Skip to main content

Predators Prospects On The Ice

I took the chance to head down to Centennial Sportsplex and catch Day One of the on-ice portion of the Nashville Predators Prospects Camp, and while you can't glean much from one hour of a moderately paced practice, it was fun to take two of my kids along and let them see the young guns who hope one day to achieve NHL stardom.

What follows are a few snapshots I took during the session. Keep in mind that I'm officially a middle-aged father of 3, the kind of guy who one day you'll catch wearing black socks with sandals, so please forgive the quality...

Nashville Predators Prospects Colin Wilson and Chet Pickard2008 1st-round pick Colin Wilson (#50) tucks a rebound past fellow 2008 1st-round pick Chet Pickard in goal.

Nashville Predators Prospect Colin Wilson, the #7 selection in the 2008 NHL DraftA closer look at Colin Wilson, the #7 overall pick in the 2008 NHL Draft.

Nashville Predators Prospects Cody Franson, Jeffrey Foss, and Roman JosiSome of the defensemen got special attention at our end of the ice. Here, Nashville's 2008 2nd-round pick, Roman Josi (#59) and 6th-round pick Jeff Foss are towered over by the 6'5" Cody Franson.

There were many others of note that I didn't get good pictures of: Triston Grant, the newly acquired tough guy from Philadelphia, and Blake Geoffrion, who just wrapped up his sophomore season at the University of Wisconsin. I didn't notice last year's 1st-round selection, Jonathan Blum on the ice, nor were young wingers Antii Pihlstrom or Jonas Hornqvist, who are often mentioned as possibilities to make the big squad this fall.

I hope to catch tomorrow's session as well, and if I catch anything blogworthy (admittedly that's a pretty low threshold), I'll plop it up here.

BONUS: To keep you busy until the July 1 free agency period kicks off, head over to Paul Nicholson's Geek Thoughts for an interesting meditation on nationalism in hockey. I was fortunate enough to catch up with Paul at the Prospects skate today after interacting online with him for over a year now...
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