Avery Speechless?
Oct 12, 2008 NHL
Here’s a video from the Dallas/Nashville game, that featured a line brawl after a hit on Tootoo, who then battled with Turco, and it went downhill from there.
My favorite part is at the end, with Sean Avery in the box. He’s getting yelled at by a woman just on the other side of the divider…prompting the Nashville crew calling the game to say that Avery is one of the ‘premier debaters’ in the NHL. Come on, you don’t go with master debater there? H/T to Kukla.
Tags: dallas, Hockey, nashville, NHL, predators, Sean Avery, stars, youtube
NHL Nerdity - Roster Limits
Jul 11, 2008 NHL
Jay Levin has an article up at the Nashville Predators’s site going into detail about the NHL’s roster limit rules. If you ever wondered how many players could be under contract, how they keep track of signed versus unsigned as far as limits, exceptions for college players, check it out. Pretty interesting. It’s all part of a series they will be running about the parts of the CBA.
Balsillie Wanted to Buy Sabres
May 6, 2008 NHL
I hadn’t heard this one…apparently Tom Golisano turned down Crackberry dude Jim Balsillie’s bid to buy the Buffalo Sabres. According to WGR, Balsillie offered to purchase the Sabres in December of last year, but he was turned down. Golisano is not interested in selling the team to someone who would be moving it. That did not mean he would not sell, however. Can’t wait to hear more on this. Balsillie previously attempted to purchase the Pens and the Preds.
edit: There is a very carefully worded note from Larry Quinn at Sabres.com:
From time to time, we receive inquires about the possible sale of our franchise. Although it is not uncommon to receive inquires, it is the policy of our organization not to comment on them. However, we want to reiterate to all Sabres fans and our community that we have not and will not discuss the relocation of our franchise
Notice the bolded word. They have NOT ruled out selling, just relocating.
Tags: B-Lo Sports, blackberry, crackberry, golisano, Hockey, Jim Balsillie, nashville, NHL, penguins, pittsburgh, predators, rim, sabres
Boll VS Tootoo!
Mar 30, 2008 NHL
A nice long fight, and a good test to ensure the video posting plugin still works. :)
Tags: blue jackets, columbus, fight, Hockey, hockeyfights, Jared Boll, nashville, NHL, predators, tootoo
Gameday - Predators at Sabres
Feb 27, 2008 NHL
The Nashville Predators are the first post-deadline opponent for the Buffalo Sabres tonight at the Arena. The newest Sabre, Steve Bernier, will be in the lineup skating alongside Roy and Vanek. I would very much love for this combo to click, as having an ass-kicker on the ice (hopefully while still being able to help out with the scoring) would make teams think twice about taking cheap shots on them. I do wonder what will happen once all the injured players come back.
Nathan Paetsch gets back in with the absence of Campbell, working alongside Nolan Pratt. Kalinin will get his shot next to Spacek (boy, if their heads ever collide it could crack spacetime). 7pm start time, let’s get back in the playoffs tonight, boys!
Tags: B-Lo Sports, campbell, Hockey, injury, kalinin, Maxim Afinogenov, nashville, NHL, paetsch, pratt, predators, roy, sabres, Steve Bernier, Thomas Vanek
A Few More Stragglers…
Feb 26, 2008 NHL
Nashville gets F Brandon Bochenski (is this guy traded every year or what?), and gives up the ever popular ‘Future Considerations’ (great on the half-wall, let me tell you).
Anaheim also traded for D Jay Leach for Tampa Bay F Brandon Segal and a 7th round pick. Both players are current minor leaguers.
Tags: anaheim, Brandon Bochenski, ducks, future considerations, Hockey, leach, lightning, nashville, NHL, predators, segal, tampa bay, trade, trade deadline
Catching Up With The NHL
Nov 30, 2007 NHL
I missed posting after the Sabres loss to the Blues the other day, and there have been several big developments since then that need to be mentioned. The Sabres just were ready to play the Blues for a full game, and it showed. Miller tried to keep them in, but it was not to be. Sekera got the first goal of his NHL career to tie it up at 3-3, but a scramble in front of Miller with less than a minute to go got the Blues the game-winner. Next up tomorrow night is the hated (as per Paul Gaustad) Hurricanes.
The bigger news is that the NHL Board of Governors approved schedule changes to ensure teams play every other NHL club at least once per year. Under the new agreement, the division games drop to 6 per team (from 8), in conference games stay at 4 per opponent, but out of conference games go to 18. There will be 15 games either home OR away at each team, and then 3 more at-large games against the opposite conference to make up 3 home and home series.
That last bit is good news for the Canadian teams, as the league will be sure to pit them against each other in the home and home series. For the rest of the league, any existing rivalries will be honored (perhaps the “Original Six” will all play twice) and team requests will be taken as well. An interesting note is that the players are willing to play more regular season games (84) at the expense of a few preseason games if it meant they could figure out a way to play an entire out of conference division at least twice. That would be, in a word, awesome, GET ON IT.
At the same time, the sale of the Nashville Predators to venture capitalist David Freeman (Gordon Freeman no relation) was also approved by the Board of Governors. Pending still, however, is approval of a change to the arena lease deal in Nashville by the Metro Sports Authority and Metro Council.
Finally, Commish Gary Bettman noted that revenues are going up, which means that the salary cap should increase for next year as well. No way to know just how much it will increase at this point.
Tags: B-Lo Sports, blues, board of governors, david freeman, gaustad, Hockey, nashville, NHL, predators, Ryan Miller, sabres, salary cap, sekera, st. louis
