The Preds lost a lot on the ice in the offseason when they traded away Tomas Vokoun and Kimmo Timonen. They also lost a lot in the locker room when these two stars departed. Both players are class acts, and their recent comments about Nashville are evidence of that:

Vokoun is aware of the problems with attendance and corporate sponsorships. He is hopeful there will always be an NHL team in Nashville. “It is a really nice community and a nice place to play,” Vokoun said. “Even after being traded I hope they will find a way to keep the team there. I think it is a big enough city to have an NHL team. There are a lot of passionate fans. I really enjoyed my time there.”

Defenseman Kimmo Timonen, an All-Star this season with the Philadelphia Flyers, checks out his old teammates in Nashville whenever he can since he has the NHL television package on his home television. “When it is a chance to watch Nashville’s games I will,” Timonen said. “They still have a very good team with a very good defense. There is so much skill still there.”

I appreciate the City Paper’s Mark McGee taking the time to interview two beloved and missed former team members.

The second Nashville Geek Breakfast this morning at Noshville was a lot of fun. A big crew showed up, and it looked like everyone had a ball. Here are a few things I learned:

• Ben Folds sometimes eats breakfast, minus the Five. Today he did at Noshville.
  
• Kelly Stewart is a big Ben Folds fan, and now he has the picture to prove it.
• Kate is headed to San Francisco.
• Ginger tweets during traffic jams. (Me, too.)
• Target shouldn’t ignore bloggers.
• Not everyone at Best Buy is rude to their customers.
• Dave Delaney is sick, but not nearly as sick as he was last week.

Take a look at the Geek Breakfast Facebook group if you’re interested in coming to the next one. See you there.

You may have heard about the town hall meeting that the new Preds ownership group is hosting for season ticket holders on February 5 prior to the game against the Carolina Hurricanes. President David Freeman, longtime General Manager and current President of Hockey Operations David Poile and President of Business Operations Ed Lang will discuss the future of the franchise and take questions from those in attendance.

This strikes me as another positive move to engage local fans, and I’m all for it. I hope fans will ask all the tough questions they may be pondering, such as what happens if the team falls below its required attendance average this season, and that Freeman, Poile and Lang will provide candid responses. It’s clear to me that all three of these leaders very much want to keep the team here, and I’m excited about the fresh energy they will hopefully be able to generate for the franchise now that new ownership is on board.

Former U.S. Congressman Bob Clement officially announced the launch of Clement & Associates, a consulting and lobbying firm, yesterday evening via a news release. I remain profoundly relieved that Bob Clement was not elected as Nashville’s mayor, but I wish him no ill will in his new endeavor. My concerns about Clement serving as Nashville’s civic leader were that he was not well-suited for the job and that he had spent too much time as a “career politician,” an increasingly ugly insult in politics these days. This new undertaking is a much better fit for Clement, who can rely on his considerable experience in Washington to help the clients he will serve.

Web update: BobClement.com is still an empty shell in need of a splash page, and Clement & Associates is  not these self-described “bean counters” from Sacramento.

Averaging 12,618 in paid attendance so far this season, the Preds are in danger of missing out on much needed revenue sharing dollars from the NHL and well below the 14,000 threshold required to maintain the terms of the team’s current lease at the Sommet Center.

The questions no one seems to be asking are: 1) Why aren’t things moving faster with the Nashville Sports Authority and the Metro Council, so the revised lease agreement (the one that requires the team to stay in Nashville for a minimum of three years) can take effect? 2) Will David Freeman and company, the new ownership group, consider exercising the team’s out clause if the new lease isn’t enacted by season’s end?

I initally applauded the hiring of Metro Nashville Public Schools Director Pedro Garcia, but I think it’s time for him to go. I considered the school board’s decision to bring in someone with a proven track record from outside the system to be an intelligent and well-reasoned decision. In retrospect, it looks more like a mistake.

The word on the street has long been that Garcia is dictatorial and adversarial, and that might have been tolerable with improving schools. With a critical evaluation forthcoming, that clearly isn’t the case.

Metro Schools Director Pedro Garcia on Friday made his first official move to be released from his contract, just one day before the board was set to begin his annual evaluation process … The embattled school director is under contract until 2010 but submitted a written request for the board to consider giving him a severance package.

Garcia’s contract states that he must give 120 days’ notice unless the board agrees to a shorter period of time. The board also has the power to fire him for a number of reasons, in which case he gets no compensation and has to forfeit all his sick leave.

Nashville should not foot the bill, in my opinion, for an official who has frequently flirted with other school systems about job vacancies and has engendered much ill will within the system along the way. I hope the school board will make the case against keeping Garcia rather than accepting this overture from the beleaguered director. It’s in the best interest, I believe, of the city, the schools and, ultimately, the students for there to be a change in leadership.

When it rains, it pours, and West End looks awfully wet outside right now. It’s figuratively raining on the Nashville sports scene today, too, after Vanderbilt’s Earl Bennett, the leading receiver in Southeastern Conference history, announced plans to enter the NFL draft this spring.

Despite the idealism of my youth, I’d have a hard time making a case to Bennett to stay these days. He is a likely first-rounder who will almost certainly land a huge contract, and he’s succeeded mightily on a mediocre Vanderbilt team, one that absolutely should have won enough games to go bowling this past season. Good luck, Earl, and thanks for the memories.

Today Craig Leipold, owner of the Preds as of five weeks ago, did what has been rumored for months: He bought the Minnesota Wild.

I’m off two minds about this: One, Leipold could have taken (or tried to take) Jim Balsillie’s offer that would have almost assuredly landed the Preds in Ontario. Two, this purchase makes it absolutely clear just how bad Leipold thinks Nashville is as a hockey market. He’ll deny the latter to some degree, and I appreciate his role in helping the local ownership group purchase the team, but it sure stinks to see an owner Nashville once loved wind up in a competing market.

Nonetheless, it’s hard to begrudge him for wanting the Wild, where the team has sold out every single home game since it began play in 2000, but not for abandoning the Preds. I can wish Leipold success, but only to a point: Here’s hoping for a Preds playoff series victory over the Wild in the West finals one of these days.

The A.A. Birch Criminal Justice Building (above) is landing some high praise from Skyscraperpage.com architecture fans along with the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. One user made the point that these are “two buildings that Nashville can be exceptionally proud of.” I agree, and I’m encouraged to see so many landmark structures and locations appearing during the last 10 to 15 years. Downtown Nashville, in particular, is a much different and much better place, I think, than it was as recently as 1993 or so. Some critics of the Schermerhorn have said that it is too traditional, but I personally agree with another commenter that “old styles can be given new life today.” I’m glad to see that happening here.

Did you know that the Nashville Public Library maintains a searchable database of articles published in The Tennessean? It’s free if you are a Davidson County resident with a library card, and it’s constantly being updated. The content is usually current within a few days of the present, so January 2008 editions are already online. The library began archiving the paper electronically in 1999, so you can search nearly 10 years of articles.

Here’s another little secret: The Tennessean doesn’t move its articles once they age past its seven-day free archive period. It only stops indexing them on its main pages because they are no longer current stories. They’ll show up as articles you have to pay for in a keyword search on the paper’s Web site, but Google and/or Google News can usually find the direct link to the stories for free.

Corey at Webspun Ideas, a self-described “ambassador for Nashville” who is employed as a concierge, is traveling in Germany and captured great photos of the Hamburg train station. You’ve probably seen it before in magazines or commercials, and now Corey’s seen it in person. If you look closely, you can see that, appropriately enough, Hamburg has its own McDonald’s. Have a safe trip, Corey.

Today is the deadline to register to vote to be eligible for Tennessee’s February 5 presidential primary elections. Will the recent theft of registered voter information from the Davidson County Election Commission have any impact? Honestly, it probably won’t have a huge effect, but in an age of voter apathy, it sure won’t help. The Ad Council is hoping to inspire additional civic involvement nationwide through it’s new getgoodkarma.org Web site. I’m more of the “virtue is its own reward” school of thought, but I’m all for anything that encourages more of us to participate in community life. Please take time to register and to vote.