We've Crossed the First Threshold.

There are two simple rules that I follow early in each and ever NHL season. The first that the standings are pretty meaningless until (American) Thanksgiving. This is the time of year with bizarre stat leaders, neck in neck races between future champions and lottery winners, and the Ottawa Senators not thinking that they are going to be spending the second half of the season hanging out with the Blue Jackets in their mom's basement listening to Jawbreaker and watching The Kids In The Hall DVDs. I know, doesn't sound like the worst Friday night, but it certainly isn't how you want to spend the second half of your hockey season. My second rule is that I start to evaluate a team's performance until they've struck the ten game mark. While teams continue to go through changes, work around injuries, and have mid-season surges, I think that you can get a solid feel for the look and feel of the team.

That brings us to the Nashville Predators. At the start of last week I would say that I wasn't anticipating sitting down and writing this little piece. Sure, when I'm ranting and going off the deep end I'm far more entertaining, but it would still mean the Preds were playing like utter crap and that I was twitchy from people jumping ship, calling for Trotz's/Poile's head/blood, and declaring war on the color gold. Fortunately for my mental health things have settled down from that point and the team finds itself right in the thick of the Western Conference and only three points from the Central Division leading Blackhawks. So, with all those positive thoughts in mind let's actually take a look at the team.

To Address Some Issues

So, last year I used Photoshop to hack together the Predobear that has become to endeared to OnTheForecheck community. After updating Predobear's jersey this season I played around with some other ideas in order to make the meme more versatile. Along the way OTF user Poiju recolored a honey badger in gold and blue in order to pay tribute to former University of Wisconsin Badger and current Nashville Predators forward Craig Smith, a player we affectionately call the Honey Badger.

Because dammit this is hilarious

In what I can only imagine was a fit of insanity or some sort of fugue state brought on by the consumption of too much tea I created the image I unveiled during the recent Preds victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. OTF readers have offered several excellent names for the... piece... but currently its just loosely referred to as Predobear Rides to War. The image has garnered some attention from the fan base, which is nice. It has also started a few mummers in regards to Predobear t-shirts.

The topic cropped up last season when Predobear first gained traction within the OTF community and started leaking around the internet a bit. I'm always happy to explain to people that Predobear is a repurposing of the Pedobear meme. Pedobear is a 4chan meme. It is a pedophiliac bear. Not really the most pleasant thing. Predobear bear is a pun on the the Pedobear name and the concept of sexual predators, but that isn't what the Predobear is. Predobear is essentially a sexless (as in not male nor female) bear that happens to be an energetic puck bunny. Predobear simply has an extreme love for Nashville Predators hockey players. Predo is just another fan.

To get back on the topic of t-shirts. There are a lot more people out there that know what Pedobear is than Predobear. What people often see, since it is true, is Pedobear wearing a Predators jersey. This creates problems because I don't know a lot of people that want to be associated with pedophilia, and I am certain that the Nashville Predators don't want to be associated with pedophilia. Therefore I'm hesitant to authorize--as much as it is my right since I just hacked a trademarked jersey onto an anonymously produced cartoon bear--any sort of merchandise with Predobear appearing on it. It is a somewhat disturbing albeit often hilarious meme that Preds fan that are in-the-know can enjoy.

The Return of Album Reviews: You've been here all along...Haven't you? Well, maybe.

So, ok. It has been nearly a month since I've posted anything at all. Between mass amounts of school work and working on my guitar project I basically used it all as an excuse to take a break from the whole color scale thing. In the NHL we're going to hit the 10 game point soon where I feel like I can start to evaluate what the Predators are going to look like this season. If the current trend of sketchy play and anemic shooting continues it is going to be a cold and whiskey friendly early evaluation. I do have at least one hockey related blog rolling around in my head, and I can promise that it will be a return to the general weirdness that seems to permeate my hockey related blogs.

In the mean time I decided to write a review for one of the big releases in punk rock as well as one for an album that I've really being loving since I got my hands on it. In case you can't figure out the Cobra Skulls are the former and Candy Hearts are the latter.