0-2-0
Not the kind of start the Nashville Predators were looking for. The team has looked sluggish, out-of-sorts and appears to be dealing with a pretty bad 2017 playoff post season hangover. That and running into a little bad luck by getting Pittsburgh right after they had a 10 spot hung on them.
All that being said… this is a marathon… not a sprint. Applying football logic (starting 0-2 = no playoffs) to hockey simply doesn’t work. Getting over a Stanley Cup Final hangover can be difficult in the best of circumstances (BTW, the defending cup champ lost their first two games as well) … getting over a loss in the Final can be even more difficult.
In the immortal words of Taylor Swift (I guarantee you those words have never been put together in a sentence before) … it’s time to “shake it off.… The last vestige of last season gets taken care of tomorrow night with the raising of the Conference Championship banner, the first one to be lifted to the Bridgestone Arena rafters. At that point all of the celebrations are done… over with… and need to be forgotten quickly.
The next five games will be interesting… three divisional games bracketed by two against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers appear to have upgraded in several areas and come into Nashville for the last of a four game road trip before they open the home portion of their season on Thursday. The Predators then begin their divisional schedule against a Dallas Stars team that has also dropped their first two games, before a weekend trip to Chicago for a matchup with an offensively rejuvenated Blackhawks team. Then the Colorado Avalanche come to town before the Preds head to Philly to close out this five game stretch.
The chemistry of this team really hasn’t come together yet. Defensively, the team needs to gel a bit and offensively… well… there is some major help needed here. After an off day yesterday, the practice this morning should be interesting.
Tomorrow’s game is a complete sell out… limited tickets remain for the Dallas game on Thursday.
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Random Notes
- Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends…
- Nick Bonino is shaking the rust off pretty quickly, after the Boston game he did admit his legs felt heavier than he is used to, but he had a solid game against his former team on Saturday night.
- There’s a really solid piece on the Predators website about the captaincy with a unique take from Predators TV Color Analyst Chris Mason. He has been a teammate of every captain in Predators franchise history…
- Two games in and Samuel Girard hasn’t seen the ice yet… I wonder if he gets the call sometime this week?
- Back to back hatties for Alex Ovechkin? Rumors of his demise have been greatly overstated.
- Oh… if only we still had James Neal… we’d be 2-0 and have already won the cup… (/sarcasm off)
- KHL Watch – Eeli Tolvanen’s Jokerit club has now won 11 consecutive games with Tolvanen posting his 11`th goal of the season. Tolvanen now has 11 goals and 8 assists for 19 points in 15 games so far. The Preds prospect now stands 4th in the KHL in goals scored. Jokerit goes for a dozen straight tomorrow against Traktor.
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------------------------------------- SlapShot Radio has an exciting season in store for our tenth anniversary season. As the longest running hockey show in the region, SSR feeds hockey fans what they crave… intelligent, fun, entertaining talk about their favorite sport and we do it from the opening of training camp all the way through UFA day… the only local hockey show that does that.
We are on every Wednesday night at 7pm on the Predators flagship station, 102.5 the Game. Our new co-hosts are ex-Preds Dan Keczmer and JP Dumont bringing a true insiders perspective to the show. Well… almost every Wednesday… our next show is Saturday, October 14 at 8am… we are stepping aside for the players show…
We have been delivering great hockey talk to the most energetic and engaged fans in radio and advertising with us drives results at a reasonable price. Just ask our sponsors… including day one sponsor Dr. Jane Bacon at Hermitage Family and Cosmetic Dentistry … make your appointment at (615) 872-7762, Mark Lonsway at ReMax Fine Homes, call him for all your real estate needs at (615) 207-7799, and TurfMasters… check out their great service at TurfMasters.com.
We are also welcoming a new sponsor to the SlapShot Radio family… The Crag… Nashville’s premiere location for indoor rock climbing. Newton Dominey and his awesome crew have a great location in Cool Springs and they are opening a new location in South Nashville at the corner of Old Hickory Blvd and Nolensville Rd. Check out their website at ILoveRockCLimbing.com If you’ve never done it before… you need to try, they specialize on helping first timers.
Advertisers… reach out to me in order to access our activated listener base though great preseason advertising deals available for our tenth season when you email me at paul(@)slapshotradio(dot)com
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