It's been asked in the comments section of every blog I visit, been asked on the message boards, and even been discussed within the Predators Twitter community as well..."What will it take for Cal O`Reilly to get back into the lineup?" 

Since his recall on January 25th, O'Reilly has appeared in 13 games for the Predators registering 2 goals and 3 assists over that span and due to his waiver status looks to have earned a permanent spot on the Nashville roster (Milwaukee has re-assigned #16 to Marty Murray).  However, since the acquisition of Dustin Boyd at the trade deadline on March 3rd, O'Reilly has not appeared in a game.

This lead me to dive into the advanced statistics today and take a look at the numbers for the two and do a little comparison that even shocked me a little...

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It's time for another update.

In Mirtle's latest playoff push post, and he predicts that it will take 94 points. Since we are currently at 81 points, that means we need 13 points in 13 games. So if Mirtle is right that it will take 94 points to get in, we need to go at least 6-6-1 to get in. As it stands currently, no matter what, 18 more points will officially clinch a playoff spot for us, according to Sports Club Stats. 

These are the games I think we can win for sure: Blue Jackets, Blues (3x), Kings, Panthers. That's 6 wins. I'm sure we can get at least one more point than that unless we completely beak down over this last month.

Looking at the standings tonight, it occurred to me that the Pacific Division had to be the best division in hockey so far this season.  I crunched a few numbers and, sure enough, the Pacific Division appears to be dominating the rest of the league by a fairly hefty margin.  You may remember that last season our Central Division was dubbed by many as the best in the league.  Will the Pacific claim the unofficial title this season? 

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Nashville has the biggest collection of blue collar hockey players

that will never be know for anything individually, but together they are just exceptional.

It boggles my mind.

by eight_legged_freaks on Mar 5, 2010 7:34 PM CST reply   0 recs

if they weren’t in our division, I might like them more because I like the whole hardworker attitude

Winging It In Motown

by Casey Richey on Mar 5, 2010 7:34 PM CST up reply   0 recs

I respect them. I hate them, but I respect them.

I'll keep updating this as the MSM analyzes our trade deadline activity.

Bob McKenzie: Nashville is a winner. They got Denis Grebeshkov from the Oilers, and it paid immediate dividends. They picked up Dustin Boyd, who for me is an NHL forward. They're trying to battle for an NHL playoff spot and that certainly helps. What they didn't do was they did not tradeDan Hamhuis. That is an important consideration for the Preds. They could have traded him, there was a market for him, but they decided to hang on to him because they want to make a push to make the playoffs and with Grebeshkov, Hamhuis and Boyd in the lineup, the Preds are a much better team than they were a few days ago.

Greg Wyshynski: Flipped a second-round pick for defenseman Denis Grebeshkov, who improves an already solid blue line and who's up for a new contract as an RFA after the season. Acquired hard-working forwardDustin Boyd from the Calgary Flames. Dan Hamhuis was coveted by several teams, but the Preds never pulled the trigger. It makes them better in the short term.GRADE: B+

Scott Burnside : Depth player for the Preds. Boyd has 19 points in 60 games for the Flames this season. Grade: D

Kevin Allen: (Ranked as the 10th best trade deadline performance) They picked up defenseman Denis Grebeshkov from Edmonton for a second-round pick. He gives the Predators a fairly skilled player to play as the team's No. 5 or No. 6 defensemen. Even though the Predators will likely lose Dan Hamhuis to free agency, GM David Poile didn't trade him. What that means is Nashville will have a noteworthy defense in the stretch run and playoffs.

ESPN.com: GM David Poile ended up keeping defenseman Dan Hamhuis and netminder Dan Ellis even though both are unrestricted free agents and likely gone in July. He also added Denis Grebeshkov to a talented blue line and depth forward Dustin Boyd.Trending: Up.

The Hockey News: The way it’s going for Nashville, their first round playoff matchup is likely to be against one of the West’s better teams: San Jose, Chicago or Vancouver. While the first two have some effective sandpaper players on their third and fourth lines – guys crucial to long playoff grinds – Vancouver is lacking in that department. This deal will provide Nashville with a necessary toughness on the depth lines to matchup with or outmatch these teams.

The Preds will likely replace the soft Marcel Goc on the third line with the more-gritty Dustin Boyd. This is purely a move made with an eye towards a tough first round matchup. Good, cheap addition by the Preds to address a minor, but important part of a post-season roster. Winner: Nashville. -

What's with this year's olympic hockey games being played on small NHL sized rinks!

Real "Olympic Hockey" should be played on real "Olympic" Hockey Rinks!... What do you say Olympic Hockey fans!

The next time the Olympic Committee is evaluating cities for future winter olympics, they should immediately eliminate any city that just can't provide Olympic sized hockey rinks, period!

C'mon , whats next, having the Super G ski competition on a bunnyhill!

       Now that we've all had a good taste of Olympic hockey rules, I wanted to ask what everyone thinks of it. There's automatic icing, no trapezoids and pizza slices, 10 minute sudden-death OT, and a different point structure for the standings. Do you think more fans will start to consider these rule changes for the NHL? I'm not saying that I personally think they should be changed, I'm just wondering what the consensus is. Do you like automatic icing or not? (I don't) Do you like not having a trapezoid? (I do) Would you want to see any of these changes in the NHL?

Ok, Here's the idea........ a Barry Trotz bobblehead. Except this bobblehead pivots at the waist instead of the neck..... due to Trotz's....... well........ um.... not really having a neck. We could call it a Bobblewaist, maybe? I would love to add that one to my collection! Aren't we due for a cool giveaway anyhow? Just a bit of fun here, you know we all love you Trotzie. (couldn't resist, it was too funny)

So I was wandering around the expanse of the internet and found this article from about a year ago:

Article Linkage

The gist of the article is the need for a point system that doesn't reward a loss (the whole "one point for an OTL" thing). You can read for yourself, but I was a little taken aback by the following statistic: One team could go 46-36-0, and another could go 10-0-72 and they would both make the playoffs. I know a team having 72 OT losses is unrealistic, but it does sort of point out a flawed system.

The suggested point system in the article makes sense to me.

Your ideas/opinions/rants?