Where We Are, and How Not to Be There

Well, we can no longer say, "Oh, its only the beginning of the season" because in reality, it is no longer the beginning. We are in full hockey mode folks, and what I am seeing out there right now, is not NHL level hockey. There are multiple quotes I can take from "Dodgeball: The Movie", my favorite of which comes from Patches, but I'm not sure that its content is appropriate for this thread. We are 12-11-4, and for a team who usually just barely makes it to the playoffs each season, this isn't going to cut it. While we are no longer in the beginning of the season, it is still early, and many of the problems that plague the Predators as a club can be righted. I have identified what I believe major flaws, and offered solutions to each. Some are elephants in the room and others may be more vague, but I would like to offer my own on the way this team can actually win a game or two at home. So here goes.

1. Break Outs: Yes, they have gotten better, but the fact that they were ever a problem....disturbs me. At an NHL level giving the puck away in your own zone on a break out is the equivalent of peeing into Holy Water, it should never happen. So when you do it over and over and over AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, bad stuff is going to happen. Rinne/Lindback have been victimized countless times already by simple and stupid mistakes in our own zone trying to set up our ridiculous excuse for an offense has got to stop.

Solution: I see two solutions, one a bit more radical than the other. First, just practice it more, in fact, dedicate an entire practice to working on the break out...thats how bad it is. The break out is fundamental in hockey, and there for roots in practice. The other one, which I myself favor, is come up with an entirely new one. Yeah, obviously never going to happen, but at least some changes to the current train wreck we are running. All it is is getting ourselves locked in against the boards and having our pockets picked. Not that efficient if you ask me.

2. SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT: Any who's ever been to a Preds game is accustomed to shouting "shoot" and watching as the player on the ice interpret it as "pass it again". The Nashville Predators have more passing yards than the Green Bay Packers. This has been the elephant in the room since the beginning, simply put we pass a lot more than we should, and considering we have one of the hardest shots in the league; a little strange. Martin Erat can shoot the wings off a fly and all he does is pass it away. If you put David Legwand in the crease at the far end when Marty was taking a penalty shot.......he'd pass it to Legwand. Martin, I love you but you need to shoot more.

Solution: Shoot more............sounds easy right? Well apparently it isn't....funny thing....

3. Offensive Ability: I love going back and watching 05-08 seasons, those were the Dream Team years. Forsberg, Kariya, Radulov, (a much more productive) Erat. Those guys had the stuff. What we have done is dug ourselves a trench play defense in. Well, for defensive team, which we are, that isn't to bad. We focus so much on that trench line we forget that the guys on the other side also have a trench. We end up neglecting our offensive ability. Not everybody on our roster has a "D" next to his name. The forward we drafted want to play Offense not Defense. I'm not suggesting a cavalry charge, Defense is obviously an integral part of the system, but for God-sakes will ya give the forwards some slack?! Let them play as forwards, concentrate a little more on offensive for a change!

Solution: Take more time in practice to practice offense! Colin Wilson had all the ability in the world, and we are trying to turn the poor kid into Legwand, a two-way forward. Wilson is a waste like that. Anywhere else he would be encouraged to use his talents, but here? Oh no, not here. Let the kids play offense and we'll have goals, thats it. And having #47 back sure would be bad either..

Well thats my two bits, I'd come up with more, but i'm tired.....

I would say Go Preds, but they're on my bad side right now....