Nashville Predators call up Gabriel Bourque

The Preds ever increasing need for a goal scoring forward is quickly reaching epic proportion and Milwaukee is not the answer. As good as Weber is at both ends of the ice, he should not be the leading scorer on a team that has now played 36 games. On top of that, Suter is just 1 point away from tying Craig Smith for second on the team in scoring. That simply is not acceptable for any team looking to make the playoffs at the end of the season. I feel that the best way to deal with the inexperienced blue line is to have a much more aggressive offensive play style to keep that sustained pressure on teams in their own zone. The Preds can’t do the usual "defense first" mentality/play style with this kind of blue line because the forwards just can’t score enough to make up for it. Goals are hard to come by and it makes it even harder on the team when night in and night out the team is playing from behind a one, two, or three goal deficit. What some fail to realize is that the team has been living off of the power play for most of the season because our forwards just can’t consistently put the puck in the net at full strength. Take for example the Dallas game: The Preds only scored 3 goals that game, one was by our fourth line(Halischuk) and the other two were scored on the power play. Why the hell are we only getting goals by our third and forth lines and very rarely getting them from the top two lines? I think it largely falls on coach Trotz and the rest of the coaching staff.

Albert Einstein once quoted: "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Am I the only one who thinks this applies to the lineup that Trotz is putting out on the ice every game? He is putting the same lines that aren’t doing ANYTHING out there and yet expects them to all of a sudden start scoring goals. I still can’t stand that Trotz broke up the Wilson-Smith-Hornqvist line simply because Legwand came back from injury and Trotz can’t get it out of his head that Leggy MUST be on the top line. Sure, he leads the team in goals(10), but he misses far too many scoring chances to justify him being the Center of a top line and quite frankly has gotten them more from luck than skill this season. I don’t think he makes the team better by being there and the team has assets that simply aren’t being utilized in the correct way. Hornqvist scores his goals by screening goalies and getting rebounds, yet he is playing on a line with two guys who don’t shoot the puck very much. Meanwhile you have Smith on a line with two guys who simply can’t make the clutch plays needed to finish off goal scoring chances that he creates all too often. 33-15-27 were scoring like crazy when they were together because they all complemented each other’s skillsets so well. Hornqvist actually had with him two guys who shot the puck and created so many chances that it was almost impossible for them not to score goals. Legwand has done great with Tootoo in the past and if you move Spaling back to wing or moving Kostitsyn down, that would still be a very good third line for the team. My point is that the lines have to be changed up and should have been changed about 10 games ago but Trotz has refused to face it.

Lastly I want to give my thoughts on the teams trade needs. We all saw how crazy this city and the hockey world got when Poile made the trade to acquire Mike Fisher. It sparked so much new interest in the team and most will agree that the Preds would not have made the playoffs had they not acquired Fisher. Mike Fisher is a great player but he is not a game changing superstar forward. By Poile finding some way of getting that superstar forward that the Preds need, I feel it does so many things beyond what the Mike Fisher trade accomplished. If Poile could get a superstar forward, I have no doubt at all that Bridgestone Arena would be selling out home games, and jerseys, like crazy. That player would add the much needed scoring that could really push the Preds to the next level and would get the hockey world buzzing about the Predators, and for the right reasons. I feel that the biggest benefit that a superstar forward would do for the team going forward is keeping Weber and Suter here in Nashville. A trade would not just be for getting a goal scorer, but in a way also keeping Weber and Suter from bolting after the season. I’m willing to bet that if Poile can’t pull off a trade that greatly increases the Preds scoring, chances at getting into the playoffs, and actually advancing in the playoffs again, we will lose either Weber or Suter or both. Bottom line is that even though the cost for that player may be very high, the franchises short- and long-term future depends on making that trade happen.

This move makes little sense to me of they are trying to find ‘lightening in a bottle’ with regard to scoring. Bourque has been very slow out of the gate as far as production this year. He has 2 goals lagging quite a ways behind Mueller, Thang, Van Gilder, Latta, etc, etc, etc. No ideas as to why he gets the call-up. Then again, Ellis has looked terrible down here too yet he seemed to impress quite a few in the loss in Detroit.

I wonder if any trades will go down at midnight?

Maybe we chalk this up as the “rebuilding” year and let our young defense come into form. Josi and Ellis obviously have talent but they aren’t ready to replace Weber or Suter. A year of playing time will get them a whole lot closer. But, we need the scoring wing man. We gave up SOB, Franson, and Lombardi for nothing in offense.

We let Sully, Goc, Ward, bought out Dumont, SOB, Franson and Lombardi walk or go for Lebda which did not play one game in Nashville. Then we sign Bergfors which is now gone, only Hillan has much ice time of the off season moves. Poile off season was no where near his best ever, in fact probably his worst ever. Not sure if he had his hands tied by the owners to sign the big three or what but all we have heard out of Cigarran the last year is that the team is going to spend more and compete for a Stanley Cup. Right now we are not even close and with this call up all we did is make a young team younger.