I've talked to my very best source regarding the Phil Kessel rumors and here is what I've gleaned: I have confirmed to the best of my knowledge that the Preds offer is Blum, Rads rights, and a 1st round pick. From what I've been told, Boston is deciding if they want Rads as a part of this deal. If not, an 09 draftee not named Ellis may be included in replace of Radulov's rights. Contrary to what Mr. Bob McKenzie has stated on his blog, I'm hearing Kessel is willing to sign in Nashville. He's waiting to see if Toronto tables an offer sheet sheet though because that would automatically be more money that he'd get in Nashville. That said, from what I've heard, Toronto may be backing off a bit because the price tag on said offer sheet would be around 5.5 or 6 million. Boston wanted Colin Wilson in the deal, but that was a no go. Toronto is the reason this is held up. The threat of their offer sheet is why the deal between Boston and Nashville has not been made yet. Boston doesn't really want to trade Phil to Toronto because then they have to face him 6 times a year. They prefer the Nashville deal but again, the Toronto offer sheet is derailing this. These are of course RUMORS, but I feel there is truth in them.
**********
The Nashville Predators treated their fans to a 5-0 win over the visiting Atlanta Thrashers. Among the highlight were the Preds official unveiling of the 3rd jersey, Colin Wilson's debut, and the Preds top line powering the team already. Needless to say, the 14,103 in attendance went home happy.
Felder’s FANTASTIC Five:
1. The Wilson Debut Lives Up To The Billing - What a premiere by Colin Wilson. The young man led the Predators in points and earned himself the 1st Star of the Game. Colin showed his passing skills early, but his goal in the 3rd period was a thing of beauty. I truly hope that there are highlights posted online somewhere because the angle from which he shot gave little chance for a goal, but he scored anyway. Needless to say, this was a great way to start his Nashville Predators career. Oh yeah, and don't forget this is his 4th consecutive day of playing in a game. He played in both rookie games on Monday and Tuesday, was in the scrimmage yesterday, and then had 15:46 of TOI tonight. That takes some stamina folks.
2. The Top Line Looks Just Fine - Even though the Atlanta squad featured very few NHL'ers, the Preds top line looked like it had not lost a beat. Some great passing resulted in a goal by J.P. Dumont, and Jason Arnott cleaned up a rebound goal as well earlier in the game. Overall, the top line looked like they should considering the competition.
3. Young D Looks Solid… Mostly - I thought that Teemu Laakso really stood out tonight. He made a very strong case for himself to be on the bottom D pairing come October. Ryan Ellis showed that he can keep up with the speed of the game. Alexander Sulzer had a quiet but solid game. Cody Franson didn't do much to raise his stock, but he did fight Kulda which drew Barry Trotz attention.
4. So Far So Good On The Penalty Kill - Amidst many doubts considering the players that departed Nashville, the penalty kill looked pretty solid tonight. Now, that said, lets note that it did feature quite a few young guys. Weber and Suter led all skaters for TOI during the PK, but beyond them we have Sulzer with 3:09, Wilson with 2:36, and Spaling with 2:35 of PK time. They all combined for 5 successful kills including 1:30 of 5 on 3. Not a bad start for Brent Peterson's special teamers.
5. A Faceoff Focus - Tonight was a pretty impressive faceoff night for a few Preds. Cal O'Reilly led the way by winning 10 of his 12 draws. Behind him you have young Mr. Wilson with a 68% faceoff win percentage. The only Pred below 50% in the dot was Nick Spaling who only took 3 total faceoffs and won just 1 of those. Faceoff wins seem to be a focus early on in pre-season.
Other Notes:
* There were no scratches for the Predators this evening.
* 1ST PERIOD
* 13:46 to go and Steve Sullivan take out Arturs Kulda in the offensive zone corner. Not only did he hit Kulda, he shoved the man down. Nice to see Sully dishing a little grit out there.
* 12:35 to go and thanks to penalties by Kulda and Oystrick the Preds have 1:06 of 5 on 3. Early chance to not receive the man advantage tag boys.
* 10:40 to go and Teemu Laakso is showing some brute force after the Preds can't convert on powerplay opportunities. He shoves down a Thrasher not once but twice with just one arm. That will get you noticed.
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 5:46 to go. Teemu Laakso with a spin around goal after receiving a pass. The shot came from the outer edge of the faceoff circle to Drew Macintyre's left. Laakso found himself with the puck almost directly in the slot with his back to Drew. He then spun to his left and fired off a quick wrister that found the twine. A really pretty goal. As I said way back at Development Camp, Laakso seems to be the favorite over Franson before camp even began. So far, Teemu is making his case. Laakso from Ben Eaves and Colin Wilson. The Preds take the 1-0 lead.
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 2:17 to go. Jason Arnott stuffs home a rebound after Steve Sullivan wheeled in from the corner and handcuffed Macintyre. The puck fell and sat right in front of Drew's pads, so it was an easy stuff in goal for the captain. The goal came 4 on 4 as Kulda and Wilson were in the box. Arnott from Sullivan and Ryan Suter. The Preds now have a 2-0 pre-season lead.
* END OF THE 1ST PERIOD – NSH: 2 ATL: 0 Positives - Shots on goal, and lots of them. The Preds hold a 17-7 shots advantage at the moment. The Preds also have won 60% of the faceoffs. Negatives - The man advantage has returned to roost. Maybe the next period will even that out though.
* 2ND PERIOD
* 16:20 to go. While on the PK, Dan Ellis mades a nice stop on a wrap around attempt. There have been a handful of big saves by Elly already. He's looking good so far.
* GOAL for NAASHVILLE - 11:58 to go. Steve Sullivan makes this play happen. Some beautiful stick handling at the point lead to him find Jason Arnott just off the post to Macinytre's right. Drew commits as Arnott find Dumont on the back door for the easy goal. The stick handling by Sully was gorgeous and forced two Thrashers out of position to open up Arnoot and Dumont on the sides. Just a great play with precision. Dumont from Arnott and Sullivan. Preds hold the 3-0 lead.
* 9:21 to go and the Preds put in Mark Dekanich. Dan Ellis exits after stopping all 13 shots faced, including at least 2 memorable saves.
* :56 seconds to go and Dekanich finally gets to stop a shot on net. The Preds D was causing the Atlanta offense all sorts of problems this last half of the period.
* .4 seconds to go and Ryan Suter gets called for cross checking. Cody Franson was already in the box for hooking so the Thrash will have 1:29 of 5 on 3 to start the 3rd period.
* END OF THE 2ND PERIOD – NSH: 3 ATL: 0 Positives - The top line looked like just that, an NHL top line. Another double digit period with shots on goal bringing the game total up to 27 to 15 so far. The Preds still hold a 60% faceoff win percentage. Negatives - .
* 3RD PERIOD
* GOAL for NASHVILLE - 17:43 to go. The BEAST is alive my friends. Shea Weber makes a wrist shot goal from the point look oh so easy. Webs was literally a stride from the blueline against the boards and he just wires the puck high stick side. That my friends is an ALL-STAR shot from a D-man. What struck me as funny is how nonchalant Shea put that thing in. Weber from Hornqvist and Wilson. The Preds have the 4-0 lead and seem to have put this one to bed early.
* GOAL from NASHVILLE - 15:19 to go. Welcome to the big leagues Mr. Colin Wilson. A beautiful goal from the former BU standout. Colin made a nice deke from the bottom of the faceoff circle to Macintyre's left to give himself space to shoot. From there he lefts off pure sniper shot that finds its way across the body of the goalie and goes in off the far post. The angle of this goal was stunning. If this is a sign of things to come then Pred fans will love this kid. Oh, and this goal also gave the fans their tasty treats for the drive home so that was very popular as well. Wilson from X and X. The Preds have a 5-0 lead.
* 12:26 to go and Boris Valabik has drawn the ire of the Preds. After a hard hit on Weber along the boards, Jason Arnott comes over and lets Valabik know this is pre-season and that kind of hit will not be tolerated. I personally didn't see exactly why the hit was dirty, but I trust that is was based on how angry Jason Arnott was.
* 9:15 to go and Cody Franson drops the gloves with Kulda after Kulda laid out Peter Olvecky at center ice. This fight really had two parts. The first part was a clear win by Franson, but then after the guys fell to the ice and got back up, this time Kulda got the better of Cody. Both guys delivered some serious blows though.
* FINAL SCORE – NSH - 5 ATL - 0.
My Three Stars:
1. Colin Wilson - 1 goal, 2 assists, +3 rating, 4 shots on goal, and won 13 of his 19 faceoffs.
2. Jason Arnott - 1 goal, 1 assist, a +2 rating, 2 shots on goal, and won 10 of 20 faceoffs.
3. Teemu Laakso - 1 goal, +2 rating, 2 shots on goal, 4 hits, and 1 blocked shot.
Goalie Grades:A/A – The starting goaltender tonight was Dan Ellis. Mid-way through the game Mark Dekanich came in. Both goalies did very well as they combined for the pre-season shutout. Ellis stopped 13 shots while Dekanich stopped 9. Both netminders had a couple of really big saves and put on a nice show for the 14,103 in attendance.
Quotes:
Brandon Felder - "What happened with that play involving Valabik and Weber?"
Jason Arnott - "Webby ran somebody over and he (Valabik) went after Webby is what happened. We don't need Webby fighting that guy. I mean, it's pre-season and if he was gonna fight anybody I guess he could of fought me instead. We don't need Webby getting hurt this early on in the season. We don't have a whole lot of D as it is and he doesn't need to be doing that right now."
*
Felder - "Talk about your big moment scoring that goal. That was a pretty tough angle to get the puck across the goalie."
Colin Wilson - "Yeah, I just was in tight and figured the only way to score was to get it up and you know what, I'll take it."
*
Felder - "Barry kept the top line together tonight and you guys looked like a top line. Talk about that tic tac toe play where you showed everybody there's no rust on you."
Steve Sullivan - "Well you know we've been practicing pretty hard the last 3 or 4 days since camp has started and we are taking pride in trying to lead by example and make sure we come out of the gate ready to play. We think that game 1 is as important as game 82. When you miss the playoffs by 2 or 4 points you look back at the beginning of the year, you look back at the slow start we had and we want to make sure that doesn't happen. Every unit we want to make sure we're not rusty and that we are ready to go."
Felder - "This was the first time for some of the younger guys to play against somebody that doesn't wear the Predators logo on their chest. What was your impressions of some of the young guys like Laakso and Wilson in this game?"
Sullivan - "I thought there was some good plays from them. A lot of them were playing in their first pre-season game and I thought they showed some skill, some patience out there, and made some great plays."
Felder - "Off the ice, are you going to continue to have some verbal sparring with Dan Ellis through Twitter?"
Sullivan - "No, no. Dan Ellis and I had a conversation today and we decided that we're gonna, well he got a little upset with my high blocker comment so he didn't want to respond to that. So we decided to keep it amicable on Twitter. We're both pretty sharp tongued and quick witted so we decided before it gets out of hand we better stop it."
*
Felder - "That's obviously the kind of start you want. Talk a little about your mindset going in and how you're determined to battle back for that #1 spot."
Dan Ellis - "Well, my opinion is I want to win the games that I get a chance to play in. I'm not concerning myself with a battle or anything like that. It's important that you win hockey games and when you get in there if you continue to do that you will play. That has to be the main focus. When Pekka's playing in games you want him to win, you want him to do well because if he does well the team does well. It's not so much about a battle between the two of us, it's more a battle within yourself that you just play your best when you get an opportunity."
Felder - "Talk about the young D guys in front of you tonight."
D. Ellis - "They were great tonight. Very composed for a young group. Having 4 kind of fresh D-men out there, they moved the puck very well, they communicated just as well as the guys we've had in the lineup before, and I think there's a bright future with that group. They've got great composure, they see the ice well, they defend very well, and they communicate well so I think things are only going to get better with that group."
Felder - "Sully was saying that you guys are going to cut down on the trash talk between each other on Twitter. I think that might be a little disappointing to fans."
D. Ellis - "I think he might cut it down but I don't think I will at all. He knows me well enough that I like to give him a good chirp every now and then, all in good fun, but I don't think it's going to stop any time soon."
*
Felder - "Considering the guys that departed in the offseason, were you pretty impressed with the penalty kill?"
Barry Trotz - "Yeah. We lost a lot of those key guys that have managed real good at the penalty kill. I thought that the young guys we used did pretty well. They did really well in terms of their reads but Brent Peterson does a good job with the penalty kill. They were well prepared and they got it done tonight."
Felder - "When you look at that battle with Franson and Laakso, what little things are going to separate them to take that last D spot?"
Trotz - "Just consistency. How they deal with pressure, how they deal with situations, how they are able to elevate their game and keep it consistent. That's the biggest thing with players, two things, they're not able to elevate their game, and b they have no consistency. Whoever does those two things is gonna get a job."
Final Thoughts:
Not much to complain about in this game at all. The only area that didn't pan out was the man advantage. Other than that, every facet of the game looked pretty solid from this Predators squad. The one thing to keep in mind is that Atlanta didn't use a lot of their NHL guys in this one, so lets take this great result with a grain of salt. Saturday nights game will hopefully feature a bit of tougher competition.
The Predators next game is tomorrow night in Carolina. The Preds will take on the Hurricanes at 6 pm inside the RBC Center. The only coverage will be via 104.5 the Zone where Pete Weber, Terry Crisp, and Tom Callahan will have the call.
Till next time, take care.
Questions, comments, and criticisms can be sent to [email protected] if you wish to contact me personally.
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