Thursday's notes: Hockey weather hitting Nashville?

Why does Tootoo have to sit for tonights game and Saturday…why didn’t his suspension start with the Phoenix game? He didn’t play that game so I assumed he would be back on Saturday against Anaheim. If not, then I will be super pissed since this BS from Shanahan may have cost us the services of Tootoo for 3 games instead of 2.

Any help?

I agreed with Dirk and GMDP that the realignment pretty much rocks. It seems like the majority of us on OTF who like it see the basic positives to realignment as:

- Maintained divisional rivalries.
- Eliminated exactly half of those late night start times.
- Guaranteed home and away against every team and star player in the league.

The more debatable stuff (that I still personally see as positive):

- Increased rivalries with more games against conference opponents.
- Increased rivalries in first 2 rounds of playoffs as the likely hood of meeting the same team has increased by roughly 50%.
- Increased intensity in the waning days of the regular season effectively doubles by having 4 playoff "bubbles" instead of two.
- Adding a geographically close rival in Dallas.
- Adding a Canadian rival in the Jets (lots of exposure in Canada since they do not have a Canadian rival in the conference).
- Travel for the league is more balanced, which should, in theory, help the competitive and operational balance across the board.

Obviously, this is all a matter of opinion. So, what are the perceived negatives with the realignment from the Preds perspective? Losing 2 games each with our recent playoff rivals in Vancouver and Anaheim?

I agreed with Dirk and GMDP that the realignment pretty much rocks. It seems like the majority of us on OTF who like it see the basic positives to realignment as:

- Maintained divisional rivalries.
- Eliminated exactly half of those late night start times.
- Guaranteed home and away against every team and star player in the league.

The more debatable stuff (that I still personally see as positive):

- Increased rivalries with more games against conference opponents.
- Increased rivalries in first 2 rounds of playoffs as the likely hood of meeting the same team has increased by roughly 50%.
- Increased intensity in the waning days of the regular season effectively doubles by having 4 playoff "bubbles" instead of two.
- Adding a geographically close rival in Dallas.
- Adding a Canadian rival in the Jets (lots of exposure in Canada since they do not have a Canadian rival in the conference).
- Travel for the league is more balanced, which should, in theory, help the competitive and operational balance across the board.

Obviously, this is all a matter of opinion. So, what are the perceived negatives with the realignment from the Preds perspective? Losing 2 games each with our recent playoff rivals in Vancouver and Anaheim?

I think that GMDP needs to speak on some help he is going to get for the team rather than realignment. IMO

On a different subject, has anyone heard anything new on Suter’s contract negotiations?

That’s what was being said. The way they were talking it sounded like something might be reached before now. It’s all been pretty quiet since then. Sure would be a nice Christmas gift to see him signed long term!

I hope they get it done. Several sites keep saying he’s likely trade bait and I’d hate to see him go somewhere else. We need Sutes and Weber signed!!

That’s a good point about the Wild. I’d hate to see either one leave, but both would be awful. I love Weber, but for some reason I just think Suter makes him better than the other way around. I know I’d hate to have to be the one to decide who to keep and who to let go if it comes to that.

The BOG did good on realignment except the Wings and Jackets STILL belong in the EST and I don’t know what else you can do for the Florida teams. I don’t know why anybody is a fan of the divisional playoffs. It’s the worst case scenario for the Preds to have to go through caps teams Detroit AND Chicago EVERY year. And that’s what it’ll be. I don’t need anymore reason to hate those teams and the thought of 1,000’s of their fans in our barn in the PO’s every year sucks. Divisonal PO’s only existed for 11 years from 82 to 93 and the Stanley Cup PO’s was the LEAST competitive in all of the NHL history with only 3 of 11 years. The rest were sweeps or 4-1 series because the best teams were facing each other too early. The playoffs have never been more exciting than they are now and to mess with that is a head scratcher. So what about travel in the PO’s. If you can’t stay up at night for a few nights then too bad. I don’t hear NBA fans whining about late games in the PO’s. Just wait till the Preds get bumped out early with a better record and all that gate revenue lost and fans will be screaming for a change to points seedings. The best PO format would be the top 2 in each Conf then teams with the most points after and reseed after every round. That’s only fair. Otherwise we’ll see the best 2 teams meeting in the second round and more sweeps or 4-1 Stanley Cup series. Don’t mark my word, look at past history.