Over the past month we have been banging our heads against the wall due to our hosting costs going up 400%. We have been trying to figure out a way to keep hosting our free blogs but unfortunately we can’t. Due to the cost of hosting and the problems we have had with spammers on our free blogging platform, we have decided to stop supporting it. As of 12/12 we will be deleting all free blogs.

So, Fang Finger will be moved to Blogger.com and this blog is done as of now…

In front of a sold out crowd, Nashville was not able to win the game. The Predators out shot the Sabres 34-14 in this game. The Preds just ran into a great goalie coming off injury, Ryan Miller.

Line Up News

Starting Goalies: #39 Anders Lindback with 11 saves. #30 Ryan Miller with 32 saves.

Predators Scratches: #51 D Francis Bouillon, #23 W Brian McGratton, and #74 Sergei Kostitsyn

Chris Mueller has been recalled up from Milwaukee

Sabres Scratches: #3 D Jordan Leopold, #36 W Patrick Kaleta, and #42 C Nathan Gerbe

Period by Period Thoughts

I didn’t get to see the 1st half of the period and I apologize for that. The replay I saw for the first goal was frustrating. Kassian got around the defense after chipping the puck in. The cycle was going and after the 2nd rebound Lindback put out, Luke Adam put it in. On the Kassian goal, the defense got lazy and this kid wanted to score. Kassian has been brought up from Rochester in the AHL and would like to stay in the NHL. Ryan Miller looked fine in the period by stopping all 8 shots. Nashville out shot Buffalo 8-7 but Buffalo was up 2-0.

The second period was very interesting. No scoring, but exciting. The play that changed this game was Jordin Tootoo’s hit on Ryan Miller. Tootoo was going towards the net with the puck and lost it from a Sabre defender about 7 feet from the net. Tootoo jumped into Ryan Miller, who was in his crease. Miller started raining punches at Tootoo as well as other Sabres. Here is what I think, Tootoo’s momentum carried him into Miller, but he jumped and raised his arm. It isn’t totally his fault. Jordin Tootoo received a 5 minute major and a game misconduct. I do think he will get a suspension, but only 1 game. Nashville out shot Buffalo 9-3 in the 2nd. The Sabres led 2-0 through 2.

Early in the 3rd, Nashville went on the Power Play for the 2nd time this period. Craig Smith scored on a cross ice one-timer from David Legwand. The Predators finally found a way to beat Ryan Miller. That made it 2-1 Sabres. Tyler Ennis scores in the 3rd from a turnover in the Nashville zone by Roman Josi. That made it 3-1 Sabres.  David Legwand scores while the net was pulled to make it 3-2 Sabres. With all the pressure that Nashville put on in the last 2 minutes, they weren’t able to score 2 goals. Nashville out shot Buffalo 17-4 in the 3rd. The Predators out shot the Sabres in the game 34-14.

Sabres Players To Watch: #29 W Jason Pominville with 0 points, #26 W Thomas Vanek with 0 points, and #10 D Christian Ehrhoff with 0 points.

Goals & Assists of the Game

Luke Adam – Leino and Ehrhoff at 10:00 in the 1st

Zach Kassian – Adam and Leino at 17:27 in the 1st

PP Craig Smith – Legwand and C.Wilson at 4:54 in the 3rd

Tyler Ennis – Roy at 15:45 in the 3rd

David Legwand – Josi and Blum at 18:25 in the 3rd

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TV/Radio Coverage

Coverage in Nashville: No TV and 102.5 The Game

Coverage in Buffalo: MSG-B and WGR 550

Line Up News

Starting Goalies: #39 Anders Lindback with a 2-1-0 record, 2.37 GAA, and .918 save percentage. #1 Jhonas Enroth with a 5-6-0 record, 2.86 GAA, and .909 save percentage.

Predators Scratches: #51 D Francis Bouillon, #23 W Brian McGratton, and #74 Sergei Kostitsyn IR: #5 C Blake Geoffrion

Chris Mueller has been recalled up from Milwaukee

Sabres Scratches: #3 D Jordan Leopold, #36 W Patrick Kaleta, and #42 C Nathan Gerbe   On IR: #22 F Brad Boyes, #8 F Cody McCormick, #57 D Tyler Myers, and #6 D Mike Weber.

Thoughts On Both Teams

This never fails. When Nashville comes back from a road trip, they start very slow. I am hoping that the Predators continue their offensive production from Thursday night in Vancouver. One thing Nashville does need to fix is the defense. The team needs to pick it up when Rinne is in net and not rely on him nearly as much.

Two stories involving the Buffalo Sabres are the goalie situation and Joe Finley. I am going to start out by talking about Joe Finley. 6 foot 8, 260 pound defenseman, Joe Finley is getting another chance in playing professional hockey. While he was at North Dakota, he was arrested and hit a mascots’ leg. Finley is a solid player that knows how to hit. He played Friday night and will be playing Saturday night in Nashville.

If you don’t remember this hit, Milan Lucic hit Ryan Miller when Miller went out for a puck. Miller ended up suffering a concussion. Miller hasn’t played since and Jhonas Enroth has picked up his game. Rumors are coming in that Miller will be traded. I don’t believe it and neither should you. Enroth hasn’t been that good. Ryan Miller gets the start tonight though.

Buffalo Sabres’ Players To Watch: #29 W Jason Pominville with 27 points, #26 W Thomas Vanek with 27 points, and #10 D Christian Ehrhoff with 13 points.

Post Game Recap Coming After the Game! Check back at around 9:50 PM CDT.

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TV/Radio Coverage 

Coverage in Nashville: FS-TN and 102.5 The Game

Coverage in Vancouver: SNET-VAN and 1040 AM

Line Up News

Projected Starting Goalies: #35 Pekka Rinne with a 10-8-4 record, 2.40 GAA, and .927 save percentage. #35 Cory Schneider with a 7-4-0 record, 1.93 GAA, and .937 save percentage.

Projected Scratches for the Canucks: #54 W Aaron Volpatti, #29 D Aaron Rome, and #52 D Alexander Sulzer

Projected Scratches for the Predators: #51 D Francis Bouillon, #5 C Blake Geoffrion, and #28 F Kyle Wilson

Team Thoughts & News

The Vancouver Canucks had problems in net at the beginning of the season. Roberto Luongo was struggling, so Corey Crawford is getting the starts. NHL fans saw glimpses of Crawford’s talent during the Stanley Cup Finals against the Bruins and he looked good. Speculation started that Crawford is better than Luongo. I believe he is, for the organization. Luongo’s contract is worth $5,333,333 and Schneider’s is worth $900,000. You be the judge…

Some news in the line-up for Vancouver is Mason Raymond will play. Raymond suffered a vertebrae compression fracture in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. Many people were saying his career was over. What a great story for him to come back.

The Nashville Predators play their last game on the road Thursday night. Nashville needs to win this game because the more they continue to lose, they will end up falling far behind. Blake Geoffrion and Francis Bouillon are injured, but still scratched. The only healthy player not playing is Kyle Wilson from Milwaukee. The Predators need to play like they did Monday night against Edmonton. Forecheck hard, shoot on net, and hit. No line-up changes are expected.

Canucks Players To Watch: #22 W Daniel Sedin with 27 points, #33 C Henrik Sedin with 24 points, and #21 F Mason Raymond with 0 points.

Will not do a Recap of the game. Go on NHL.com. Check back for more material!

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Miika Kiprusoff gets his 1st shutout of the season tonight. The quality shots were awful by Nashville and that is why they lost.

Line Up News

Scratches for the Predators: #5 C Blake Geoffrion, #28 F Kyle Wilson and #51 D Francis Bouillon

Scratches for the Flames: #6 D Cory Sarich, #8 C Brendan Morrison, and #24 W Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond

Starting Goalies: #35 Pekka Rinne with saves. #39 Miika Kiprusoff with saves.

Period by Period Thoughts & Stats

Sergei Kostitsyn went to the locker room after a hit near the bench. He came back to the bench shortly. Mark Giordano went down after a shot hit him in the leg. The weird thing is when he went down to block the shot and hurt his hamstring. He didn’t return. Butler went to the locker room after Tootoo deflected a puck that hit him in the face. He came back in the 2nd. A slap pass from TJ Brodie to Derek Smith scored standing in front of the net to make it 1-0. Other than that goal, Nashville played better than Calgary and out shot the Flames 9-7 at the end of the 1st.

A close call that the puck didn’t go in after it hit off both posts. That was almost 2-0 and Pekka should kiss the posts. Rinne made a few great saves this period, one in particular on Jarome Iginla. Not much happened in the 2nd period. Calgary out shot Nashville 7-6.

The battling for the puck in front of Rinne happened too much in the game. Rinne had a great save on a 2 on 1 by Bouwmeester. Pekka Rinne bailed the team out of most of the game. While on the PP, they passed too much and took bad shots. The bad shots were when the D shot from the point when no one was in front. Nashville getting pressured by Calgary, held Rinne back from going to the bench. Rinne being pulled didn’t help at all. Flames win 1-0. Flames out shot the Predators 39-26 in the game.

Flames Players To Watch: #40 W Alex Tanguay with 0 points, #12 W Jarome Iginla with 1 assist, and #13 C Olli Jokinen with 0 points.

Goals and Assists of the Game

Derek Smith – Brodie and Iginla at 18:50 in the 1st

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Next game: Thursday, Preds @ Vancouver. Preview coming Wednesday night.

Coverage in Nashville: FS-TN and 102.5 The Game

Coverage in Calgary/Canada: TSN and Fan 960

The Nashville Predators play in front of all of Canada tonight on TSN! That must be exciting to some of the boys.

Line Up News

Scratches for the Predators: #5 C Blake Geoffrion, #28 F Kyle Wilson and #51 D Francis Bouillon

Scratches for the Flames: #6 D Cory Sarich, #8 C Brendan Morrison, and #24 W Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond

Starting Goalies: #35 Pekka Rinne with a 10-7-4 record, 2.47 GAA, and .925 save percentage. #39 Miika Kiprusoff with a 9-9-0 record, 2.46 GAA, and .916 save percentage.

Predators Keys To The Game

The Nashville need to replicate what they did last night in Edmonton. What they did was shoot, hit, and was great on the forecheck. The team needs to give that effort tonight against a less than decent Calgary Flames team.

Flames Players To Watch: #40 W Alex Tanguay with 16 points, #12 W Jarome Iginla with 11 points, and #13 C Olli Jokinen with 14 points.

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Line Up News

Starting Goalies: #39 Anders Lindback with 18 saves and 1 assist. #35 Nikolai Khabibulin with 29 saves.

Scratches for the Predators: #23 F Brian McGratton and #51 D Francis Bouillon.

Scratches for the Oilers: #4 W Taylor Hall and #55 W Ben Eager

Period by Period Thoughts & Important Plays

Nashville picked up right from Saturday in Detroit. Shea Weber turns the puck over in the defensive zone right to Nugent-Hopkins. With all the time in the world, he passed it to Jordan Eberle. Eberle went around the net and shot on Anders Lindback. Eberle got his rebound back and went over the shoulder with all the time in the world. That goal made it 1-0. Not a great period, but one of the better on this trip. For once, Preds are out shooting a team! 6-4 over the Oilers.

The Tootoo-Geoffrion-Smith line was the best line that period. That line generated shots and chances. Hits were flying and the forechecking was great! Then, Geoffrion was hit behind the net by Ryan Jones. Geoffrion went off and looked like it was his shoulder. He didn’t return and was classified as a “upper body” injury. Jones received a major and that play changed the game’s intensity. Penalties by Nashville erased most of the major. Weber who enters the zone, evades a Oiler and just shot on net. The shot went right past Khabibulin to make it tied at 1-1. The Predators played their best period in the 2nd, out shooting Edmonton 16-7.

Linback went down after a nice shot by Belanger. It might have hit him inside the pad where all you have is a knee pad. Lindback was fine and came back in. A close call on a great save by Lindback. Just sat on the puck as soon as it went off the post. After heavy pressure by Craig Smith, he passed the puck behind the net to Tootoo. Tootoo quickly passed the puck to Nick Spaling, in front of the net, to score to make it 2-1 Preds. Both teams took TOs in the last 1:30 of regulation. The last minute was close but Edmonton could not tie it up. Nashville out-shot Edmonton 9-7 in the 3rd. In the game, the Preds out-shot the Oilers 31-18.

Players To Watch Stats: 

#10 F Shawn Horcoff with 0 points, #64 W Ryan Smyth with 0 points, and #93 F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with 1 assist.

Goals & Assists of The Game 

Jordan Eberle – Nugent-Hopkins at 7:07 in the 1st

PP Shea Weber – Suter and Lindback at 11:34 in the 2nd

Nick Spaling – Tootoo and Smith at 12:21 in the 3rd

If you have any questions on this game, feel free to ask and I will answer ASAP! I always like to have my readers comment.

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Preview Coming Tomorrow at 6:50 PM CDT for Flames vs Predators game at 8:30 PM CDT.

Bergfors is reportedly going to the KHL to play with Ak Bars Kazan. Bergfors said in a text message to hockeysverige.se, almost everything is clear. I’m going to fly and fix a visa now. 

Everything is not confirmed on where Niclas Bergfors will be playing, but it is for certain that Bergfors is not a Predator. His agent is saying that Ak Bars Kazan is the front-runner for him. Although, there a many other clubs who are interested.

Coverage in Nashville: FS-TN and 102.5 The Game

Coverage in Edmonton: SNET-W and 630 CHED

Starting Goalies: #39 Anders Lindback with 0-0-0 record, 4.52 GAA, and .842 save percentage. # Nikolai Khabibulin with 1-0-0 record, 1.00 GAA, and .917 save percentage. ***Stats are based on season series.***

Scratches for the Predators: #23 F Brian McGratton and #51 D Francis Bouillon

Franky Bouillon left the game Saturday night in Detroit with a lower-body injury and will not play the rest of the road trip.

Scratches for the Oilers: #4 W Taylor Hall and #55 W Ben Eager

Last game, Nashville got owned by Detroit. They were outplayed the whole game. They didn’t get more than 20 shots. Also, the offense missed so many chances on odd man rushes because the shot missed the net. Detroit wanted it more than Nashville did. That hurts because you would think that the rivalry would spark the team. It didn’t and it showed.

Last game the Oilers and Predators played each other, was dominated by the Oilers. The young team was out playing them. To stop that, Weber and Suter need to paired up once again against Smyth, RNH, and Eberle. Now, there is another line that could eat up the defense of Nashville. That line is Hall, Horcoff, and Hemsky. I like to call that line Triple H. Trotz needs to double shift Weber and Suter through most of the game.

One more thing, the offense needs to shoot. They are missing opportunities a lot. Surprisingly to most fans, Jordin Tootoo has been the best player on this team lately. He has crahed the net, shot, hit, forechecked, and drew penalties. I believe Tootoo is the perfect player for the Predators. One player who can do all that has been scratched during this losing streak of 4, Blake Geoffrion. He is what the Predators need. Blake’s game is similar to Tootoo’s, which is good. Trotz needs to mix things up because things aren’t working right now.

Oilers Players To Watch: #10 F Shawn Horcoff with 5 points, #64 W Ryan Smyth with 4 points, and #93 F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with 3 points. ***Stats are based on season series.***

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Post game Stats & Thoughts coming after game, but not promising. Check anyways at around 11:15 PM and I will Tweet it.