Hail To The Preds, Baby: Guest Blogger

Readership,

Alas, I was at work and missed the entire game.  My roommate texted me the score, but even he didn't hear much of it.  Stephanie, my girlfriend of whom can be seen with lovely Admirals fans in one of the earlier posts, caught most of it as she will explain shortly.  Drum roll, please!

Introducing...from the depths of the internet, at the corner of 5th & Broad, straight from Puck City itself: Hockey Steph!!!


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Hello there all. I’m Stephanie, the occasionally referenced “girlfriend” of your normal See Puck City blogger J.K. & I’ll be writing today’s blog. The reason for my stunning guest blogger debut is, quite simply, that I was the only one in my house hold the catch most, if any at all, of today’s radio broadcast only game. Yes, yes I understand that The Staple Center is a busy place with basketball & all that, but it just drives me crazy that there just wasn’t any video feed at all. But enough time for that later, moving on. 

Hail to the Kings No More: Preds Beat LA 3-1

      10 minutes: nada.
      20 minutes: zilch.
      1^st period intermission.
      30 minutes: 0-0.
      35 minutes: on air recap.
      36 minutes & 38 seconds: Power play goal?!?!?! 

      And that’s about where I came in, at about 35 minutes or so in. Fresh out of work I hopped in my car ready to drive home & listen to the game. So I get settled in for my 30 minute drive, I adjust my sun visor and listen to Pete & Terry talk about numerous missed chances on both sides, bouncy pucks possibly due to soft ice, and what’s this??? A goal scored by Frances Bouillon!? And on the power play as well!? I was still in my parking space so I had at least 10 or 20 people within hearing distance as I started yelling celebratory chants inside my car, which just happened to have the windows down. I may have gotten some strange looks, but the taste of victory is never quite as sweet as right after a very bad loss, and I was ready to move on after the fiasco in Anaheim. The second intermission kicked in & I headed off toward home with no inkling of what kind of game was about to unfold. 


      I want to take a minute to talk about Frances Bouillon. He has I’ll admit, become a personal favorite of mine out of the new players that have joined the club this season. But that aside, I really do think we’ll see great things from him as we progress through the season. Maybe not so much in the goal scoring area per-se, he only scored 21goals in his almost 10 year career with the Canadians, but if Bouillon’s not the guy out there taking the shots it certainly looks like he’s the guy behind the scenes setting them up. While he may have only scored 21 goals, he assisted on a whopping 81 goals while with the Canadians, not too shabby if you ask me. And since joining us in late September he’s shown that he can play a good solid two way game & get a goal every once in a while too. Like his first goal of the season that he scored tonight, and during the power play at that. I feel that his timely goal had a positive effect on the team the rest of the game. It was just that boost of “Yes we can” that they needed right at that moment.  And that’s how it’s seemed a lot of the time lately, Bouillon may not be in the spot light, but during games I keep hearing his name pop up more and more, and that is a trend that I think is on the rise. 


      I commence my drive home; I listen to the stats and commentaries during the intermission, and then, game on! LA came at us like it was the last 60 seconds of the game. 5 shots counted on goal and a flurry of others that just didn’t get close enough, but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Kings were on the attack. Ellis took 3 and a half minutes of abuse before we were able to dig it out, but then Bam! We’re on the attack, Erat’s feeding Franson the puck and we’ve got ourselves a 2-0 lead with 15:08 to go. I wonder what the other commuters on I-65 North though I was screaming about as I passed? Erat getting 2 assists that’s what. I can honestly say I’m shocked and pleased at the same time. Erat got 2 assists in one game, great, keep it up, I like it when you can actually see a player earning his salary.  


      4 minutes pass, we trade penalties with the Kings and play 2 minutes of 4 on 4 hockey. Then as we go back to full strength we get a penalty on Hammus and within 7 seconds the Kings score, at 11:35 in the third, the Kings finally get on the board. But not to fear, less that a minute and a half later we’re back up by 2 thanks to a sneak attack by Joel Ward with the help of David Legwand. In the last 10 we held our own & defended our 2 point lead to end the game at 3-1. 


      Am I happy we won the game? Oh yes, but what I’m even happier about is some of our new and lesser known players getting out there and showing what they’ve got. Big name players are great and all, but the Preds aren’t a team that can relay on just one or two guys to get them through. It’s got to be the entire team,  all game, every game, and I’m glad to see these guys stepping up to the challenge of making game winning moves with or with out the big names. I’m looking for big things from the likes of Mike Santorelli, Colin Wilson, Patrick Hornqvist, Frances Bouillon, Joel Ward, and all the rest of the young guns Nashville has this year. We’ve got a team of players who are looking to prove something. Now they just need to get out on the ice and prove it.


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Thanks again, Steph!  


Cheers.