Welcome Back To 2010: The Predators Look Like Themselves Again
(And That's Good!)  Jonathan Daniel  Underlying the collective
reluctance of the Nashville faithful toward their team drafting
a defenseman this year--even the best defenseman prospect to
come along in years--were two notions:  1. Drafting in the top 5
is the only surefire way to develop an offensive superstar.  2.
The Predators had already tried the two-stellar-defenseman model
and it had failed.  While I'll concede the first point, the
second one isn't so obviously true. Many fans cite the Preds
inability to win a Cup with Suter and Weber as evidence that the
team will struggle to win with Weber and Jones. As the theory
goes, the Preds were unable to win with Weber, Suter, and Rinne,
because they lacked offense. By building around Weber and Jones
without acquiring any elite forwards, the Predators are
seemingly re-building around a failed model.  A hockey team,
though, needs more than one defenseman. The Predators' weak
second defense pairing an