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Game Night in Smashville |
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Paul McCann
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It’s game night in Smashville as an old nemesis comes to town for a February showdown. The San Jose Sharks have been a thorn in the Predators side for years, from playoff ousters to regular season domination, the Preds have a name for their pain. This season has been a bit different as the Predators have won both of their matchups thus far, one in Nashville and one in the Shark Tank.
The Predators will be looking to Shark killer Sergei Kostitisyn to work his magic again, SK74 has been instrumental in both victories over San Jose this year, scoring the game tying goal back in December and the game winner at HP Pavilion in January.
There’s a lot on the line tonight, besides being the typical intra-conference four point game. The teams are tied in points with the Preds holding a game in hand. Both teams are on modest streaks, Nashville has won their last two, San Jose has lost their last two. This is the beginning of a tough three game stretch at home for Nashville as tonight’s game is followed up by a Thursday game with conference leading Vancouver and a Saturday game against Pacific leading Phoenix.
The injury situation for San Jose is simple… they’re healthy, the only concern there is with Antero Niittymaki, he is listed as questionable. The Predators injury list is finally starting to shorten. Marcel Goc should return to the lineup tonight, Marek Svatos may return as well, leaving Francis Bouillon, Matthew Lombardi and Cal O’Reilly on IR.
Puck drop is at 7:08pm, coverage on 102.9 the Buzz and Fox Sports Tennessee. It’s a Daily’s Super Tuesday with ticket deals and $2 concessions.
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Random Notes
- After last night’s Pacific shakeup, The Predators are 6th in the Western conference, one point behind Anaheim and Dallas, one point ahead of 7th place San Jose and 8th place Calgary. Two ahead of 9th place Minnesota and Los Angeles and five points ahead of 11th place Chicago. The Preds trail Detroit by seven points in the Central.
- Nashville fans got to see history on Saturday night with the last game of Peter Forsberg’s NHL career. A sure hall of famer… we’ll be talking about him and his career on this week’s SlapShot Radio.
- Speculation is amping up on another potential deal for the Predators. Jim Diamond (Nashville Predator Examiner) is reporting that plenty of scouts from Montreal are in Music City.
- The St. Louis Blues will not go quietly… a big win over Vancouver last night keeps their buy/sell status up in the air for the trade deadline.
- The Colorado Avalanche on the other hand, went down without a fight last night… an embarrassing performance in getting hammered 9-1 by Calgary.
- Kris Versteeg goes to his third club in less than a season with the trade from Toronto to Philadelphia. A good pickup for the Fly-Guys…
- Excellent discussion on yesterday’s blog thread with great (mostly respectful) debate about Mario and his comments on Saturday.
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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, but we are having a bit of fun by getting your input on Gnash introductions, weigh in on Twitter and who knows, we may use your introduction for the best mascot in the NHL at the next Preds game!
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COMING UP ON THE NEXT SLAPSHOT RADIO…
We’re chatting with Vancouver radio play-by-play man, Rick Ball to preview Thursday’s Preds/Canucks showdown and also talking to Senators blogger Travis Yost about the situation in Ottawa that led to the Mike Fisher trade. We will discuss the career of Peter Forsberg with Sweedish reporter Gunner Nordstrom. We’ll also have our second “Captain’s Corner” as Pete Weber will sit down with a member of the Predators on-ice leadership team.
All that and more on this week’s SlapShot Radio, live from the Flying Saucer behind Union Station. We get things started at 6pm, then, Greg Pogue takes over at 7 for the WNSR Player’s Show. It’s a two hour block of nothing but hockey talk… the only place you will find that in Nashville is on SportsRadio 560 WNSR.
We didn’t have a show last week due to scheduling and broadcast conflicts, but you can get a SlapShot Radio fix at the SlapShot Radio podcast page.
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