Your disturbing time-waster of the day

Here it is, your moment of...weird.

This is a marketing firm that knows what they are doing.

Pictures of Me

At first i was thinking this would be a post in poor taste. A little too self-centered. Then i remembered that the entire concept of a blog is pretty self-centered and, well, being self-centered isn't something i struggle with - i give in regularly. So here goes.

My friend Jeff just posted some pictures he snapped of me at a Preds game. Wanted to share.

This one is of me talking to the NHL refs, down from Toronto to watch the game.

And this one is of me taking pictures.
So now you know where all these come from.

THANKS JEFF!

You're kidding, right?

It isn't April Fools. The site isn't The Onion.

But this has got to be a joke:

The Research In Motion co-CEO is the owner of a group that has approached the NHL team with an offer to buy it if the deal with the current bidders fails.

According to a letter sent to Nashville's Metro Sports Authority, Balsillie is now committed to keeping the team in Nashville and winning a Stanley Cup there.

The letter also states that Balsillie's understanding of the Nashville market earlier this year was "incorrect."

The Nashville Post has a story about it too.

They say:

The Research In Motion chairman made a proposal that wouldn't change the Sommet Center's lease terms for the benefit of the team. In fact, he offered to substantially increase the penalty for terminating the license agreement.

And later, quotes an article from Balsillie's new Nashville-based spokesman for the issue:

He is now committed to Nashville as a viable hockey market, one in which he strongly desires to own a franchise; and that he will commit the resources that are necessary to lead to a Stanley Cup for the Predators and Nashville. He is also keenly aware of the recent outpouring of support of the Predators by the community, and our concrete expressions that hockey and the Predators are important to Nashville. Along these lines, Jim has assured me that he would welcome, but not require, local partners as a part of the ownership team

Now, don't get me wrong. I said way back when Balsillie first made the offer and hadn't shown what most would call his "true colors" (by being a jerk and starting to sell tickets for the team in Hamilton, Ontario), i was bullish on the idea of a guy who was this passionate about hockey and had pockets this deep. He will be a great owner for whatever team he ends up with eventually. I would like that to be my team. I just want it to be in Nashville.

At this point, he'd have to forgo the "out" clause in the lease with the city entirely and lock himself with no options before anyone in Nashville would believe that he has suddenly "seen the light". Nashville would have to tread very very carefully here. Make sure Balsillie can't just yank the team. But if they can...

I still think beyond having an owner with passion and deep pockets, the Preds would still do well by cashing in on Del Biaggio's connections to AEG and forming ties with the group to manage the arena. It would mean more events and more profitability for the franchise/arena/city.

Most of all, i just wish people would quit jerking us around. I am fully convinced that the low attendance to date is largely due to the ownership mess being up in the air. Get that settled and fans will get behind this team (win or lose). Apparently Balsillie sees that now... maybe.

The other thing worth mentioning here, is that the local group is still the only one that can negotiate with current owner Craig Leipold. This new communication has actually been made to the city, as Leipold can't talk with anyone else until the end of October. Shrewed way of getting the message out there without going around the contract. I think Balsillie may be learning after all.

UPDATE:
The Predators just released this statement: “We are committed to completing the sale of the Nashville Predators to David Freeman and his investor group."

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On a slightly different, but related note:

When we were at the Dallas Stars game the other week, we sat in front of two guys from Toronto. This isn't the first time we've sat near guys from Toronto, down to watch a game. They loved it, and just like everyone else from up north that has come to see the Preds play, were in awe at the fans chants, support, yelling, and generally making things fun. Apparently they just sit on their hands and watch the game in Toronto (until they start yelling for the goalie's job in the pre-season). Anyway - turns out these guys happen to be NHL refs, down to do a few games. It was a unique experience to say the least. I also got to talk to them about the injury = match penalty issue. They said the league felt 9and apparently they agreed) that most NHL refs had been around long enough to know when a guy was faking an injury. I still don't buy it.

Good times.

Portal for everyone

So, i've been really busy this week. Checked out a community Bible Study group, watched the Preds game, went to the Preds game last night, and of course...i've been playing Portal.

The rest of the Valve Orange Box came out at midnight pacific on Wed. I've only been able to squeeze in a little bit of Portal since then (didn't finish it, but i'm fairly near the end from what i understand) and haven't been able to touch Half-Life 2: Episode 2.

A couple of notes about Portal:
1) This game is really cool, but was way too basic early on. For a game that is part of a bundle that is rated "M", the first half of the levels in Portal are way to basic. I understand the need to have a few teach-players-how-to-use-portals levels early on, but after that, make it challenging fast. The levels ramp way too gradually, and there wasn't ever really a point where i was frustrated with the game (though more than a few times where i realized later "i did that the hard way" and can go back and improve my performance for achievements later.) That leads me to #2.

2) Portal is essentially a spatial IQ test. It's not a first person shooter in any way really. This is a first person puzzle game. You can take your time with all the tests (in fact, if you do, you get to hear more of the goofy things the AI computer voice says throughout the game) and you are never in danger of eminent attack (only if you miss a platform and drop into toxic waste, that kinda thing). The problem is that everyone that plays the game, myself included, recognize that this is an intelligence test (which is reinforced by the fact that it is presented as a test throughout the game). This leads to the fact that many people - very much including myself - under inflate their play time even more than usual. When a game comes out there are always geeks that say "oh this just took me 6 hours to play" or whatever. With Portal, people are being very casual about how easy the game was for them and it only took them an hour, etc. I know i just did when talking with Matt on the phone. I told him i wasn't quite done, but had only played for an hour or so. In reality, thanks to my Steam Community Profile, i know that i have actually played for about 2 hours.

Ah well.

3) Having said that, it is very very clear that it will be very simple for users to rapidly start spitting out map-packs of their own with new levels to play. And a multi-player hack will be out in...i'll say 8 days (from release). Given that someone else hacked Half-life 2 Deathmatch to basically be multi-player Portal months ago (Excite Mod), it shouldn't take too long to get a cleaned up version running now that the real thing is out. This game is not so much a game as an introduction to an engine, which will spawn hundreds of hours of playable levels rapidly.

4) Lastly, for those who are interested, or who just want to test their spatial IQ Portal-style, here's an awesome flash game that someone took way too much time to make. Obviously it is a little more simple than the real Portal game as it is just 2-D instead of in full 3 dimensions, and you can see all the map instead of being stuck in a 1st-person point of view. But you'll get the idea. PORTAL: The Flash Version. Much fun

Trying a new church

Trying a new church

Base a sermon on one verb from one translation w/ no orig language reference, then pray outloud for 5 min and you're pretty much gonna lose me.

New Feed Options

So, i just realized that in addition to the normal RSS/Atom feed services that Blogger provides, there are also feeds just for certain labels (the subject keywords i tag posts with).

The practical upshot of this, is that it solves my problem of really running two blogs here. One (which is the majority of posts) is about sports (mostly hockey). The rest us just my random ramblings about cool technology stuff, movies, or whatever.

Well now all those who just want to read the terribly wonderful and insightful things i have to share about sports, but don't want to know about the latest cool items on thinkgeek.com can just subscribe here.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/GeekThoughtsSports

(I also added the link down on the left-hand column).

To be clear for those who don't know how these things work: Don't worry, my normal feed will still include the sports stuff. If you subscribe to the main one already, you don't need to subscribe to the new sports feed. It's for people who only care to know when i post things about sports.

Enjoy!

the other part of the show

(Sorry for the long post, especially about something this trivial. But hey, it’s me)

In addition to being a big hockey fan, i am a media/marketing/entertainment geek. I also have a painful attention to detail sometimes (I say this not as a boast, but…well…”it’s a blessing and a curse”). Combine these two and…well…I study things like the videos and entertainment packages at the Preds games waaaay more closely than they are intended to be studied. Oh well. I am what i am.

Anyway, here’s what I noticed last night.

Quick mention: Lots of really cool new graphics that we didn’t see during the pre-season. New filler animations, Power Play animations, Goal animations, “Preds Win” animations, and “Thanks for Attending” animations. Also new “Kiss Cam” graphics, though these seem pretty plain. I’m guessing those will be tweaked in the near future.

There were also a few changes around the arena. The column at the attack twice end that used to be painted like a giant can of Edge shaving cream is now painted with the Signature Tower on it (the soon-to-be mega-sky-scraper that is planned for Church Street downtown). The Signature Tower also sponsored the t-shirts we were given last night. The interesting thing is that not only has the Signature Tower not been built yet, but it is years away and may not even happen. They are having trouble selling the last set of apartments needed to secure financing, etc. But apparently they are going to be huge sponsors of the Preds this year, which is great (for both i think). They are enough of a sponsor that the new opening video now features the as-yet unbuilt tower, but i’ll get to that in a second.

First, there’s a nice new opening video (that I tried to record and goofed for some reason and didn’t catch…I’ll see if I can get it on Sat) with all the players and cool highlights. Very nice video, very well done. Really hypes the crowd.

That then transitioned into the new Intro video (which i did record and will upload soon). It’s basically the same as previous years…hockey players representing other teams land on the frozen Cumberland River (they now arrive in meteor format, not skating down the river, and they don’t beat up the General Jackson) and a Big Cat/Predator (is that considered Gnash?) comes into downtown and beats them up, then climbs up to the top of a building and roars. Only now it climbs the Bellsouth/AT&T/Batman building (like it used to), and from there it jumps up to the Signature Tower and climbs it (picture on the right). Kinda cool really. Funny thing is, they don’t have the new Bass Berry and Sims building visible in the shots around downtown, even though it is actually being built right now and is quite close to the arena (picture on the left, above). You also can’t see the Signature Tower in the background of the long shots of downtown (picture on the left, below). Only in the close-up final shot when the Predator is climbing it. I am sure while the organization is putting things together they may think of some of these things but think “nah, no one will notice that, it’s just on the screen for half a second”. Sorry guys.

There was also a new concession stand on the lower level I had never seen before, and they are apparently remodeling some of the concession stands on the lower and upper levels. I’m interested to see what’s going in there (they better get them finished soon!). I was surprised that they weren’t finished for opening night.

All in all the new arena experience is great. The franchise is very much moving in the right direction.

Oh yeah – and the Predators played AWESOME.
Mason was great. Defense played well. I could really tell the experience of our youngsters combined with the new veterans meant much more responsible, positional hockey. Very few times did the Avalanche get any really strong scoring chances and those were mostly in the 1st period. The power play clicked on the first go, though later attempts didn’t look too strong. As my wife called it, the “power play kill”. Lots of work to do there, but if we get anything close to that effort on a consistent basis (which I think is more likely again, due to the young players having yet another year under their belts and the new vets) we’ll be just fine this year.

It's Game Time!

It's Game Time!

T-Mobile

random geek and game stuff

Let's get this out of the way first: I'm going to the game tonight, can't wait for real hockey to get going, and i'm pumped! (thanks to my parents for spotting us tickets for opening night!)

Now... to this post.

Lots of random linky-ness and cool techie stuff.

Many awesome new products at ThinkGeek including the famous/infamous 8-bit tie that was originally an April Fools prank on the site, a maternity "geek inside" shirt, a new bag that you don't want to try to use as a carry-on for your next flight, and a collection of funny bumperstickers, including my new favorite cross between on religious and geek bumperstickers. Last but not least - the natural evolution of mini remote control helicopters: weaponized mini remote helicopters. Unfortunately still no sign of a KeepOn.

In other geeky news: There is now at least some sketchy 'scientific' proof that my wife's new-found gamerness has real-world upside.

And in other gamer news: More announcements of tracks for Guitar Hero 3.
While i couldn't care less about Slash or the other "legends of rock" that are supposed to be bosses in the game, i am really looking forward to playing many of these songs. Here's the list of the ones that have me chompin' at the bit.

• La Grange -- ZZ Top
• My Name Is Jonas -- Weezer
• Paint It, Black -- The Rolling Stones
• Sunshine of Your Love -- Cream
• Cliffs of Dover -- Eric Johnson
• Black Magic Woman -- Santana
• Pride and Joy -- Stevie Ray Vaughn
• Bulls on Parade -- Rage Against the Machine
• Devil Went Down to Georgia -- Charlie Daniels Band
• Hit Me with Your Best Shot -- Pat Benetar
• Barracuda – Heart
• Cult of Personality -- Living Colour
• Mississippi Queen -- Mountain
• Slow Ride -- Foghat

And ok, ok...in the interest of equal time, here the list of songs i'm dying to play in Rock Band.

• Should I Stay or Should I Go – The Clash
• Here It Goes Again – OK Go
• Learn to Fly – Foo Fighters
• Say It Ain't So – Weezer
• I Think I'm Paranoid – Garbage
• Suffragette City – David Bowie
• Main Offender – The Hives
• Blitzkrieg Bop – Ramones
• Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden
• (Don't Fear) The Reaper – Blue Öyster Cult
• Brainpower – Freezepop
• Creep – Radiohead
• Enter Sandman – Metallica
• Gimme Shelter – Rolling Stones
• In Bloom – Nirvana
• Mississippi Queen – Mountain
• Tom Sawyer – Rush
• Won't Get Fooled Again – The Who

Of course in addition to all of those, entire albums will be made available for download/purchase after release, including The Who's Who's Next and Nirvana's Nevermind.

And yes, those of you that know me know i can't stand Rush, but i have to admit it is going to be fun to play Tom Sawyer, especially if i can mute to vocal track. I particularly look forward to seeing how they do the drum part for "Learn to Fly" by the Foo Fighters. That, plus "Everlong" were tracks i used specifically used to work up my chops when i was drumming more. Higher levels there are going to be tough!

Let the games begin

After a pretty crazy summer of following the news about the Predators purchase/sale/lease/contracts/etc. i am burned out. Done.

And boy am i glad that hockey season is finally really upon us.

As of now, i am no longer going to go out of my way to post updates about the off-ice business of the team. I'll still be reading the news, so if something burns me up or gets me excited (like an actual sale going through) i'll post about it i'm sure. But in the meantime, the only play by play you're going to get from me is game related.

The product is on the ice. I'm going to support the team this year, hope they stay for next, and just watch hockey.

I want the Predators to stay because i really like watching hockey and love my Preds. I'm going to do what the players need to do and not let the distractions off the ice get in my way of doing my job - yelling myself hoarse at games and spending far too many nights up late listening to the radio or watching them at Beyond the Edge (which i really hope is smoke free) .

Go Preds!

And to that effect, if you haven't watched this, go check it out: Predators Snapshot (a 20 min intro video/show for this season).

Smoking Ban NOT Going Into Effect

So while i was at Laura Creekmore's birthday party at Beyond the Edge last night, i went over to talk Predators hockey with the manager, Joseph (I also thanked him for providing the great appetizers and other goodness for the party). While we were talking, i brought up the smoking ban and said i looked forward to being able to come to the new smoke-free version of Beyond the Edge.

He said they weren't going smoke free.
I asked if that meant they were going 21-and-up. He said no.

I was confused.

He said that he's seen stuff in the paper, but no one from the city, state, or any other group has sent them any notifications or dropped by to notify them of the change in the law. He said he and the other managers from East Nashville bars (i assume he means 3 Crow Bar, Red Door East, 5-Spot and Lipstick Lounge) are going to keep allowing people to smoke and will not ask anyone to leave until they have been notified by officials of the change.

Now, i'm all for smoke-free. I love the idea of being able to go to Beyond the Edge and watch a game and not have to keep the clothes i wear in the garage until i wash them. But this combined with the cities recent renaming of streets downtown without actually telling everyone has me wondering who's failing miserably at their jobs. Small businesses should be notified about any changes in codes or laws that apply to them once they have received their permits, etc.

Hopefully Mayor Dean's administration will be a little more prompt about reporting such things.

TF2 Review

I keep meaning to make a post about Team Fortress 2. Unfortunately, ever since it was released made available for beta testing to people who pre-ordered the Orange Box, i haven't stopped playing it long enough to make a post about it. I haven't been playing it a scary amount, but given the choice of using my spare time to blog about TF2 or actually play TF2... the blog kept getting put off.

Sufficed to say this game is immensely fun. And i don't mean it is well done and engrossing and realistic...i mean it is FUN. Goofy, laugh-out-loud fun. Don't get me wrong, it is also engrossing and immersive and all of those good things that games should be. But most importantly it is the one thing that so many games aren't these days - a real pleasure to play. This game isn't about realism. It is about chaos, ridiculous situations, rocket-jumping, bunny hopping, and all those other things that made old-school deathmatch gaming so fun - but with great team dynamic and balanced gameplay like i've never seen outside of Day of Defeat. Over and over again while playing this game, i find my self laughing outloud - usually when i've just been blown away. That tends to happen when the 'death cam' shows you the person that just killed you looking like the screenshot on the right. Any player can instantly put their character into a 'taunt' at any time. It's great fun to hit that button right after you kill someone so you know they are being forced to watch you dance. There are also many times when the game will also helpfully identify the parts of you that are laying at your enemy's feet (see image at the left). These shots also show off another cool aspect of getting killed - the game always gives you updates on what you've done well. The game is a statistician's dream and tracks the amount of damage you do, kills you get, kill assist you get, healing you perform, captures made, buildings made, buildings destroyed, etc, etc. After you are killed it told you what was particularly good about that last round, for you. You may be like me and stink at the game, but hey, you got closer to your record for damage in a round as a soldier that time than you've been in a while. Playing this game and being killed manages to be a constantly rewarding and reaffirming experience, without being condescending.

One of the other things that is really nice is the concept of the kill assist. The most obvious version of this is when a Medic is healing a Heavy or some other player and that player kills someone. The Medic clearly made it possible, so they get partial credit for the kill and receive points. The other, really nice kill-assist is when you've done a large portion of damage to an opposing player and one of your teammates comes along to help and finishes them off. Well, you may have done 250 points in damage to that Heavy (who has 300 hit points) but in most games your teammate that did the final 50 points damage would have gotten sole credit for the kill. In TF2, you both get credit. Your name gets flashed along with your teammate's.

Another fun/competitive element thrown into the game is the concept of a "nemesis". If someone kills you 5 times without you killing them, they are said to be "dominating" you and they are now your "nemesis". They will now have a special icon above their head (only for you) and you'll get double points if you can manage to kill them (a "revenge kill"). I've had the pleasure of being on the giving and receiving end of these multiple times and it just adds another layer of fun to the game.

My one request/complaint is that they took away the nifty muzzle flash effects we saw in the trailers. This whole game as a very cartoonist, straight-outta-Pixar look to it (but is surprisingly easy on the system requirements). In all the trailers - right up to a few weeks ago - all the muzzle flashes were very cartoonist as well. However, in the 'beta' version we've all been playing, they decided to covert the muzzle flashes to use the same nifty particle effects technique they developed for the Pyro's flame thrower.

Original muzzle flash effect

New muzzle flash effect.

There are dozens of other awesome things i'd love to say about this game. It has a great commentary track from the makers of the game, cool intro videos you can watch to help you understand the basics of each map before loading them, a really nice achievement system...and don't get me started on the intricacies of playing the engineer. But...i'm gonna go play more now.

If you want to track my personal game stats, you can always see them here.

Predators Marketing

Caught this on the phone pole at 5-Points in East Nashville. Sign reads "IF YOU LIVE IT THEY WILL STAY. 10/4/07 IT BEGINS". And it lists www.nashvillepredators.com, www.savethepredators.com, and www.ourteamnashville.com

I'm not sure if this is official from the Predators or not. If it is - wow, amazing, awesome, and it's about dang time.

Unfortunately i'm pretty sure this is an unauthorized fan creation. Either way, great to see.

LAN Port

Yes, some cities are rolling out municipal wifi. Nashville is rolling out municipal wired-based broadband. At the base of every telephone pole there will be a RJ-45 LAN port.

OK, ok... I Couldn't resist painting out the "D". It is actually a sign for the bus station downtown.

Predators Breakfast Report

Rob over at Thinktrain just put up a great post on the breakfast held this morning to foster support for the Predators from the business community. The mayor showed up, and it sounds like everyone is really approaching this in a mature, pragmatic way. They know it's "just" a sports team and that the business community doesn't owe the team anything - but that Nashville is a better place with the team than without. Go check it out.

Location Location Location

My wife and i like Publix. Much more than Kroger. It reminds me of the old H.E.B. grocery stores in Texas. Bigger, cleaner, higher quality food (especially produce). A little pricier, but not too bad.

Everyday, we drive under this sign at Woodland and I-24 downtown:
It has changed several times over the last couple of years, but has almost always had some variation on the "High Quality, Short Drive" theme.

Here's the problem. The nearest Publix to this sign is over 9 miles away, and a good 10-15 minute drive.
The blue icon is the billboard. The yellow bags are the Publix locations.

My wife has actually driven all the way out to one of these locations just to get in a visit. Just pray there isn't bad traffic or the milk will go bad.

"Short drive"....right.

Beautification Power

One of our councilman over here in East Nashville is working on passing an ordinance that will help clean-up Gallatin Rd. I'm all for the concept of making it look nicer. Though i am a little libertarian to love the idea of limiting the types of businesses that can be along the road (with no schools, etc anywhere near by), i personally don't love them so i guess i can live with it. Besides limiting the types of businesses that can be along the road, they also want to restrict the placement of parking lots (they can only be at the rear of the property now, with vehicle access from side roads, etc). That one makes less sense to me...but ok, whatever. Lastly, they want to restrict signs. They can only be attached to buildings or low-lying on the ground - small, unobtrusive, etc. Fine. I'm all for a little height restriction, but overall sign clutter doesn't really seem to bad.

Here's the deal people. You want to make Gallatin Rd look nicer (and the rest of Nashville while you're at it)...

Get rid of the above-ground power lines.

They are ugly, messy, way more 'cluttered' looking than any signs. Not to mention they make for a trashy power system. Above-ground power lines are full of electrical noise and are more prone to outages than lines that are all above ground. Not to mention the health problems associated with above-ground power. Bury them like any modern city. I'll have less wear-and-tear on my electronics, have to buy fewer power filtering adapters, and not have to put a UPS on everything i own because the power goes out when it gets windy outside. Most of all, it will just plain look nicer.

The Australians are burying their lines. There are studies and papers being written on the advantages all the time. Besides the fact that nobody wants above-ground power.

Here's a little fun i had with photoshop for comparison.

Click for a larger version (2MB)

Which do you think looks better? Lower signs, or no power lines?

But oh yeah - here's the trick. One cost the city money, the other cost private business owners money. Guess which one we're gonna get...

Preds vs Thrashers with Video!

Here it is, video of our awesome new scoreboard. Wow. This thing is amazingly sharp and huge!!! I think it must be even higher than HD resolution (1920x1080). It looked amazingly sharp, even right up close. That's the other thing - it is so huge that it looks up close no matter where you are.

Best of all, replays are actually worth something. You can actually see the puck! For some reason the horn/music after goals was off all night. Hope they get that fixed soon. Ditto for the shot counter. It was off all night (3 shots to 5 in the 1st, 0 to 0 in the 2nd, 6 to 2 again in the 3rd...).

Here's the video!


Nashville Predators new scoreboard from Paul Nicholson on Vimeo.

For all my friends behind firewalls, you can download the mpeg2 video here.

Also got a bit of video of the one fight. Tootoo and McCarthy did more than just scrum. McCarthy had Tootoo down and was wailing on him, the refs were moving in to break it up, just about then Tootoo regained his feet, and body slammed McCarthy over his shoulder, then started wailing on him. That dude is strong.



Jordin Tootoo bodyslams the opposition from Paul Nicholson on Vimeo.

I also took a ton of pictures at the game. I feel like i'm getting better and better at working with the right settings for shooting hockey. Check out the full set here.

Heeee's Baaaack...

If you were David Stern and you had a 2 major referee scandals in the last 6 months, and had the integrity of your game questioned, how would you go about repairing public opinion?

Probably not by reinstating the suspended referee from incident #1.

That's right folks. Joey Crawford, who has repeatedly proven himself an out of control, spotlight grabbing, egomaniac - and who actually challenged a player to a fight in front of several thousand people - is on his way back to an arena near you.

Quote from David Stern:

"Based on my meeting with Joey Crawford, his commitment to an ongoing counseling program, and a favorable professional evaluation that was performed at my direction, I am satisfied that Joey understands the standards of game management and professionalism the NBA expects from him and that he will be able to conduct himself in accordance with those standards"

Yes, that is probably true David. He can meet the standards you have in the NBA. But that's the real problem isn't it?

The good news is that if Crawford ever gets assigned to cover a Spurs or Mavs game, the bookies won't have to consult Tim Donaghy. We all know what will happen on those nights.

Injured Penalty

I'm looking for some clarification here. All you hockey bloggers and hockey fans, help me out.

In yesterday's pre-season opener, Martin Erat was penalized for interference. David Vborny was injured on the play (he'll be out "2-3 days"). According to the way the refs called the game (and this article) there can be or should be (still not clear on if it is discretion or mandated) a major penalty and game misconduct if an injury occurs as a result of the interference.

I have a huge issue with this, especially as it played out last night and in the Nashville series against San Jose last year.

In my understanding, historically an "injury" has been determined to occur when a player draws blood. There was no blood drawn yesterday, and rarely in the San Jose series. Yet we had players thrown out of games and suspended because an "injury" occurred - even when said injury was not severe enough to keep the opposing player off the ice.

But here's why i have the biggest problem with this: If the same action is committed by a player, and in one case there is an injury caused, in another case there isn't, the penalty for the action should be the same. By determining the severity of the penalty based on the offended players reaction, you are taking control out of the refs hands and putting it in the hands of players. Never a good idea.

The NHL has an issue with diving right now as it is. Since the refs are calling games tighter (which i like, by the way), many players are learning that they can dive and get a call, much more than they used to. Now with this injury change, i could easily see a 4th liner go out, wait to get hit by a star player, go down with an "injured" knee, and the star gets tossed. The 4th liner doesn't come back out, maybe he does. Makes no difference. Conversely - there may be a nasty penalty committed that doesn't injure the player (because of luck, better conditioning, whatever).

Of course, i'd love to be more informed on this, but the NHL's website hasn't listed any changes to the rule book this year (still says "New for 05-06!" in several places). The article in the Globe and Mail cites Rule 56 as dealing with the change to the interference call, but Rule 56 in the official book deals with fighting and instigating, and never mentions interference at all.

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In other Predators news...pictures!

New ice is down at the Sommet Center
(note the new sponsor logo and name-change):

New scoreboard, turned off of course
(bad picture - i'll hopefully take better ones myself soon):

New uniforms in use (we haven't actually seen them on with pads until now).
I can live with it - not as good as i hoped, but it'll work: