It’s Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, the second busiest shopping day of the year. It’s also a Game Night in Nashville, time for some live hockey with the Preds’ first home game in ten days. The Chicago Blackhawks are in town for the first half of home and home back-to-back games. In a strange schedule quirk, these games will finish the season series between these Central division rivals before the turn of the calendar.

These are two of the hotter teams in the league as the Predators are 7-2-1 in their last ten, Chicago is 7-3-0… The Blackhawks are coming off a convincing 3-0 victory in Detroit on Wednesday. The Predators dropped the final game of their western Canada swing and are back home for a single game before heading out on the road again for games in Chicago, St. Louis and Columbus, a key stretch of Central division games to close out the calendar year.

Injuries for Chicago are Cam Barker and Ben Eager, listed as day-to-day, they have two players officially on IR, Adam Burish and Dave Bolland. The Predators are listing Jordin Tootoo and Jerred Smithson as out.

Most pundits predicted that the Predators would be looking up at Chicago in the standings… no one saw Nashville competing with them for the division title. But at the halfway point of the season, that’s exactly where the Predators stand, only four points back, with an opportunity to make a statement in these next two games. The Predators are 6 points up on Detroit, 8 points up on St. Louis and 12 up on the crashing Columbus Blue Jackets.

Game time is 7pm, coverage on 104.5 the Zone and FS Tennessee.

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The World Juniors begins today in Saskatchewan. Team Canada is in action today, taking on Latvia, Team USA is taking on Latvia, both games in Saskatoon. The tournament runs through January 5th and is being covered in the US on NHL Network.

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COMING UP ON HOCKEYBUZZ RADIO…

For the most updated guest information go to HockeyBuzz Radio's website

Wednesday – December 30th- We’ll preview the Winter Classic with Versus broadcaster Brian Engblom along with Boston Globe writer Kevin Paul Dupont.



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You are invited to follow me on Twitter. Search for PredPAPaul… Not only will I be updating when I get news or updates… I’ll also be updating during Pred home games in season with information and explanations from the PA box.

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