Nashville Predators: Five Thoughts For Friday, February 2
The Nashville Predators are back for the second half of their season, just in time for the Super Bowl to draw eyes away from the NHL.
As a lover of sports, I will watch the championship of every league. Whether it’s the World Series, Stanley Cup, or Super Bowl, you’ll find me glued to my tv. The only issue that I have with sports in the USA, is that there’s no competition for their sports. There’s nothing to drive the leagues to better themselves because there’s no other place to turn for that same sport. Sure, you could watch the KHL, but the talent is sub-par and at odd hours of the night.
The NHL is terrible at this as the pleas of the fans often fall upon the deaf ears of league officials. The fans elected John Scott to the All-Star game and then the NHL took that away as well as other voting measures. No other league treats their fans worse and looks to take away enjoyment at every turn moreso than the NHL. Except, for maybe the NFL, or as some call it, the No Fun League.
Well, now an old league is rearing it’s wonderful, beautiful head as the XFL will return in 2020.
5. XFL
I don’t like to stray from hockey in these articles because I don’t know much about other sports. But, by god, I am so excited for the return of the XFL. The NFL rival will, at least, make the NFL take a look into streaming services. During the last go around, the XFL gave us the robo cam, which is actually pretty cool.
Competing products drive innovation which will make the experience better for us viewers. If an XHL ever arose, I’d be curious to see what came out of that. Personally, I’d be pretty excited to see Vince McMahon guest referee a game or a team cash in their money in the bank before a team lifts the cup. It’d be silly and stupid, but since when is that a bad thing? Let’s put a little more fun into the NHL, things would only get better.
Maybe I just love spectacles and new things, but it’d never happen. It’s fun to imagine though.
4. Meet the new guy, same as the old guy
The Nashville Predators announced that Mike Fisher will be back in the yellow and blue. I’m less than thrilled about it and it doesn’t make much sense. I like depth but sacrificing guys like Miikka Salomaki to do it makes no sense. This just seems like fan-service and it won’t benefit the team except for, “intangibles”.
3. Datsyuk will captain “Team Russia”
Coyotes legend Pavel Datsyuk will captain “Team Russia”. I use quotation marks because Russia will not be sending a team to the Olympics, instead a neutral team made of Russian players will be going. This Olympics may be a little bit boring this season, but the lack of talent may create some spectacular moments. A guy like Datsyuk might run over the lesser defensemen.
2. Boeser wins MVP of the All-Star Game
The All-Star weekend generally means as much as a pre-season game but it still seems to get me invested. Mostly, I was captivated by Connor McDavid and Brock Boeser. The Western Canadian teams have some up-and-comers, although I’m not sure McDavid is under anyone’s radar.
I’m glad a rookie won the award, mostly because he made a pretty penny off of it. I think, all in all, he made close to half a million dollars, which is close to his yearly salary. Good for the kid, and good for the Canucks. This kid will be a stud for years to come.
1. Do the Nashville Predators play a lot of backup goalies?
Seriously, is it just me? It’s not, because I actually did the research. A back-up has started against the Nashville Predators 18 times so far this season. The worst part is that they’re not beating these back-ups into submission, rather only tallying about two goals on average. Great teams don’t play down to the level of their opposition, which has been a complaint about the Predators for some time now.