The Nashville Predators are battling their way through the flu, getting help from call-ups, gutting out a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center last night in their return to the ice from the all-star break.

Eli Gold said it best on the radio last night (I'll have a rant about why I was listening on the radio later in this blog)... teams of championship caliber figure out ways to win games like that. Two top defensemen go down? No problem, a rookie call up steps up with his first NHL goal. A third gets tossed from the game? OK... step up and finish with four.

Tomas Vokoun was in net last night for the first time since his poor showing against Detroit. The Preds number one netminder responded with a solid 30 save outing, earning the third star of the game from the Chicago media.

The Preds take on St. Louis tonight, both teams are coming off wins, both teams in second games of back-to-back's. St. Louis is desperate to break a 13 game losing streak to the Predators, the longest in the NHL. Thanks to the Blues beating Detroit in overtime last night, the Predators now lead the Central Division by seven points and thanks to the Blue Jackets besting the Sabres, the Preds extended their lead over the NHL by three points.

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My New York trip continues, last night, we had a great dinner at a classic New York restaurant... Sardi's. What a blast, surrounded by classic pictures, and classic New York personalities. We followed that with coffee and desert at another New York institution, Maxie's.

When game time came... we headed to the ESPN Zone on Times Square, excited to watch the number one team in the NHL return to the ice after the All-Star break. Upon our arrival, we were sent up to the second floor to watch the game, where we were informed that the tables were for "dinner only"... OK, makes sense... let's grab a seat at the bar... hmmm... no TV's at the bar, we have to try and watch a hockey game on a 27" screen from 30 feet away?? Nah... let's go down to the bar on the first floor...

OK... that's better... 5 different TV's to choose from, all HD, alrighty then, there's two hockey games on already, Devils and Islanders... good... We ask at the bar to have the TV carrying an out of town college basketball game (that no one was watching) changed to the Preds, only to be told that they "Never change the downstairs TV's once they are set...never!"... Kinde strange... We then get a recommendation to go to the third floor... OK... we go to the third floor... only to be told the same thing. "We never change the upstairs TV's"... Where the hell am I??? I thought I walked into a sports bar? Y'know, the "Worldwide Leader In Sports Television"... only to be told by multiple staff members that they couldn't change any TV's???

Pathetic.

Note to ESPN Zone on Times Square's management... Do you understand that you are at the crossroads of the world in your location?? Do you understand that tourists come to your location to watch different teams from different areas? You had the local New York area teams on, as you should... but to limit your system the way you do??? Well... it cost you money last night... in a half full restaurant on a Friday evening??? It cost what my family would've spent... plus three other fans who wanted something very similar to what we were asking for... If that happened in just the 15 minutes of so that we were there., how much money are you really losing over the course of an evening, a week, a year?

When you advertise yourself as the Worldwide Leader, you may want to think about acting that way.

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