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Game Night - Warmed Climes than Nashville...

January 11, 2010, 9:04 AM ET [ Comments]
Paul McCann
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Predators have left the cold of Music City for a more balmy climate, Vancouver, BC. As I write this, it is 15 degrees in Nashville, it’s 50 in Vancouver. Well, it’s not exactly hockey weather, but the Preds have business to tend to.

This second (and final) western Canada swing of the season does bookend a holiday season that has been highlighted by a Predator team playing inconsistent hockey after a torrid November and early December. The Preds have shown slow starts, lower energy and more injuries as the IR has grown to include Jerred Smithson and Jordin Tootoo who are both at least a week or two away from returning, Jason Arnott who is out for at least the first two games of this road trip and Joel Ward, who is listed as questionable for tonight’s game. The Canucks have a few on IR as well, Pavol Demitra, Kevin Bieksa and Ryan Johnson are all out for tonight’s game. Sami Salo is a game time decision and is listed as day-to-day.

Vancouver rolls into tonight’s game as one of the hottest teams in the league, going 4-0-1 in their last five and gaining points in nine of their last ten games. They are coming off a home shootout loss to Calgary on Saturday night.

The player to watch for the Preds tonight is Patric Hornqvist, he is the leading goal scorer in the NHL over the past month, potting 11 goals in his last 13 games and is on a four game scoring streak. Getting off to a good start will be critical for the Preds as they have gotten into a nasty habit of digging a hole in the first half of the game, then attempting to dig out of said hole in the second half.

Game time is 9:30 Central with coverage on 104.5 the Zone and FS Tennessee… brew up the coffee, it may be late night!

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Monday Notes

- Ben Guite has been sent down to Milwaukee.

- Anaheim is certainly getting on a roll as they took another road win, beating Chicago last night for their fourth consecutive win.

- Looks like Jamie Langenbrunner will be the captain for Team USA in the Olympics. The official announcement is scheduled for later today.

- The suspended game between Tampa and New Jersey finished last night… what a bizarre situation. The Lightning leveraged their lead and took a 4-2 decision.

- If you haven’t seen the all-out brawl that happened in the KHL a few nights ago between Avangard Omsk and Vityaz Chekhov, the fights are on You Tube… it got so bad, so quick that the game was suspended after only three and a half minutes of play because there wasn’t enough skaters left to continue due to ALL of them being thrown out of the game for participating in three fights! Those crazy Russians... :-)

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COMING UP ON HOCKEYBUZZ RADIO…

For the most updated guest information go to HockeyBuzz Radio's website

Wed. 1/13 - HockeyBuzz Radio welcomes famed sports writer Jim Kelley, we’ll preview the upcoming game against the Maple Leafs with writer/blogger/radio host Howard Berger from the Fan 590 in Toronto and we’ll also talk trades that may happen before the Olympic break with Eklund… that and more on next Wednesday’s HockeyBuzz Radio.

You can listen to past shows on podcast at HockeyBuzz Radio's Podcast site.


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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 during Pred home games in season with information and explanations from the PA box.





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