Preds should make run at Kessel

I don't want to make assumptions, but I think the quote from Nashville coach Barry Trotz was meant to be flattering.

"He's really got Predator written all over him because he's got a lot of try in his game."

Slow down, Turbo. A lot of try? You can almost hear the Honkeytown faithful yawning with anticipation for the coming season.

Doesn't much matter who Trotz was buffing up with that faint praise, though, for the record, it was winger Patric Hornqvist. The young Swede is merely the latest in a long line of marginally talented forwards trotted out by the Preds whose hopes for NHL employment rely almost exclusively on effort rather than any defining natural ability.

Not that there's anything wrong with some hustle -- like Van Buren sang in Damn Yankees, you gotta have heart -- but that's really what it's come to for the Predators, a club that's become defined, and confined, by its low-budget approach. Try hard. Catch a few breaks, maybe eke out a low playoff seed. Lose in the first round, go home satisfied. Try hard again next year.

It's a testament to Trotz and GM David Poile, the two most talented guys in the organization outside of the brilliant defender Shea Weber, that the franchise has experienced even modest success operating under a self-imposed cap that this year hovers around $43 million. And buoyed by the return of Steve Sullivan and the continued growth of the young blueline, they might even make it back to the postseason after sitting on the sidelines last spring.

One and done will probably be enough for Poile's bosses, a group of local businessmen who are developing their passion for the game on the go after stepping up to keep the club in Nashville in 2007. Matching the spending of divisional rivals Detroit and Chicago may not be in the plans, but here's hoping he's knocking on their doors and selling them on the value of a little sizzle.

It's time to bust the budget for Phil Kessel

The mere mention of Boston's RFA winger has, for some fans, become a groan inducer on the scale of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt (and is it just me, or is there a Separated at Birth thing going on here?). His will-he/won't-he/where- will-he-sign saga has become the league's longest running soap opera -- at least east of the Sonoran Desert.

But the impasse declared this week by Kessel's agent Wade Arnott suggests an opportunity is at hand to address the massive hole created when Alexander Radulov rocketed back to Russia. A chance to cash in at the box office as well as in the standings.