The 2012 NHL All-Star weekend kicks off tonight at 7:00 p.m. Central (on NBC Sports) with the Fantasy Draft, as captains Daniel Alfredsson and Zdeno Chara fill out their rosters. Vegas has odds posted on who will get picked first, with Nashville Predators defensemen Shea Weber & Ryan Suter listed at 40/1 and 65/1 respectively to receive that honor.
We'll have an open thread this evening so we can follow the draft together, but for now, enjoy your morning hockey notes...
The Preds have 7 home games in February - save money on tickets with the OTF Discount!
Nashville's Unicorn - Predlines
Unicorn, or red herring?
Not Just Another Big Game | The Predatorial
James sees a deeper meaning in Tuesday's win at Chicago, even if he can't quite put a finger on it.
Nashville Predators have look of playoff contender - The Tennessean
Josh Cooper's a True Believer.
Biggest Stories For The 2012 NHL All-Star Break - Puck Drunk Love
Assorted items to keep your eye on.
No shame in being last man standing at all-star draft - The Globe and Mail
If you look at how Phil Kessel's scoring has gone since he was the last guy picked in 2011, I'd think everybody wants a piece of that good luck.
Vladimir Putin wants meeting with NHL for 2014 Sochi Games | Puck Daddy
Russia wants to take a proactive approach to make sure the world's best hockey players show up in Sochi.
NBC Brings "Science of N.H.L. Hockey" to TVs and Classrooms - NYTimes.com
We'd heard about this series before, as Pekka Rinne is one participant. The segments will debut this weekend.
Gagne, Parse and salary-cap relief " LA Kings Insider
The Los Angeles Kings could have quite a bit of cap room available for trade deadline moves if they put Simon Gagne (concussion) on long-term injured reserve.
Things Jackets Fans Can Do In the Second Half of the Season | Hockey Independent
This is pretty funny, actually: "Don’t just relish in the Shea Weber and Ryan Suter train rumors, but start them. As Jackets fans, we all hate Nashville, with their pesky front office and coaching stability, drafting prowess, elite defense and elite goaltending. It’s so obnoxious of them to have their original draft pick is still contributing while we had the good sense to exile Rusty "Blue Eyes" Klesla to the desert so we could rent Sami Lepisto and Scottie Upshall for a late season losing streak….and then take the money we saved to extend Fedor Tuytin’s House of Turnovers."
Steve Has Already Done Enough - The Copper & Blue
How does Steve Tambellini still have a job in Edmonton, let alone be in negotiations for a contract extension?
Sharks Improved Fourth Line Will Be Instrumental Down The Stretch - Fear The Fin
Depth up front has been helpful for San Jose so far.
The Peerless Prognosticator: The Ovechkin Redemption
A rather unconventional pep talk for Washington's under-performing superstar.
Headlines: Hamilton Bulldogs Moving to Laval? | All Habs
Are the Montreal Canadiens looking to move their AHL team out of Hamilton?
Game 49 Recap: What Just Happened? - Habs Eyes On The Prize
All the Red Wings could muster last night was a lousy safety, getting stomped 7-2 by the Canadians.
Lastly, some OTF Super Bonus Points go to DonBorvio, who found this parody of the music video that Alex Radulov was in a while back. I have little idea what's going on here, but it's worth a chuckle (jump to the 3:00 mark):
0 recs | 25 comments
So what can DonBorvio trade those points in for?
HardCorePredFan316 - January 26, 2012
Hopefully they are redeemable for “ONE Top 6 scoring forward”.
DonBorvio - January 26, 2012
Nicely done..Hahaha
HardCorePredFan316 - January 26, 2012
David Poile: “Let me check in the back…whaddya know: we’ve been out of stock of that unit for 5 years!”
Sam Page - January 26, 2012
That article about the CBJ's
was hilarious and very well written…here’s an emotional middle finger for the writer for even implying that we will loose both our big “D”
jeffery101y - January 26, 2012
just watched that Radulov video
and he looks like Bruce Campbell….and his acting is right on par
jeffery101y - January 26, 2012
How in the world...
…Is Pekka Rinne so far down this list? I expected him to be much higher.
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/7502429/john-buccigross-ranks-top-100-current-players
Hoelke11 - January 26, 2012
The same list put Jason Spezza 51st, Mike Fisher 79th, and Teemu Selanne 81st. I believe Buccigross when he says there might be some choices he’d do over.
CAustin - January 26, 2012
I’m interested to see who he’s got in the top 50 that shouldn’t be.
Hoelke11 - January 26, 2012
What!? Pekka is ranked below Luongo?
Stormyt - January 26, 2012
you want a really funny one?
Pekka is ranked below Miller
and Fisher is ranked above Selanne
Only Fan In J.C. ? - January 26, 2012
The article should be named “John Buccigross Can Name 100 NHL Players”
Stormyt - January 26, 2012
Odds that Shea Weber starts the draft clean-shaven but somehow has a full caveman beard by the end of it: 4 to 1
From the article here: http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/15153/which-all-star-will-daniel-alfredsson-and-zdeno-chara-humiliate-tonight
predrock - January 26, 2012
Slow news day so
I thought I would put my list out there and hope it encourages others to as well.
Forwards (all UFAs)
1. Selanne
2. Smyth
3. Doan
4. Whitney
5. Stempniak
6. Roy
7. Blake
8. Ruutu
9. Moen
10. Pyatt or Samuelsson or S. Koivu
Defensemen
1. Gill
2. Sarich
3. Zanon
4. Kubina
5. Gleason
6. Allen
Realize that some of these are pipe dreams but all have expiring contracts so the commitment isn’t there if Suter walks anyway.
wrandsw - January 26, 2012 via mobile
Steer clear of Kubina. Seriously.
CAustin - January 26, 2012
Why?
Because he plays for tampa or because he’s not any good? When he was in atlanta he wasn’t terrible. He would be a good fourth or fifth d man for three months.
wrandsw - January 26, 2012 via mobile
He’s slow, takes a lot of penalities and he’s king of the untimely turnover. He ought to retire. For a while he had the lowest ATOI of all the Lightning d-men and the most penalties. And they’re the kind of penalties you take when you can’t keep up (hooking, holding, etc.) . That’s changed because there have been so many injuries so Boucher has to play him, but the only Tampa d-man I would recommend less is Mattias Ohlund—because Ohlund may never play again.
CAustin - January 26, 2012
Also, which Pyatt—Taylor or Tom?
CAustin - January 26, 2012
Taylor. I wanted him the year he signed in phx.
wrandsw - January 26, 2012 via mobile
I expect Tom Pyatt could be had in exchange for a good young defenseman.
CAustin - January 27, 2012
Don't Have Cable
Watch most of my game via game center live, so I can’t watch the all star events. Unless someone out their knows an official stream that CBS sports is providing.
Please only Official Legal ones.
IG-PRED8 - January 26, 2012
CBS?
cisar - January 26, 2012
NBC Sports, you mean.
I’d recommend keeping an eye on NHL.com to see if they point to an official feed.
Dirk Hoag - January 26, 2012
Ya nbc woops
IG-PRED8 - January 26, 2012
I liked the unicorn story.
cisar - January 26, 2012
You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of On the Forecheck to post a comment.