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A Win, Another Win, and an Epic Fail.

November 4, 2011, 10:02 AM ET [ Comments]
Paul McCann
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • RSSArchiveCONTACT
November 3rd 2011 will be a red letter day in Pekka Rinne’s career in hockey. His 29th birthday was the day he signed a 7 year, $49 million dollar contract, and if that wasn’t enough, he then went on to shut out the Phoenix Coyotes 3-0 in Glendale. Not a bad day at all. First to the game… then I’ll weigh in on the contract and especially the reaction to it.

In the shadow of all the big news that happened during the day, there was a game to be played. The first period last night was an up and down affair that had both teams with quality scoring chances and both goaltenders tracking the puck well. The second period changed all that. Jason LaBarbera blinked first, giving up a rather soft goal on a Jonathan Blum snap shot from the point 8 minutes into the period, then the Coyotes netminder was being beaten cleanly by Matt Halischuk’s tap in of an excellent setup from rookie Craig Smith.

The Predators did have to survive a furious comeback attempt from Phoenix as the ‘Yotes dominated the third period with the Predators playing seemingly not to lose. TV Color Analyst Terry Crisp called out the team repeatedly for soft passes and giving Phoenix the zone to easily. That normally costs the team, but on this night, like many others… Pekka Rinne took over, stopping 14 third period shots on the way to his third shutout of the young season, tying him for the NHL lead with LA goaltender Jonathan Quick.

The Predators travel to San Jose for a Saturday night showdown with the Sharks… now… on to the contract…

Pekka Rinne is now locked up until he is 36 years old. Seven years for $7 million a year. The criticism of this deal started flying at the first news of it being signed. After I heard the news, after doing the dance of joy, I tuned to XM NHL Home Ice to hear their reaction… unusually negative for them. OK… then I started reading some other reactions… Immediately, most were buying into The Hockey News’ silly cover story... checked some of my peers on hockeybuzz… more of the same. Claiming knowledge that “Shea Weber wants out of Nashville” is simply silly… Shea Weber wants to play for a team that will invest in being a champion. That happened yesterday…

Then I listened to the Preds press conference announcing the deal. The lead owner of the Preds, Tom Ciggaran said it best…
"The Hockey News had a cover article called 'Slashville,' talking about how we couldn't afford to sign these three players, and I'm looking forward to writing a little letter to them and pointing out that we did. The money is there, and we have every intent to sign these players.”

“Our ownership group came together to make sure the team stayed in Nashville. “That’s no longer the goal. The goal is to win the Stanley Cup.”

Well that is pretty clear… It is very disappointing to this observer that the old “they can’t afford it… they aren’t committed to winning” crap dominated the coverage of this event. Frankly, I like that the owner called out the Hockey News and Ken Campbell in this. Is locking up a goaltender for $7 million for 7 years a risk? Yup… but a calculated one. There is some serious messaging here… a message to the fanbase and the locker room. Attendance is up, corporate dollars are up (another announcement yesterday) and this team continues to ignore (and astound) the naysayers by moving in the right direction.

It’s time for these naysayers to get a new message as they have to be tired of being proven wrong with their current one. I don’t expect anyone to admit the error of their ways, but Pred Nation is satisfied in the knowledge that two thirds of the big three are in Smashville and locked up beyond this year. Negotiations with Ryan Suter’s agent continue next week.

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Random Notes

- Craig Smith continues to look like he belongs in the NHL, validating David Poile’s belief in the youngster. His setup of Matt Halischuk’s goal last night was a thing of beauty.

- Plenty of discussion of the impact of Rinne’s deal on Anders Lindback. Keep in mind, Lindback is very young and still developing with the best goaltending coach in the business.

- The NHL has got their international broadcast deals together at last. You can read more at Puck the Media.

- The losing streak is at six in Detroit, the questions and grumbling is getting louder.

- An article in the Huntsville Times indicate real hope that the agenda driven decision made to eliminate the UAH Hockey program may be reversed as new donors have come out, donors that will commit to fully fund the Charger hockey program for at least three years… Read the article here.

- Another loss for Columbus last night, this time to Toronto. It is becoming obvious that a change is needed in Columbus, but maybe not behind the bench or in the GM chair… it may need to be in net. Steve Mason simply isn’t cutting it.

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On the next SlapShot Radio

We will wrap up the west coast road trip and preview the Predators' 1,000 game. That's all on next week's SlapShot Radio 6pm Wednesday on 102.5 The Game.

SlapShot Radio’s podcast of Wednesday’s show is posted. We welcomed Joe Yerdon from NBC Sports Pro Hockey Talk blog and we took a look down on the farm with the voice of the Milwaukee Admirals… Aaron Sims. We also discussed Eklund’s provocative post regarding Roberto Luongo.

Other past episode podcasts are posted on the SlapShot Radio website.

Click here to listen or download.

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