Sunday, January 2, 2011

Predators Shoot for Two in A Row and Sunday Round-Up

The Nashville Predators (18-13-6) will try for their second win in a row, and hopefully the start of a new winning streak against the Columbus Blue Jackets (20-15-3) at a special 5 p.m. start time at Bridgestone Arena.

The teams have already met twice this year in Columbus. This is the first meeting in Nashville where the Preds are 14-0-0 against the Jackets since the start of the 2006-07 season.

There is never any love lost between these two teams who are bitter division rivals. The Preds are currently a point behind Columbus in eleventh place with 42 points. Columbus is tied for ninth with Chicago. The winner of today's game could move into a playoff position in the Western Conference by jumping over Anaheim into eight place.

Columbus won the first meeting 2-0 in a near perfect game on November22. On December 1, the Preds avenged the earlier loss with a 4-3 shootout win when Steve Sullivan got the game winner.

Today's goalie match-up will be Pekka Rinne (9-10-4, 2.31, .919) for the Preds and Steve Mason (12-9-1, 3.16, .904) for the Jackets according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Other game previews com from Amanda DiPaolo, Chris Burton, Paul McCann, The Tennessean, and Predators.com.

To read the Jacket side of the story, check out the Columbus Dispatch, The Dark Blue Jacket, and The Cannon.

Winter Classic Round-Up...

Take a look back at several stories and videos that we have had over the last few days from our trip to the Winter Classic at POTG. One issue that I have been interested in seeing played out is if the hype around the event will cause the teams to have a hangover much like after teams go deep into to the postseason playoffs.

Ryan Porth was also in Pittsburgh and has extensive coverage at RLD Hockey.

From Pittsburgh, Trib Live had a special sixteen page insert in this morning's paper and much of the content can be found here. The Washington side of the game can be found at The Washington Post.

From the national beats, check out Kevin Allen at USA Today, Craig Custance from The Sporting News, The Hockey News, Brian Metzer at From The Point, Inside Hockey, and Chris Johnson at The Canadian Press.

Preds-Wild Wrap-Up....

Here is our game story from Friday night that was provided by Amanda DiPaolo from Predlines.

Josh Cooper had his game story, notes column, and quotes from the locker room.

From the blog world reports come from Amanda DiPaolo, Mark Willoughby, Chris Burton, and Fang Finger Fever.

The Wild side of the story comes from the Minnesota Star Tribune and Hockey Wilderness,

In Pred Nation...

Brian Mullen takes a look at a long month for the Predators with only two more home games in January after today.

Jay Levin looks at prospect Patric Cehlin's big game for Sweden that put them in the World Juniors simifinals.

Ryan Porth caught up with Francis Bouillon for his thoughts on a variety of topics.

Jeremy Gover looks at what we learned during 2010.

Jas Faulkner has part one of a series on selling hockey in Nashville at The Hockey Writers.

World Juniors...


Scores from Friday

Finland 6, Slovakia 0
Sweden 6, Canada 5 Sweden advances to simi-finals
Russia 8, Czech Republic 3
Team USA 2, Switzerland 1 - USA advances to simi-finals

Today's Schedule - Quarter Finals

Canada - Switzerland 2:30
Russia - Finland 6:30

Monday's Simi- Finals

Winner of Canada - Switzerland vs USA
Winner of Russia - Finland vs Sweden

Around the NHL...

A couple of trades this weekend as the Isles sent Dwayne Roloson to Tampa for a prospect and Montreal sent Maxim Lapierre to the Kings for a prospect and a pick.

Odds and Ends...

Finally, this is about as odd as it gets. Me and my new buddy, Jules the GEICO Caveman.


More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

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