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After taking a few days off and separating myself from hockey (except for the Wild game on NYE and the Winter Classic yesterday) I come back refreshed and ready… Happy New Year everybody… now back to work.
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It’s Game Night in Smashville, the first of only three home games during the month of January for the Predators. A scheduling decision that poses quite a challenge for this young team... Which way does the roller coaster run? Up after their big win over Minnesota? Or down after a nasty five game losing streak bracketing the holiday?
After today’s game, Nashville heads west, one of two western road trips in the month. The Anaheim, LA, San Jose run is a treacherous one for the Predators, one that has been fraught with danger for years. Then the team goes on a home (vs. Wild), away (vs. Florida), home (vs. Chicago) before heading west again, this time visiting Phoenix, Colorado, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver before the All-Start break. A tough road to be sure, one that Coach Barry Trotz calls a “make-or-break” portion of the schedule.
Let’s face it… if Nashville heads home at the end of January still in the playoff mix, things look very good for this team. The final run of the season features 21 of their last 32 games at home.
The addition of Marek Svatos to the team certainly doesn’t hurt things. Another low-risk, high-potential-for-success move from David Poile. Svatos wants to re-establish himself as an NHL player, he now has that opportunity. The injury situation remains stagnant as Matthew Lombardi, Martin Erat and Steve Sullivan are all still on IR. The return of David Legwand can do nothing but help this team.
Tonight’s game against Columbus is a critical Central Division matchup, the Blue Jackets hold a one point advantage over Nashville in the tight Western Conference making tonight one of those “four-point” swing games. The Predators do have a game-in-hand over Columbus.
No TV tonight, coverage on 102.9 the Buzz. Puck drop at the Bridge is 5pm…
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Random Notes
- Last night’s Winter Classic was a good one, even with the weather issues. The overhead camera was an interesting idea… but a tad overused. I’m really excited to see the finale of 24/7 on Wednesday.
- I’m willing to bet that if the ratings are higher for last night’s game, you will start seeing these scheduled for prime time… which also opens up the pool for host sites. LP Field anyone?
- Congratulations to NHL ice maven Dan Craig on keeping a playable surface together with all of the weather challenges last night.
- The Predators advantage in the west is in games played. Nashville has played 37 games, the five teams in front of them have played at least one more to as many as four more. Nashville needs to take advantage of this.
- Lost in all the Winter Classic hype… Dismantling on the Island? New York sent goaltender Dwayne Roloson to the Lightning for a minor league d-man.
-Team USA is living up to the hype so far in dominating at the World Juniors. They are off today, awaiting the winner of Canada vs. Switzerland and getting a much needed extra rest day.
-Interesting tension between the coaches for Team Canada and Team Sweden after Sweden’s shootout win. I’d kinda like to see those two teams meet up again… could be fun!
- Canada vs. Switzerland today at 2pm… Finland vs. Russia at 6:30pm, all times Central.
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