Skip to main content

Battling for that last seat on the team bus

Thursday night the Nashville Predators open up the home portion of their preseason schedule as the Atlanta Thrashers come to town.  So far, it appears that the main storylines for roster spots in Nashville involve supporting roles; who is going to back up Chris Mason in goal (Pekka Rinne or Dan Ellis), who will be the seventh defenseman (Ville Koistinen or Kevin Klein), and whether there is any room for a brash youngster like Antti Pihlstrom to earn a job among the forwards.
 
There's been some good discussion over at the Predators' message boards around this topic, which I thought I'd distill over here.  Most of the 23-man roster appears pretty set at this point, looking somewhat like this:

Centers:  Jason Arnott, Radek Bonk, David Legwand, Scott Nichol, Jerred Smithson
Left Wing:  Martin Erat, Vern Fiddler, Martin Gelinas, Darcy Hordichuk
Right Wing:  J.P. Dumont, Jed Ortmeyer, Alexander Radulov, Jordin Tootoo
Defense:  Greg de Vries, Dan Hamhuis, Ryan Suter, Shea Weber, Greg Zanon, Marek Zidlicky
Goal:  Chris Mason
 
That covers 20 spots for now, setting aside Steve Sullivan until Thanksgiving at least.
 
Since we've got two weeks (and four more exhibition games) before the start of the regular season, I doubt we'll see much tomorrow night in terms of veteran players and what the actual line combinations will look like when the puck drops vs. Colorado on October 4th, but I would think there should be plenty of opportunity for prospects like Cody Franson to impress the locals and face some more NHL competition before being shipped off to Milwaukee.
 
In particular, I'll be keeping an eye on Koistinen (who may win that 7th spot for now given Kevin Klein's banged-up shoulder) and Pihlstrom (who has stood out in team scrimmages and the first preseason game against Columbus).
 
As a bonus, it looks like I'll get to meet up with the Falconer from Thrasher's Talons and Southeast Shootout, who's coming up to Nashville from Atlanta for the big tilt.  It's really too bad Nashville and Atlanta don't play more often, as that would appear to be the natural local rivalry.  Like everyone else, I'm waiting to see what the NHL comes up with for a revised schedule that tones down the divisional games and brings back the variety.
 

Popular posts from this blog

My goals for 2011: Make sports blogging pay off

In my never-ending quest to figure out a model for making what is currently my hobby & passion into something bringing in at least a side income, I've decided to set a couple goals for myself to complete during the rest of 2011. Simply put, I plan to publish two products over the next few months, which I hope will provide real value to hockey fans, and that they'll be willing to pay for. Will it succeed? Will it fail? The only way to know is to put my nose to the grindstone and get these two things done (I'll keep the details under my hat for now). The important thing to note is that these efforts are in addition to anything I'm doing over at OTF . Taking away what we're doing over there and asking people to pay for it is a surefire lose-lose all the way around, because if there's anything we've learned over the last few years, it's that people love to read about sports, but only for free. I'm also optimistic about Hockey Gea...
Read more

My Letter To Gary

Dear Mr. Bettman, When the announcement was made a few weeks ago that Jim Balsillie had entered into an agreement to purchase the Nashville Predators, speculation immediately began that a relocation to South Ontario would come in short order, and many hockey fans in the Nashville area jumped to the conclusion that we'd see a "Major League" scenario, whereby the new owner would deliberately undermine local support of the team so as to trigger the escape clause in the team's arena lease. As for myself, I decided to give Mr. Balsillie the benefit of the doubt - surely as a lifelong hockey fan and player, he wouldn't do such a thing after acquiring one of the best young teams in the game, with the Stanley Cup potentially within reach. I've waited and watched over recent weeks, and was initially encouraged by Balsillie's promise to field a competitive team, giving GM David Poile an ample budget to put together the best team possible. His legal representative ...
Read more

Cheer up, it's the holidays...

Why is it that various media outlets continue trying to put their own spin on the "what's wrong with the NHL" story? Our latest example comes from The Hockey News , in a piece by Jay Greenburg entitled, "Excitement Level On The Decline." Take the opening sentence: Attendance is down and yet still up from before the lockout, leaving it arguable whether buildings in New Jersey and Florida are half-full or half empty. It's no surprise that attendance is down from last season, particularly if you compare the first half of 2005-06 to the first half of this year. Coming out of the lockout, there were legions of fans starved to see the on-ice product, particularly in light of the massive rule changes. This year is more indicative of business as usual, so the fact that the league is above pre-lockout levels is a positive. Toss in the projection that overall revenues are increasing despite a 1% decrease in attendance, and I'd say that paying fans have come back ...
Read more