After coming off a 4-1 Saturday night to the Chicago Blackhawks, at least one Predator was in a good mood going into Sunday’s rematch.

Patric Hornqvist was named to the Swedish men’s Olympic hockey team.

Getting a spot on the defending Gold medalist team was not an easy task. In fact, 13 members of the 2006 team that won in Turin will be back in Vancouver.

Hornqvist isn’t a rookie, but he didn’t play a full season last year, spending most of the 2008-2009 season in Milwaukee. Picked last in the 7th round of the 2005 entry draft at 230 overall, Hornqvist is lucky to be in the NHL.

Hornqvist was not expected to make the Olympic team before the start of the NHL season, but the 22 year old has notched 11 goals, 8 assists for 19 points in 37 games for the Nashville Predators.

Hornqvist is the first Predator to be named to an Olympic team. Other Predators expectedto be named to their national teams include Shea Weber (Canada), Ryan Suter (USA), Martin Erat (Czech Republic). There is also a decent possibility that Pekka Rinne will be named as the third goalie for Finland and that Marcel Goc might get the nod for Germany.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 27th, 2009 at 8:16 pm and is filed under Most Recommended, News Headlines, Right Column, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.