Today’s game is a milestone one for Predators GM David Poile as NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika notes that their contest against Philadelphia will be Poile’s 3,000th as an NHL general manager. He is the first to ever get to that milestone. The 72-year-old has been at the helm in Nashville since 1997, joining the team a year before their inaugural season in 1998-99. Poile acknowledged that he has been going year-to-year on contracts for more than a decade now and isn’t sure how much longer he’ll be staying in his current role. Whenever he does step aside, he’s going to be the record-holder in games managed for a very long time.
More from the West:
- While the Kraken parted ways with veteran defenseman Michal Kempny after he cleared unconditional waivers yesterday, GM Ron Francis told Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times that it’s not a priority to bring in another veteran defender to fill Kempny’s spot on the depth chart. Kempny played in two games this season with Coachella Valley of the AHL and was viewed as one of their first recall options if injuries arise. Seattle only has four non-NHL defensemen under contract at the moment so it wouldn’t be surprising to see someone added at some point even if it isn’t a top priority for Francis.
- Although the Jets placed Nikolaj Ehlers on IR yesterday, the news is pretty good when it comes to the winger. Head coach Rick Bowness (who has returned from COVID protocol) told reporters, including Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun (Twitter link), that Ehlers is expected to miss somewhere between seven and ten days. An IR placement is a minimum of seven days and it appears the 26-year-old won’t miss much more time than that. He has three assists in two games so far this season.
3000 games as a GM and zero Stanley Cups and only one SC Final appearence. Proof that longevity doesn’t necessarily equal success.
But on another Preds note, I’ll make a prediction right here on PHF: John Hynes will be fired before the 20 game mark and replaced by Barry Trotz. (I think it’s why Trotz turned down all those offers to coach this off-season). The Preds look like garbage so far this season. Even the two wins against the Sharks in Europe were unimpressive. As soon as a team turns up the tempo on them (e.g. the Avs in last seasons 1st round sweep of the Preds), they have no effective response to it.
@Gbear—Will the unthinkable happen tonight? The Fightin’ Torts come in and embarrass the home team? That Flyers group doesn’t seem to want to follow the script, as it were. Many of us thought they’d be a continuing tire fire from last year, and even though it’s early, they’re a bit of a surprise so far. I agree that those games against SJS were a bit of a mirage. Rusanowsky actually said EK65 is still an elite D-man…out loud…on purpose. I wonder if 59 got a little extra in the new contract for back supports, when he has to carry the team on the odd night.
@Mac – Never underestimate the power of the Torts. :D
Flyers have some youth and passion in their lineup. Preds have Duchene who looks content with having had one good year as a Pred. :/
@Gbear—As I just dropped in on GameCenter, his line was out, which made me think I should’ve added Forsberg and McDonagh, as load balancers for the Captain, too. Mr. Uncoachable still has to keep his priorities—the music career first, everything else, second! ;)
@Mac – 2-0 Flyers. Maybe it’ll be game 10 for Hynes’ departure.
@Gbear—I kept hearing those updates on the Flames’ broadcast on my TV, then read “Borowiecki taken from ice on stretcher” on NHL.com. While Pat didn’t mention anything about BoroCop, I kept thinking, “How is this Flyers group doing this?” and “Why are these Nashville Cats in need of the full-power paddles, almost on a nightly basis?” Between them and the Canucks, it’s hard to say who is in worse shape. We’re supposed to be carping on the ‘Hawks and Ky-Yoots.
@Mac – The sad part after listening to Josi, Duchene and Coach Hynes after the game is that they seem to think they’re doing good things out on the ice. Reality is catching up to this team. They’re mediocre at best.
@Gbear—I think we still call that “living the lie”. I’m going to watch those snippets from PredsTV in a few minutes…Marek just won’t stop talking… :)
@Gbear—Thanks to the Cardiac Flames, a few minutes took a bit longer. By about 1:30 into Josi’s clip, it was clear that your description was spot on. Hynes was spewing it immediately, so I pulled the plug on him at 30 seconds in. I hate when players and/or coaches think they need to do that “whistling in the dark” crap. On the Flames’ side, for instance, their players and coaches tell it like it is. Good, bad or ugly. Until the Cats come to grips with that, they might end up pegging the Misery-o-Meter for their fans this season.
@Mac – I think you summed up the Preds predicament well. They think they’re better than they are and why they think that after last seasons 4 game sweep by the Avs is very puzzling.
I love that in the early 90’s (30 years ago) while GM of the Washington Capitals David Poile had grey hair.
Then sometime in between being fired by the Caps and being hired by the Preds he bought a truckload of Just For Men and the rest is history.