Well.

This season’s playoff whipping boy is, apparently, none other than the Nashville Predators–because Alexander Radulov got suspended (and rightly so) for a hit that even most Preds fans on the net agree was totally unnecessary, and because Scott Hartnell got a game misconduct in Game 1 for laying out Jonathan Cheechoo (a hit that I personally think was pretty foolish).

All of a sudden, the Predators are a bunch of dirty no-good thugs, Nashville doesn’t deserve a team, their fans are morons….

Oh wait, various fuckheads on the Net have been saying those last two things for ages. FlyersTV Comcast OLN Versus has been harping on the first one, however, and making the Sharks out to be innocent martyrs.

How conveniently we forget that the Sharks are not nearly so innocent as Clement Clement Hands of Cement and his little friends would have us believe. At least the Preds didn’t do the double-team thing right off the faceoff in the last five minutes of the game. But since the Preds are south of the Mason-Dixon Line, I guess it’s fashionable to bash them left right and center (and, if you’re a Wings fan, to make fat jokes and drop redneck smack on anyone who dares defend them–I’m betting that if the Wings get punted again, at least a few of ‘em will be hopping on the Sabres bus so they can hang with kindred spirits).

The more things change….