren't known for being big cupcake eaters either so it must be the weather.

Another movie trailer that is now out is for The Social Network which will be out in October and is about Facebook. Five years ago if you said a movie would be made about a web site you would have been ridiculed.

More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

2 comments:

Erin said...

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PredsOnTheGlass said...

Thanks Erin, I didn't anticipate that we would be having other travel or camp suggestions but why not.