Ted Montgomery Finally Watches A Preds Game

Well, well, well. Could it be that my letter to USAToday hockey writer, Ted Montgomery, played some part in the following kind words he showered upon our team in his new column?

The Nashville Predators have opened a lot of eyes around the league with their tremendous start. They are an exciting, well-coached team with an outstanding goaltender and a tenacious and pesky bunch of skaters. The one chink in their armor is their lack of size. That won't matter much during the regular season, but during the playoffs, size is a definite advantage. Look for the Preds to upgrade in that area prior to the postseason.

I like to think that he read my letter and decided to watch a few Preds games. It's more likely, however, that he simply decided to follow the trend in national hockey writing to finally recognize a team that started the season 8-0. Oh well. I'm not arguing. Good press for the Preds (nationally!) is good press for the Preds. And there's almost no one left in the media who is not singing the praises of our beloved Vokoun. Check out the Predator's Den for a new round-up of all the various things the media is saying about the Preds. It's a good read, though I should warn you that there's so much good information and links that you'll lose your afternoon.

In a related note: I sent yet another letter to yet another national hockey writer, Scott Cullen, of Canada's TSN. He does a weekly Power Rankings of all the NHL teams. Two weeks ago, the Preds were #3 and the Senators were #1, at a time when both teams were 8-0. The Sens lost 2 straight and stayed #1 in this week's rankings, while the Preds lost one in overtime and one in regulation and sailed down the charts to #11. I wrote him asking to explain the logic of that. If one team is good at 8-2, then surely a team at 8-1-1 is just as good, right? I'm pretty sure we have another of our common cases of big media undervaluing and underestimating our team simply because they haven't seen us play enough.

Cullen posts a feedback article every week consisting of the best e-mails and gripes about his rankings...so I'll let you guys know if he prints my letter. I somehow doubt it.