Nashville's status as Music City is well known, but its "hockey town credentials are still surprising some" as the Predators prepare for their first-ever appearance in the Western Conference Finals, according to Joe Rexrode of the Nashville TENNESSEAN. The Predators eliminated the Blues last night, and Rexrode writes, "We’re watching the hockey world outside Nashville discover the hockey world in Nashville." Much of the NHL media "got a taste" for the city during the '16 All-Star game. But now, that is "reaching mainstream media as this playoff run sweeps up the city and creates wild scenes at Bridgestone Arena." ESPN analyst Barry Melrose: “If Nashville goes to the Stanley Cup finals, it will be the best Stanley Cup finals we’ve ever had.” NBC's Pierre McGuire during the Predators' April 30 Game 3 win over the Blues called Bridgestone Arena a "bubbling cauldron of Predator pride." McGuire said, "It is so loud down here ... as loud as any building in the league.” Predators President & CEO Sean Henry has "likened the feel of the Nashville crowds to the rowdies who follow Adam Sandler’s character around in the golf comedy 'Happy Gilmore.'” Rexrode writes Predators games were always "fun and non-traditional," but now it is "packed every night." Nashville is now "seen less and less as a Southern city trying to figure out hockey, and more and more like a hockey hotbed" (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 5/7).
MOVIN' ON UP: Rexrode writes yesterday will get "its own chapter in the Predators' history book," the day Nashville "arrived in a new place as a franchise." Playing in the Western Conference Finals was a "far-away dream" when the Predators started NHL play in '98. Even 10 years ago fans "held a rally to keep the team in Nashville." Predators D P.K. Subban last night said, "There's still a lot of hockey to be played, but we should enjoy this today. It's a hell of an accomplishment for this organization." Rexrode notes Bridgestone's roof last night "seemed to quiver as noise bounded off it." Predators C Ryan Johansen said, "My ears are absolutely ringing right now. I'm not even exaggerating. They're hurting." Rexrode writes it has been a "remarkable three weeks" for the Predators, who have "inflicted this city with Predators fever and opened a lot of eyes to the quality of this team and devotion of its followers" (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 5/8).
COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? NBCSPORTS.com's Cam Tucker writes expectations for the Predators have been "growing for some time." They were "one win away from reaching the Western Conference Final a year ago and then pulled off a highly polarizing, controversial trade in the summer," acquiring Subban from the Canadiens in exchange for D Shea Weber. Tucker: "It’s a deal that rocked the hockey world at the time and is still being discussed with plenty of fervor almost 11 months later" (NBCSPORTS.com, 5/8).
