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Hi There!

June 26, 2020, 4:50 PM ET [5 Comments]
Paul McCann
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Well Hello There!

I have been away for awhile… as has hockey… dealing with a 2020 that frankly just seems to be drunk. A pandemic, quarantine, work from home (for those of us lucky enough to be able to,) murder hornets, protests in the streets, a Saharan dust storm???… it just seems all too much. But we are getting through… and we are getting close…

Close to a few key dates… the naming of the “hub” cities for the playoffs and the opening of training camp.

Hub cities appear to be down from the original ten to six or five, at least according to Pierre Lebrun… they are Vancouver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Toronto and Edmonton. Expectations are that an announcement may be made any day now and some things that I am hearing back up Eklund’s claim about Chicago rapidly moving up the list.

Choosing two Western Conference cities may be problematic as one Western team will get to be home. A real advantage, especially if you do deep in these playoffs… previously I have seen that a home team can’t play in their own rink, but either I imagined that or they changed their minds. When looking at the potential cities, the ones that seem the safest as we look at things on June 26, would be Edmonton and Vancouver… if I can’t do the games live… I have no problem with both sites being in Canada. That being said, reports are now coming out that Vancouver may be out of the hunt… so stay tuned.

Considering the first two rounds will be in a March Madness style… a hockey cornucopia that I cannot wait for. Multiple games per day… yeah, I can handle that. This tournament does have the capability to be some simply stunning hockey.

As far as training camp… July 10 can’t come fast enough. Just the hope of live sports has picked up my spirits… after all, you can only handle so much Korean baseball.

I just hope that the rising outbreaks in Florida, Arizona and Texas don’t impact the return as there are plenty of hockey players that live in those three states.

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Next Up – Training Camp scheduled to start on July 10.

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Random Notes – Presented by

- The First Phase of the Draft Lottery is tonight

- Rumors have been flying that a “Finn Plane” has been put together by some Finnish NHL’ers and is heading back to the states this weekend. The rumor includes four Finnish Preds on that plane.

- The top pick is expected to be Rimouski LW Alexis Lafreniere.

- Coverage of this phase of the draft lottery will begin at 7pm CT on NBCSN.

- Both Ford Ice Centers have reopened.

- It does appear that all events at Bridgestone Arena have been cancelled or postponed through September 4th except for Alan Jackson’s show… which I would anticipate being postponed as well.

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SlapShot Radio is continuing our 12th season as Zack, Brent and I are on Monday night’s this season. The best hour of hockey talk on the longest running hockey show in the southeast … Join us Mondays at 7pm on 102.5 the Game. We normally finish up around the 4th of July, however… if the NHL comes back, we will keep going until the Cup is awarded!

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