Skip to main content

Preds Head Deep Into the Heart of Texas

Tonight's game in Dallas just might be the perfect game at the perfect time for the Nashville Predators; an elite opponent that's currently firing on all cylinders puts forth a challenge to a good team that's stumbled defensively recently.

Simply put, the Preds should be fighting mad about their recent performance in Buffalo, and motivated to put in a top-notch effort against perhaps the hottest team in the NHL. So far this season, Nashville has won two out of three games against Dallas, including a 5-1 victory back in October, and a 1-0 win in Dallas on New Year's Eve. Last Saturday, the Stars came in to the Sommet Center and rolled over the Preds 6-3. Yes, Dallas is flying high these days, and new acquisition Brad Richards got off to a good start with his 5-assist effort against Chicago on Thursday.



But the Stars have yet to face the combined might of Jan Hlavac and Brandon Bochenski, the Predators' own trading deadline pickups. Those tough Texas hombres will be shaking in their boots when good ole #17 and #24 hit the ice, that's for sure.

Actually, I expect Barry Trotz to push his team to lock things down defensively, if only to see whether they are up to the task. The first interesting thing to watch for will be the lineup; will Kevin Klein and Ville Koistinen get action in favor of some of the regular defensemen who've been torched lately? Something needs to be done to shake things up, and benching poor performers is the way to start. My nominee to sit in the press box right now is Greg Zanon, a fine stay-at-home defenseman, but in the last few weeks it seems like he goes down to the ice to block shots and passes far too quickly, and opposing forwards have been taking advantage of that.

Game time is 7:00 Central, and this is the last game on local TV for quite a while; the next four games of this road trip aren't going to be carried by Fox Sports South (tsk, tsk, tsk...). Since I've got NHL Center Ice on DirecTV, I'll try and do some live blogging of those games to help fill the gap in coverage.

P.S.: Congratulations to Pope John Paul II High School on winning the Nashville Cup tournament last night at Southern Ice Arena. As Paul McCann often notes over at his Hockeybuzz column, high school hockey is vibrant and growing in the Nashville area, and is only just starting to get noticed by the local sports media.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

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

How I'm Trying To Make Money Sports Blogging

To kick off this series of articles general sports-blogging articles here at OTF Classic, I think it's best to start with a comment that Brad left here last week, after I shared my goals for 2012 , which include specific revenue targets: I considered diving into the world of internet marketing myself, but I felt that my friends would hate me for bugging them about stuff. I mean, it's pretty low-risk high-reward, so it's tempting. I wouldn't mind reading about tips on how to maximize impact of blogging in general to make it a legitimate income source. Trying to make money at sports blogging can be a very touchy subject - for the vast majority of us, this is an activity we pursue to both exercise our creativity and share our love of the game, whether it's hockey, football, badminton, whatever, with fellow fans. Mixing that personal conversation with a commercial message can turn people off, especially if it becomes too intrusive for the reader. It's not unrea
Read more

Social Media, Internet Marketing, and Real, Paying Customers - it really works!

Applying the basic tenets of internet marketing (SEO best practices and social media network building) have helped me grow the readership and engagement over at On The Forecheck tremendously in recent years, but lately I've been wondering if those same techniques could be applied to small- or medium-sized local businesses, to help them drive real, tangible business results. I'm talking about not just drawing idle hockey fans looking to a blog so they can muse over line combinations, but helping businesses connect with potential customers in ways that otherwise wouldn't occur. Recently, I was able to help make just such a thing happen, and it shows just how great the opportunities are for small, local businesses which may not have the resources or skills available to extend their brand effectively on the internet.
Read more