night of blogging and hockey 2

7:25pm
So this is my third time sitting in Beyond the Edge to watch a Predators game.
Every game so far, the place has been relatively empty. Well not empty exactly, but not a lot of activity.

Tonight is very different. I am guessing its a Thirsty Thursday thing or something.
Lots of people coming in and out - even though the weather outside is nasty.
Just interesting to me. Even the poker tournament night they had last night didn't have this much by far.

(Later confirmed - yes, they are doing 2-for-1)

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7:40pm
Steve Sullivan is out of the game tonight with back spasms. Josef Vasiceck was already out with ...something, and Darcy Hordichuk is out with separated cartilage on his ribs. So our "problem" of having too many good forwards on contracts to be able to bring in rookie sensation Alexander Radulov seems to have been solved. Too bad he couldn't be brought up fast enough though. We only have 19 skaters dressed tonight. It's forcing Trotz to run some interesting lines. I always love it when he does this.

Earlier he sent out the line of Karyia, Arnott, and Tootoo. I love those sorts of lines. To me, they are the best balance of skill, speed, strength, offense, defense, etc. They already scored once. Trotz even played these kinds of lines last year in the playoffs. I understand that there is a reason to have the lines as the usually are, but its nice to see these lines too. They are just so dang entertaining.

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7:50pm
So Nashville is playing New Jersey tonight. You'd expect that to mean Vokoun vs. Brodeur. Well, not tonight. Trotz is still rotating Mason and Vokoun to help them both get in a rhythm and Broduer had played every game so far this year until tonight. So we have Mason vs. Clemmensen.

Of course to this point, Chris Mason is having a great game in goal. Only allowed one and it was a cross-ice back door deflection on the penalty kill. So i don't blame him too much for that.

Brodeur not playing also solved a real dilemma for me. You see, i am a huge Predators fan and have 3 Preds on my fantasy team. But Brodeur is my main fantasy goalie. It was going to be hard for both my skaters and my goalie to do well tonight. Not to mention, i didn't want Brodeur to get the win. I purposely got all three goalies from the eastern conference to avoid just this sort of problem. So with Brodeur not playing, things are much better :-)

I have to say, Clemmensen has pretty cool pads. At least from a distance on TV, they look all brown - so they look leather. Very old-school. If that isn't what they are, it should be. (Note added: you can see in the picture at the end of this post that he has black pads, not brown, but they do still look cool)

That is definitely what I would want - have modern gear, but make it look like the really old-school pads from the 60's or 70's. Speaking of which, I don't even remember how I found it the other day, but I found a site that has a whole bunch of vintage goalie masks. It is scary what those guys wore (or didn't wear) back in the day. Of course everyone knows the "Jason" style masks from the horror movies, but some of these are even more open and less protective than that. Amazing they weren't killed on every slapshot.

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7:59pm
So the Preds just scored off a face-off. Shorthanded.
It was a faceoff in the Devil's end, Preds won the faceoff and Suter just took a one-timer. Went right through the crowd and through the 5-hole. All 3 of our points (and NJ's 1 goal too) have come on special teams. Given how much the refs are blowing the whistles tonight, should make for an interesting game.

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8:02pm
And now someone from Lightning 100 just came in with posters and a few boxes of CDs. This place is loud and busy enough with two-for-one night. Most important, she's setting up on the stage between me and the TV with the game on. She had better not block it with a poster, that's all I'm saying. Of course, if I get a free CD or something and still get to watch the game, so much the better :-)

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8:10pm
Ok, they are doing a music trivia night. That is somewhat fun. I'll give them that.

8:29pm
I knew about half the 10 trivia questions in round one. Relatively easy stuff like "which of these bands is not in the R&R Hall of Fame? Led Zepplin, Journey, The Sex Pistols" and "Who wrote the Bangles hit 'Manic Monday'?"

But many of them were about modern artists they play on Lightning 100 and I had never heard of them, much less know who so and so is the lead singer for, or who's new album is named whatever...but of course they are here to promote their station and music, so that's fine. Kinda fun concept really. Of course, those who know me know that i love trivia, especially about music, so even if i cant win, its fun to see this kinda thing.

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9:40pm
Back at home.
Preds won in the shootout (gave up 2 quick goals late in the 3rd).
That makes it a clean sweep on the road trip.

--out