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Yeah, it's these cocksuckers again. Again. And they're really bad now! The Preds come in colder than the Hawks are hot, with seven straight losses against our six straight wins. Between injuries and trades, they've pretty much packed it in for the year, and despite their Gritty Grindy Try-Hard reputation, they don't seem to be trying terribly hard at all. That or they're just that shitty. Which is totally possible. Gaze upon their roster and see that their scoring leader is David Legwand with 11 and 12 -- basically Bryan Bickell.
Nashville is mathematically eliminated from postseason play. Conversely, the Hawks are mathematically eliminated from finishing in any other position than first, baby, woooooo. With this in mind, and the end of the 23-man roster restriction, it's maintenance days ahoy! Ray Emery is a scratch, with Carter Hutton up from Rockford to back up Crawford. Michal Rozsival has the night off, which is fine by me as well; I'd rather have him resting now than in the playoffs. Sharp is still out.
With seeding sewn up and the President's Trophy likely, I would be fine with the Hawks emptying out the farm for a few of these final games. I want to see some minutes logged for forgotten folks like Brandon Pirri and Dylan Olsen, not to mention Morin and Hayes, plus rest everyone who needs resting before the Stanley Cup starts. One guy I'd like to see a little of is Drew LeBlanc, the guy the Hawks just signed out of college. He's ineligible for the playoffs: players need to be one of 50 contracted players, or one of 25 drafted-but-unsigned players before the trade deadline in order to play. The Hawks have him for the next six games and then that's it. However, having signed him now means that the Hawks will hold his RFA rights in the summer. If some other team wants to snatch him up, it'll cost them a draft pick, and while it wouldn't be a good one, the Hawks need all the picks they can get this summer. There's no harm in showcasing him, then, either for baiting the rest of the GMs or for the sake of his own development.
The only players to watch out for on the remnants of the Predators are Shea Weber as usual and Filip Forsberg (no relation that I know of), who came over from the Caps in the Martin Erat trade, which experts say was a huge overpayment on the Caps' part. Other than them, it's the usual bunch of has-beens, won't-bes, and roster-hole-plugging Milwaukee Admirals.
It's Pat Foley Night! Expect to hear "BANNERMAN!!!!!", various "Hawks win!" calls, a re-enactment of him calling the Stanley Cup goal since he never actually did, and under no circumstances the Alexander Karpovtsev rant. He's earned his night.
Hawks are 33-5-4, adjusted 27-5-10, just about two points above expectation
Preds are 15-21-8, adjusted 13-23-8, 1.5 points below expectation
Hawks are 2nd in the league in goals scored with 3.167 per game and 1st in fewest allowed at 1.976 (I get itchy about a team GAA below 2; it's like you're tampering in God's domain)
Preds are 30th in the league in goals scored with 2.227 per game and 17th in fewest allowed at 2.659
Let's drop by SportsClubStats and take a look at Eighthwatch '13 again:
Detroit: 31.8%
Dallas: 28.7%
Columbus: 18.7%
Minnesota: 13.5%
St. Louis: 3.1%
Phoenix: 1.8%
San Jose: 1.1%
Vancouver: 0.9%
Los Angeles: 0.4%
Phoenix lost two games while teams above them won; their chances of making the playoffs are infinitesimal. If only their chances of not moving were that low.
Kings and Sharks seem like they'll finish 4th and 5th, or 5th and 4th.
Columbus should run out of gas in these last three games and they'll need help to stave off the teams with games in hand. You've gotta think it's either Dallas or Detroit when all is said and done, with the edge to the Wings for not having a roster full of whosits. I'd say to keep an eye on Minnesota, but with remaining games against the Flames, Oilers, and Avs, they'll get the points they need.
Unrelated to anything specific to the Predators, but I wonder how many fights the Hawks have had this year. They rank 3rd in major penalties with 16, trailing Detroit's 14 and Edmonton's 13. I just wonder how many of those were for fighting. Other than that dumb Stalberg fight at the end of the Blues game two weeks ago, it doesn't seem like there's been a great many fights. It certainly seemed like there were early on. I'm glad they've eliminated that aspect of their game. Now to eliminate Brandon Bollig.
Anyway, this team really sucks. Beat them soundly for fun and leisure.
_________________ Molly Lambert wrote: The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.
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Loved Edzo's play by play...we got it....they got it 
