Legionnaire11

that is all

actually. "The Plan" was to build a strong core through the draft and then when the team was strong enough, add free agents to put us over the top. So really, you can't argue with it. Legwand, Hartnell, Erat, Radulov, Tootoo, Hamhuis, Weber, Suter, Zanon through the draft. Timonen and Vokoun from the expansion draft. And really, Sullivan, Vishnevski and Forsberg were brought in through trades. Sullivan for two picks, Forsberg for two picks and two prospects (that the preds drafted) and Vishnevski was brought in for Eric Belanger, who was brought in for Josef Vasicek who was brought in for Scott Walker who was from the expansion draft. So those guys are technically part of "building through the draft". The only standout Free Agents that we've signed are Kariya, Arnott and Dumont. The others are role players who could be gotten anywhere. It's not like the Preds went out and bought this team if thats where you're going. The team was build exactly the way that we were told that it would be built since day 1. Well, it IS the stereotype of southern folks (by the way, only east tennessee is in the mountains), and there's no use trying to gloss it over, a fair share of southerners do fit that stereotype to a T. But come on, it's not like the don't exist in Michigan. Get outside of the metro area and surrounding suburbs, and Michigan gets really hick, really fast.

What does stats have to do with any of this?

Datsyuk SUCKS! trust me, it's true.

Not feeling well today, maybe it's because of this game. Strange how each time these teams play seems to be "the biggest preds-wings game ever". Which, other than the playoffs, has been true in each game this season, Tonight IS the biggest matchup ever in the regular season for these two teams. And guess what... tomorrow night will be the biggest matchup ever as well. Ridiculous amounts of excitement on both sides of this one. Holmstrom scares me as always, Preds have got to at least lean on the big guy rather than just letting him stand in front of Vokoun and dominate as usual. Not sure about Forsberg yet. Some reports say he's going to sit out and continue resting for the playoffs, other reports say he's doing well and looks good enough to play... probably just trying to keep it a guessing game for Babcock. I EXPECT Paul Kariya to have a big game tonight. It just feels like tonight will be his night, maybe 2 goals and an assist again, or 2 and 2. Who knows. Now that i've said it, he probably goes scoreless. Kimmo Timonen also just seems to have that feeling about him tonight. I think a strong defensive game from him and throw in an assist or two. Obviously I think the good guys get the win tonight. Preds 4 (Kariya, Kariya, Dumont, Arnott) Wings 2 (Holmstrom, Calder)

Is a huge hockey fan

you have to wonder how much of it is the atmosphere in that city. The Canadiens are held on an unbelieveable pedastal there. Every time a player farts or blows his nose it's front page news. And even when you're in the dressing room, away from the fans and media, you're surrounded by reminders of their history. Just sitting there and looking around, seeing all of the hall of famers, and cups and everything else they have in there, it has to put a lot of pressure on a guy. It's easy to see how a player can fall apart in that environment.

here's something different. in 1997 there were no Nashville Predators. And the summer before I had just moved to Nashville, so Philadelphia was still strong in my heart and I loved no other sports team more than the Flyers. I was a freshman in high school that year, and obviously coming here to Nashville at the time, there wasn't a lot of hockey fans. Slowly and surely as I made friends throughout the year and they came to my house to hang out, I managed to get many of them into hockey. Either through watching on TV, playing video games or playing street hockey (those games were fun since no one knew what to do). Well, as you can imagine, I had been pumping up the Flyers all season and since they weren't exposed to any other team, all of my friends became Flyers fans. And I really believe that had the Flyers not been so successful that season, that many of those friends wouldn't have stuck with hockey and it would have been harder for them to become the die-hard preds fans that they are now. So, where was I? We had viewing parties at different houses for each game of the series. And it was a horrible series, it was just shock. Shock that the Flyers were so badly outplayed and dominated from the first puck drop until the cup was hoisted. The thing that most stands out in my mind, was that halfway through game 3, when we all realized that the Flyers had absolutely no hope in the series, we all really started pulling for Mike Vernon. He played one of the greatest final series that i've ever seen from a goalie and he and the Red Wings earned a lot of respect in my circle from that series. Ryan

I can understand if they didn't spell a name right if it's a rookie or some other unknown guy with a difficult name... But HASEK? And I'd also expect this stuff from ESPN who have had some strange box scores all season. But NHL.com should be on top of things.

haha, look at the remaining schedules and tell me you wouldn't rather have the Wings schedule.

This is basically saying that it's okay for the KKK to hate black people, as long as they do it in a place that is set up expressly for the KKK's use... Anyway, i'm not trying to argue with you, just wondering what you base your comments on? I'm generally on top of anything and everything related to the predators that goes on in this city and i've never seen or heard of the Preds spending money to make fun of the Wings. I've never heard radio shows or seen other forms of advertising that you claim are used to make fun of the Wings. I have seen skits on the jumbotron, but only during Wings games. They have different skits for every opponent. And we modify different chants for different opponents. The only Wings specific chant is the one that goes along with the Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop" modified into "Red Wings Suck" and of course the Ay! Oh! Wings Blow! instead of Ay! Oh! Lets Go!. And even then they've only been playing it when we score 5 goals and then it becomes Ay! Oh! TA-CO! because of the taco bell promotion of getting a free Taco whenever the preds score 5. You might be seeing something that I don't, but please direct me to it. Tell me what to look for. Also, how many games do you go to? Is it just when the Wings are in town? That would explain a lot about why you think we're so over the top obsessed with wings bashing. But either way, they ARE our biggest rival, so it only makes sense that they recieve the bulk of our attention.

I also wondered how injuries could drop the Wings so low, but not affect the Preds? TSN is very canadian biased, but it should be. It's a major media outlet and has to cater to it's audience. Even if all 6 canadian teams were the worst 6 teams in the league, they would still be the most important story to 90% of canadian hockey fans.

Try on this quote for size.. The people at first were saying, "Why is there a team in Nashville?" But when you come here and you see the fans and the excitement, my question would be, "Why would there not be a team in Nashville?" Yanic Perreault January 18, 2006

h4l... all you do on here is give the rest of us "visitors" a bad name. Stop It!

Lots of construction workers like to represent their teams. And especially independant contractors who don't have uniform dress codes that big corporations do. I work in the home building business and get to visit jobsites regularly. I see all kinds of guys with Titans logos on their hard hats and a select few various other logos too.

Hey IceMunkee, what section were you sitting in?

I didn't see it happen either, just saw Nichol skating over to the bench and took his glove off wincing in pain. It was near the end of the first. I don't think it was particularly violent slash if no one noticed it, probably just got him pretty good and there was an unfortunate break. Though, I don't think the NHL is in a hurry to side with Scott Nichol anytime soon after his own suspension this season.

Nashville has more hockey history than most people outside of town realize. Dixie Flyers South Stars Knights Nighthawks and Ice Flyers

I gagged a little when I read that one.

SSSSHHHHHHHH... don't spoil my fun

i don't know much about revenue sharing either. Just that we have to average 14,200 next season to qualify for 100% revenue sharing. I don't think we'd get any if we sold out every game, that really wouldn't make any sense... but then again, it's the NHL, so who knows.

Trust me, I'm not, and I don't know any other preds fans who are proud of getting revenue sharing money. I'm ashamed and embarassed by it. But, hopefully it keeps the franchise stable long enough for our fan base to build up more to the point where we don't qualify for the money anymore. only one person said that about Lidstrom. They are obviously an idiot and shouldn't be viewed as representative of the entire Predators fanbase.

No, we just had a much larger farm than anyone else who was a player to get him. So what we gave up seemed like a lot to other teams. It's not really a fair argument at the moment. The Preds have never really had any good players to hold on to. Can you name any star player who bolted the Preds for more money elsewhere? Brendan Witt is the only one I can think of, and he isn't exactly a marquee name. We've managed to re-sign Vokoun more than once, re-signed Steve Sullivan, who after he was traded to us even said that he didn't think he'd want to sign with Nashville again, but once he got here he was won over. This coming summer will be the big test for us. Kariya, Forsberg, Hartnell and Timonen are all going to be unrestricted. Pretty sure we'll lose one of them, but i'm pretty confident that we'll sign 3. We gave up one defensive prospect who had a bad back. And still have Franson and Klein knocking on the door. So, even when someone makes a horrible post like Dawn of Pred did. There is some truth in it. I think they were reaching on most of the Wings bashing, but on his/her points regarding the Preds was pretty truthful.

prove it then. don't just come on and say "you're wrong" without giving any reasons. I know there are a lot inaccurate statements in there, but there is also some truth in it as well.

sorry, didn't mean to sound like I was blowing a gasket. You've got to understand how tiresome it is to hear these stories all the time.