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Hope all had a nice holiday weekend… time to get to work… I’ve got a few things to cover today. First, the hockey community in Nashville is coming together to help out in flood relief efforts. The SlapShot Radio Rink Rebuild Event is tomorrow night… we’re raising money to help rebuild an inline rink that was destroyed by the recent Nashville flooding. Pie in the Sky Pizza- Midtown is our host location. We’re doing a live remote of SlapShot Radio, watching game 3 of the finals and having a silent auction.
Then on Monday night, June 7th, The Tin Roof will be the site of a “Tweetup” to benefit the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. They got a great auction going on online and the event should be a great time. This event is being driven by Pred blogger Mark Willoughby (check his View from 111 blog) and should be a good time for a great cause.
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I really find it hard to believe how such a good author can’t get beyond his blind hatred for a single individual. Stephen Brunt, the author of some very good, very well researched books like “Gretzky’s Tears,” “Searching for Bobby Orr,” and “Facing Ali” can’t seem to apply the same standard from his books to his Globe and Mail column.
In his latest salvo (written on Friday, prior to game one of the finals) against Gary Bettman and all things hockey in the US, Mr. Brunt tries to pull together multiple problems and connect them all to the CBA, which he promptly lays blame at the NHL Commissioner’s doorstep. Now, let me get this straight…
- The Chicago Blackhawks are having a renaissance since the new CBA - However, the CBA or any decision the commissioner made had nothing to do with it. It simply happened because a stubborn owner dies and his son did the obvious… ummm… OK.
- The Phoenix Coyotes are an example of how hopeless the Commish’s southern expansion strategy is. Yup… Forget the early years in Phoenix, when crowds were coming out to an insufficient arena to see a successful hockey team, also, don’t consider the crowds that showed up during their playoff run this year to see a successful hockey team. That is nothing at all like Chicago, where the owner was the cause of the team's attendance problems… not 15 years of pathetic hockey. It’s not often you see a columnist perform the Jedi Mind Trick…
- The Winter Classic gets better TV numbers than the Stanley Cup finals. Now I know this column was written before game one, so I do have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, but Mr. Brunt is dead wrong here. The rating numbers for the 2010 Winter Classic was a 2.6 share… game one of this year's finals alone gathered a 2.8. By the way, last year’s finals averaged a 3.1 (game seven got a 4.3 share all by itself)… the 2009 Winter Classic gathered a 2.9 share. Mr. Brunt needs to do some better research, the Finals absolutely outdraw the Winter classic, a main point of Mr. Brunt’s entire argument just went up in flames.
- The Thrashers, Panthers, and Islanders are in “various degrees of death spirals.” - Every franchise that doesn’t sell out every game and spends to the cap limit could be described as such. Which brings us to…
- The Ottawa Senators lost money last season… and didn’t sell out 13 home games. - What??? Hold on a second… I thought that all you had to do was place an NHL franchise anywhere in Canada and it would be an immediate success? Mr. Brunt has all but said so in many previous columns… but now, a Canadian franchise is not selling out every game? He must be wrong, after all, he was wrong about the Stanley Cup ratings being worse than the Winter Classic. Let me look this up. Well, I’ll be darned… he’s right with his facts here, the Ottawa Senators finished 15th in league attendance at home, for a team that finished 5th in the East with 94 points. I’m just sayin’… Now Mr. Brunt spins this fact by saying that the Sens sold out 29 games this year and called it “mighty impressive.” Then goes on to blame everyone and everything except the possibility that the Ottawa franchise may not have managed their budget well and overpaid for marginal players, or perhaps struggled to sell corporate sponsorships… Mr. Brunt also tries to blunt Ottawa’s lack of business savvy by saying “Imagine how the books look down in the US Sunbelt.” You don’t have to imagine Mr. Brunt, at least in this part of the Sunbelt, while no official announcement has been made, the Predators expected to make a small profit this year.
From a Nashville viewpoint, I am simply amazed that he didn’t take his obligatory shot at the Predators franchise, facts wouldn’t support it, but that hasn’t stopped him before. Mr. Brunt has to have a bad guy, he has to blame someone, and that someone is the Commissioner. The problem is, his blind hatred for the man clouds his judgement. Look… I know that Gary Bettman is an easy target and I know that the NHL has issues, like any business, but anyone who thinks that simply replacing Gary Bettman will fix the challenges that the NHL has, well… they just aren’t looking at the whole picture.
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Last night's game two was another good one… almost the complete opposite of game one. Very solid goaltending from both sides, more hitting, more intensity, more everything. The Blackhawks 2-1 win was huge as the home team that goes up 2-0 in a SCF series wins the cup 91% of the time.
The Predators surely know how the Flyers must be feeling right now as this series could very easily be 2-0 Philly. Last night’s game would’ve fit nicely into the ‘Hawks/Preds first round series, 28 seconds of playing time was the difference. Chicago seems to have found Michael Leighton’s weak spot… high glove.
It may be a bit premature, but I think the Blackhawks have this series locked up. They held serve at home, are a monster team on the road and the hockey gods seem to be smiling upon them. I think Philly will win at least one at home, but you wonder if the Flyers may be running out of gas.
Wed - On the road again… For Wednesday’s show, it’s the SlapShot Radio Rink Rebuild event. We’ll be gathering at the Vandy/Midtown location of Pie in the Sky Pizza for a Stanley Cup Final watch party one week from tonight on Wednesday June 2nd. We’ll get things going with happy hour at 5pm, a live remote of SlapShot Radio at 6pm then we’ll settle in to watch game 3 of the Finals on one of Pie in the Sky’s many HD televisions. We’ll have a Silent Auction with some great memorabilia and merchandise, we will also have donation buckets to collect as much as we can to help rebuild the Bellevue inline rink. The address for Pie in the Sky is 110 Lyle Avenue, just off West End Ave. If you’ve never checked out a Pie in the Sky location, well, you are missing some great food, awesome wings, great pasta dishes, incredible salads and of course, they make one outstanding pizza! So join us… Wednesday night at Pie in the Sky. We will have a great time, to help out a great cause. The live remote begins at 6pm on SportsRadio 560 WNSR and online at www.slapshotradio.com.
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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 with starting lineups and scratches during Pred home games, also I’ll be supplying information and explanations from the PA box.
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