Month: November 2008

Scored the most excellent free tickets to the game tonight against St. Louis. Two seats near the defending faceoff circle, right on the glass.

There were a lot of good hits – absolute bounce their faces off the glass, hard hits, right in front of us. Very electrifying and yet no one was hurt the entire game. In fact, there weren’t any fights, either. Not that you need fights for a good game. There was no score the entire game and a fight could have ended up with players in the penalty box, giving the other team a power play advantage that neither team could afford.

Ended up a tire and then a shoot out. Unfortunately, the other team had the better goalie and the Preds lost by 2. The better goalie note was a particular rub in the face of the coaching and management who let that goalie get away from us last year. Bad mistake and it bit them in the ass tonight.

Every year the Predators have a long road trip worked into their schedule. They go up to Canada and then work their way down the west coast, and are gone for about 2 weeks. Most of the players and coaches like it because they are from Canada (born and raised or played minor league hockey there), so they get to visit family and friends when they are not on the ice.

Traveling is very hard on people. You have time zone changes, different eating and sleeping schedules, and the food is different. There is a lot to be said about the drop in productivity when someone is suffering jet lag.

So the Preds have been doing battle with Canadians and Californians and fared OK. There are home again for a rematch with San Jose tonight. Glad to have them home.

Last night the Nashville Predators stole two points from the San Jose Sharks.

First off, I’ve always hated the Sharks – until possibly this year. My biggest beef with them was their a-hole coach. But since they canned him when he failed to take them to the Stanley Cup last year, I might be willing to give the Sharks a shot at redeeming themselves.

Secondly, The team is currently in first place in the NHL based on points. So for the Preds to beat the first place team was an awesome achievement.

Thirdly, our goaltending has just been mediocred since the team let Volkoun go. That so ticked me off – and they have paid dearly for that mistake. So, to see Dan Ellis make almost 60 saves was actually thrilling. that was probably the best game in his pro career.

Wow – another game that had everyone biting their nails. Not the best game for Collins but thank God for field goals. Reminded me very much of the playbook the Titans used when they first came to Tennessee. It was field goals that took them to the Super Bowl.

So the Titans are the only team in the NFL with 8 wins. Who would have ever believed this could happen back in August when we started out?