mtsu alum the next nhl comish?

That's right. Apparently MTSU alum (my alma mater) Eddie Gossage is the short list for the NHL commisioners job when Gary Bettman's contract expires after the 07-08 season.

I'm not a 100% Bettman basher the way some are - i think the new collective bargaining agreement and new rules, etc have been great for the sport. However, under Bettman's watch there have been 2 lockouts, one season lost all together, and the league has all but disappeared from the national radar in the US. Attendance is up, showing that hardcore fans in NHL cities are supporting the sport, but TV, radio, and other coverage around the rest of the US is paltry at best. I definitely think he needs to go and conventional wisdom is that the league owners agree.

At this point, no official inquiries have been made. Gossage is denying that he is going anywhere or that he has officially talked to anyone with the NHL. He has said he is commited to heading the Texas Motor Speedway as he has sucessfully done for a few years now. But he is a known hockey fan (gotta figure he's a Preds fan right?) and is apparently frequently courted by other sports entities for his marketing prowess.

how long?

An elderly driver just killed an 8-year old boy and injured two others when she crashed into a school cafeteria.

How long will it be until we finally start requiring regular drivers testing?

After other cases like this some have suggested banning elderly drivers. While i agree in principle that would be good, where do you draw the line? 85? 80? 75? You are still going to have dangerous drivers on the road and take safe drivers off no matter where you draw the age line.

So why not more frequent tests? You are required to pass a test when you get your license at 16 (though terrifying enough - not all states required driver's ed first). Why not another test at 18?, Then 20? Then 25? ...and every 5 years there after? I know i could use the refresher.

Eventually everyone looses the mental or physical ability to handle the dangerous equipment all Americans are raised to know as a birth-right. Make the roads safer. Force drivers of all ages to think about their driving habits at least every few years.

0.7

0.7

That is the Nielsen rating that the NHL All-Star game managed to draw last Wed night. Just 672,948 people. 474,298 households.

Honestly that is better than it could have been. After all, Gary Bettman (NHL commissioner) and allowed Versus (formerly the "Outdoor Living Network") to cover the game rather than NBC or another major network. ...And they decided to run it on Wed night, not a weekend. ...And decided to run the Young Stars and Skills Competition against the State of the Union address in the US. ...And decided to run the main All-Star game up against American Idol - the number one program on TV. The only worse decision would have been to put it up against the Super Bowl, or maybe make it an internet-radio-only broadcast.

Even in Canada they only drew a 1.2 rating. That's bad. It measured a 0.5 rating in the host city of Dallas. The best US city was Buffalo (which counts as Canada) with a 7.1 rating.

To give you an idea of how bad this really is...
Many people are writing about how attendance is poor in the NHL this year. We are certainly hearing about it in Nashville. Well, the league average for attendance is 16,954 per game. Assuming that on any given night one-half of the league is playing, that means there are 127,156 people who actually pay money and take hours out of their day to go watch a game in person. That isn't counting the people sitting at home watching the games on TV. I can just about guarantee you that on any given night, more people watch a hockey game than they did last Wed night.

I really wish they had done what they did several years ago and do a combined All-Star Weekend. Do it the same weekend as the NBA All-Star game. Years ago they had the advantage of both leagues being covered by the same network so it was an all-day programming block. It was great. At the time i a basketball fan living in a non-hockey city - but i watched the NHL All-Star game that year and really enjoyed it.

And what baffles me...Bettman just allowed Versus to pick-up not only next year's option to cover games (it was their option), but also every season through 2011. The only hope the NHL has now is to get NBC (or another network if NBC drops out) to cover more games on broadcast TV. They might have a prayer there if NBC's upcoming schedule does well. After all - NBC lost the NBA and their only other sports property now is covering football on just 16 Sun nights a year. And after all, NBC's first hockey game of the year got a 1.1 rating. And it was just a random early season game.

Oh - one more thing...Versus needs to do what every other sports broadcaster does and make arrangements for a flexible schedule. Just a guess, but in late March when the playoff race is heating up, i think they will regret having Minn vs. Phoenix lined-up.

Anyway...as soon as the NHL moves to a network that doesn't lead into games with Survivor reruns (yes - reality show reruns) and follow it up with angler fishing, i think they'll be doing better.

Just a guess.

my favorites

My sister just made a fun post on her blog listing a lot of her favorite bands.

I am both too lazy and too compulsive to try to really put together a comprehensive list of my own, but i can copy and paste from Rhapsody...

This is a copy/paste from Rhapsody - these are my "top rated" artists. Not everyone i like/love is on Rhapsody, and even those that are, i haven't rated all of them yet. But anyway...here's the list, roughly in descending order, but don't put too much stock in that.

Enjoy.

Jamiroquai, Queen, Chagall Guevara, Dave Brubeck, Steve Taylor, Sixpence None the Richer, Leigh Nash, Weezer, Ella Fitzgerald, Relient K, The Sounds, Venus Hum, Imogen Heap, The Postal Service, The 77's, The Beatles, Radiohead, Stereolab, Santana, Annie, All-Star United , Ladytron, Garbage, Mr. Scruff, Smash Mouth, Tony Bennett, Zero 7, OK Go, Death Cab For Cutie, Fleming & John, Daft Punk, Louis Armstrong, The Beach Boys, Electric Light Orchestra, Stevie Wonder, The Clash, Ben Folds, Kylie Minogue, Nat King Cole, Wax Poetic, Brand New Heavies, Robbie Williams, Sufjan Stevens, Franz Ferdinand, Cool Hand Luke, Joy Electric, Benny Benassi, Goldfrapp, Fischerspooner, Switchfoot, Coldplay, U2, Dido, Frou Frou, Led Zeppelin, Everclear, Glenn Miller, Cake, Sum 41, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, The Ramones, Johnny Cash, Blondie, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bodyrockers, Chuck Berry, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Telepopmusik, Diana Krall, Earth, Wind & Fire, Chumbawamba, Duke Ellington, Michael Jackson, Vince Guaraldi, Frank Sinatra, Starflyer 59, They Might Be Giants

Mason asks for fan support

I just logged in to my myspace account for the first time in forever.
Chris Mason is one of my "friends" and he just posted this message...

From: Chris M


Date: Jan 24, 2007 5:45 PM
Subject : Attention Predators Fans!
Body: I have noticed the empty seats at the GEC this season. This is odd because we are the best team in the league. All I am asking you is to go to more games or buy season tickets, and to spread the word to anyone else you know. To all season ticket holders, I thank you. Go Preds!

30 Mason

Now, take with a grain of salt that i don't know for sure that this is Chris Mason.
But...i found it interesting.

latest sign of the apocolypse

In the latest sign that the world is about to end...

Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, Penelope Cruz, Kate Winslet, Eddie Murphy, and Mark Wahlberg were all just nominated for Oscars.

Now i will say, i didn't see any of the movies in question. And i do like Smith and Wahlberg, and the one movie i've seen Cruz in was decent. But Oscar material?

summer festivals

Well, i think this will be the first time since i started blogging, but it was inevitable:

Sorry it's been so long!

Not that it really matters. I'm only averaging 6-8 a views a day, most of which are random hits or people looking for hockey stuff. Based on the great response from my request for comments, and the best i can tell, the remaining 2 of you are my wife and father-in-law. Thanks guys.

Anyway, just wanted to tell everyone about the two awesome festivals i'm not going to this summer. I am a big music fan, and love live music, but i mostly enjoy massive festival shows from the comfort of my DVD. I prefer my live music in groups of 200 or less. 200,000...not so much. However, these line-ups give me pause. Several of these bands don't actually exist anymore and a reuniting for these shows - or better yet - are cool, current acts that rarely if ever play live shows, much less play them in the US.

Anyway...you can see the full line-ups other places. Here's the listing of bands that i would actually want to see at each show:

:::Coachella:::
Rage Against the Machine
The Police
Depeche Mode
Daft Punk
Franz Ferdinand
Sigur Ros
Ladytron
Imogen Heap
Massive Attack
Madonna
Paul Oakenfold
Coldcut
Los Amigos Invisibles
Jazznova

:::Bonnaroo (from a rumored line-up, not official):::
The Police
Bob Dylan
Willie Nelson
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Modest Mouse
Medeski, Martin and Wood
Four Tet

Now, many of these "bands" are electronic acts that consist of one or two people and whose stage shows consist of them pressing play then running cool light shows. I know this because i used to be the guy that pressed play in another band (whoa, flashback). So in reality i don't think i'm probably missing amazing shows as much as the chance to say that i saw Ladytron.

Now, i do think some of them will be great live (Medeski, Bela Fleck, Daft Punk, Sigur Ros), and one i have seen live and know they will be great (Imogen Heap). But over all it is definitely not worth the time, money, discomfort, and general hassle of dealing with the trips to cali or even just down the road to 'roo (man i'm hip...check me throwin' the slang). But i'll probably look to buy the DVD if they sell them.

cool tech

It's time for an update on all the fun, cool things that Think Geek has to offer...

Power:
AA batteries that recharge in a standard USB port
   Or you can go the other way...
Standard Battery-based USB chargers
   Or you can go semi-old-fashioned
USB-based NiMH Battery Charger

Office Armaments:
USB Laser Guided Desktop Missile Launcher
Desktop Trebuchet
Palm-sized R/C Helicopter

Games:
Khet - Chess with lasers
* I just got this game for Christmas. Awesome. Highly recommended if you like to play chess at all.
Playable Atari Keychain Controllers
Pocket 20 Questions (Portable version of this. Amazing.)

PVP Stuff: (PVP is a great online comic i have gotten into lately)
Support the Pwned Bracelet
'Sup Shirt
Han Shot First (I have the original version of this shirt)

100

Well this is it.
My 100th blog post.

I know you were all keeping track and waiting in anticipation.

In grand tradition, i will now say "blog" 100 times.

Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog

(...you know, that doesn't look as big or long as i thought it would. And now to the actual post....)

---

Two issues:

1. Many of my posts, especially recently, have been about the Predators, or hockey, or at least sports.
2. None of you are commenting!

Point 1) I am considering branching off and making a Predators/Sports blog. Not that there aren't enough good forums and even a few decent blogs...but more than a few have gone silent. OK...even the official blog is pretty poor. Predators' PA announcer Paul McCann's is the only really solid, consistent one I have found.

Point 2) I know that many of you that read my posts may be new to this 'blog' thing, but it is traditional (or at least common) for people to actually comment on my posts. Can be as simple as "Amen brother!" or as long as the comment my dad posted when i ticked him off about the Billy Graham statue. My wife is the only person to comment more than once i think (thank you sweetheart).

So - your assignment...

USING THE COMMENTS FIELD - ANSWER THE QUESTION:
DO YOU THINK I SHOULD SPLIT OFF A SPORTS/HOCKEY BLOG, OR JUST KEEP POSTING EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE?

Thank you for your time and attention.

it worked!

I'm almost afraid to think it. It may jinx it.

As my wife just said, "Craig Leipold is a genius".

We were just flipping channels watching the various local 10 o'clock news broadcasts tonight. Predators coverage was amazing!

Channel 2 gave a solid two minutes of coverage including several highlights of tonight's game. Game highlights, post-game interviews with Erat, Legwand, and Arnott. Then...and this blew me away...they showed 15 seconds of highlights from tonight's Red Wings game to promote our upcoming match-up! Wow! You mean there's a whole league of this "hockey"?!?

Next was Channel 5 with solid coverage and a good 30 seconds of highlights followed by post-game interviews with Erat, Legwand, and coach Trotz. Then they mentioned the upcoming Red Wings game, saying it was important because they were right behind us in the division.

Channel 4 even covered the Radulov/Fiddler roster issues. They interviewed Fiddler about it, thought they misspelled his name ("Fidler"). They then showed game highlights for about 15 seconds, then showed post-game interviews with Legwand and Erat. They too plugged the next game vs. the Red Wings. They also pointed out that we now have more wins than any other team in the NHL.

Yesterday Channel 5 also did a great feature story on Scott Nichol and another recently on Alex Radulov. They were nice enough to post the video online here.

Wow...
I just can't believe it.
A great article in the City Paper today.
Great coverage of the game on local TV.

Awesome!
Keep it coming!

we're number one (almost)

The Preds are just 3 points behind the Ducks for #1 in the conference with two games in hand.

And this math-based (read: "non biased") Power Rankings site now shows Nashville as the #1 team in the whole NHL.

Go Preds!

headphones at the opera

Now this is cool!

The Nashville Opera is about to start offering directors commentary tracks to be listened to during the performance! I'm pretty proud that Nashville is pioneering this.

Apparently you are supposed to go to the first show, then go home, download the commentary to your MP3 player, then listen to it during the 2nd or 3rd shows. You just start playing it back at the beginning of the show and it should stay roughly synced (maybe the scenes or acts are broken up into separate files?). They even discount the tickets to your second show.

I would also assume that some that are curious about the technology or are totally newbies to opera may just do this on their first viewing, but personally i don't think there's anything wrong with that.

more respect

It looks like the respect and media coverage for the Preds is continuing to snowball.

• Kimo Timmonen was just named to his second All-Star game appearance.
• Head Coach Barry Trotz will be the assistant coach for the game (by virtue of being in 2nd place in the conference).
• Shea Webber and Alexander Radulov will play in the Young Stars game.
• Radulov just got a feature story on the front of NHL.com. Though the Tennessean should sue them for it. It is almost a word-for-word copy of a story about Radulov's celebration's that the Nashville paper did exactly one month (and i wrote about here.)
• This article on SI.com argued that Paul Kariya and Chris Mason should have made the All-Star squad too. Oh well.
• Si.com also gave us an "A" for the mid-season grade. Not the A+ that a couple of other teams got, but better than most. Also named Chris Mason the first-half MVP and called Timmonen a Norris trophy contender.
  

Also an interesting note: Former Pred Yanic Perreault (a journeyman face-off specialist who was unsigned at the begining of the season and is largely credited for helping turn around Phoenix's year) has made the All-Star game as well. Go Yanic!

divisional parity

I just noticed something really odd/funny/amazing about the standings in the western conference of the NHL.

All of the games aren't over for tonight, but as of this second, the point rankings of the western conference look like this (not playoff standings, pure point rankings).

Team								Points	Division
1.	*Anaheim							67	Pacific
2.	*Nashville							65	Central
3.	Detroit							61	Central
4.	San Jose							58	Pacific
5.	Dallas							53	Pacific
6.	*Vancouver							51	Northwest
7.	Calgary							50	Northwest
8.	Minnesota							49	Northwest
9.	Edmonton							46	Northwest
10.	Colorado							45	Northwest
11.	Phoenix							42	Pacific
12.	Chicago							39	Central
13.	St. Louis							39	Central
14.	LA Kings							38	Pacific
15.	Columbus							37	Central

* = Division Leaders will be seed 1-3 for playoffs.

Notice anything?
Just a guess here, but i think the Northwest Division is fairly well balanced.

skin deep

For those that haven't seen these, i think it's pretty cool. Good selection too.

http://www.skinit.com

You can pick just about any logo out there for any sports team, college, or product you like. Then pick the device you have and you can order a skin for it. One of my friends at work just got a Predators skin for his Razr.

These images are a couple of examples i am considering buying...one for my work laptop, one for my Axim...maybe. We'll see. Prices aren't bad, but they aren't free either.

eye ken reed gude

For those that don't know, my wonderful wife is an editor. But for some reason, i think this bothered me more than her...

Backstory: There used to be a cheap "discount tobacco" store at the intersection of Porter and Greenwood (across from Family Wash) not too far from our house. Not to long ago new ownership bought the building and kicked them out (yay!). New, better businesses were promised. Then came the news that another smoke shop was coming in, but it would be a high-class smoke and liquor store, not a trashy one. I would actually welcome that...we don't drink, but i know many respectable people that do, and I don't envy them having to go into trashy liquor stores to buy their wine for dinner.

However, shortly there after a cheap banner went up on the still-vacant building reading "Smoke Depot, Now Open". About 2 months later, after a coat of bright yellow paint (that matches the mailer below), the store actually did open. It looks worse than what was there before.

Then, earlier this week, we got this mailer delivered to us. I expected that it was just put in our mailbox illegally (non-postage) since they are just down the street, but no, it was actually mailed from Murfreesboro, TN.

Just give yourself a minute to study this "flayer".
I count 26 flagrant spelling or punctuation errors alone - not counting bad formatting, non-centered heading, tacky graphics, etc.

I would give it to my mom to use in her classroom as a lesson on why it is important to be literate, but i'm not sure that the content is appropriate.

rory was robbed

Extra extra, read all about it .

got $50mil laying around?

I was having a good day, and then this just ruined my morning.

There are two ways to look at this:

1. The newspaper is making a big deal out of this and Leipold is just crying out for fans to come to games and looking for help to lessen the financial burden of a franchise that is still loosing money.
2. Leipold's promise that he is not interested in moving the franchise is just typical sports-franchise owner misdirection and he has seen in the discussions about the Penguins moving that there is money to be made in other markets.

I have also been surprised by the fact that we still don't have a new corporate-name sponsor for the Home of the Predators. It is still officially called the Gaylord Entertainment Center, but the Gaylord company stopped paying for naming rights a long time ago. It is just part of their original contract that is has to still be called the GEC until another name-rights holder is found.

Our attendance averages are up this year so far from last year about 300 per game, and we still haven't gone through the playoff buildup, and post-Titans part of the season that always increase attendance. I don't think the franchise is really in danger of moving. But i hope this does light a fire under local media and the Predators marketing office to get attendance numbers up.

I don't think Leipold is really looking to move. As this article points out, he has one of the cushiest arena deals in all of sports. I think he just wants to shake things up and share the losses when the team runs negative.

The good news out of the second article: We get our new scoreboard over the summer!

(note: Paul McCann's got a good write-up here)

random philosphy

Spiritual beliefs should be found by the individual.

If you believe what another person suggests, you haven't found religion or God, you've found a leader to follow.

goalie news

Quick note about the Predators goalie "controversy" as it stands today. Vokoun will take a while to come back to full strength (at least 6 weeks). But here's the important note:

Trotz said the goaltending chores likely will be split between Vokoun and Chris Mason for this weekend's back-to-back games against Columbus, and for every set of back-to-backs in the future.

Very glad to see that.
Get both players a lot of time. There are 7 back-to-backs left in the Preds schedule, including a home/away over-nighter against Detroit in mid-March. Assuming the Mason will get a few more games scattered throughout the next few weeks, that should keep both goalies fresh and running strong - and happy.

Related note: We lost Mike Leighton to Philadelphia, but that's no big deal.