Skip to main content

Can Sully Ride to the Predators Rescue?

Updates on the progress (or lack thereof) on the Steve Sullivan injury front are few and far between, but this morning's Toronto Sun includes a note from Timmins, Ontario, Sully's hometown, where the Predators sniper is co-hosting a charity golf tournament. Based on the comments he's giving, there's no certainly no cause for optimism that we'll see him playing hockey anytime soon:

Sullivan's back problems -- which forced him to miss the entire 2007-08 National Hockey League season -- have limited his efforts on the links to only chipping and putting.

"My back can't handle a full swing yet," he said yesterday.

Sullivan suffered a back injury during the overtime period of game against the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 22, 2007.

In January, Predators general manager David Poile said the hope was for his star winger to return for the '08-09 season. But Sullivan concedes that his back hasn't been responding as well to treatment as team officials would like.


Ugh. With Alexander Radulov the leading contender for the Benedict Arnold Trophy, that leaves Nashville with only four proven top-six forwards, and most of the free agent market dried up. In order to fill out the Arnott and Legwand lines, one possibility might be to see if Jan Hlavac could be brought back; he seemed to mesh very well with Legwand and Erat, and that would leave the last spot on the Arnott line open to Vern Fiddler, Jordin Tootoo, or perhaps Jonas (err... Patric) Hornqvist if he's as ready for prime-time NHL action as is hoped...

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 ...

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...

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.