Can You Hear Nashville Now

Look at how much has changed over the last 19 years in the hockey landscape. When the NHL had tried once before to get a team moved to Nashville, when they tried to draw the Devils out of New Jersey in 1996, it fell through. Two years later, the league awarded the team to the City to begin play in the 1998-99 season and now here we sit, almost twenty years later, the rest of the hockey world is finally in on the Music City's little secret. News Flash: Nashville is truly a hockey city. The rest of the hockey world has now been exposed to that. And the city really has come a long way in embracing the coolest game on earth.

When the team first came to be in the late 90's, people in the city had to be introduced to the game through a program called Predators University. During that program, fans were taught the game of hockey almost step by step. Some people began to wonder if the sport would really grow and prosper in the south. When the team first started, it seemed somewhat easy to be able to get a ticket to a game. Now, its a different story. It's extremely hard to get into Bridgestone Arena to experience one of the best atmospheres in the League. The Predators have sold every ticket to each of the past 53 home games. Success has led to the fan base growing by leaps and bounds. In a region known for county music and football, hockey has become one of the hottest tickets in town.

This year marks the first time that the Predators have reached the finals, which is all new territory for Nashville. This is only the fourth time the Predators have reached the second round of the playoffs since joining the League for the 1998-99 season. They have never led in a second-round series until this year. Now here we are, going into game four of the finals tonight, a series which the Predators have only been able to watch on TV till this point. Now they're playing in it and the fans are eating it up. The fans have a series of chants they use throughout the game, just as fans do at Vanderbilt University and University of Tennessee football games. They thank PA announcer Paul McCann each time he announces the last minute of the period. Each time the Predators score a goal, the fans, in unison, make sure the opposing goalie knows it was all his fault.

Just look at game three of the finals that took place on Saturday night in the Music City. If you were like me, you were probably watching the game on TV. Once the Predators got on the board, the crowd was off and running. Fans were all over the Penguins, getting louder and louder as the night went along. It was one of the craziest reactions to an NHL hockey game I've seen in quite a long time. You got that vibe coming through the TV set, you could feel the energy coming through the screen, which only really seems to happen in a few arenas around the league. You get it in from the United Center in Chicago, you get it from TD Garden in Boston, you used to get it from Joe Louis Arena in Detroit and you used to get it from Nassau Coliseum (and on a rare occasion from Barclays Center) in New York. There are just some of those buildings that you walk into and you know the crowd will be into it from start to finish, more so if its a close hockey game. Now that the city of Nashville has truly embraced to sport and their team, they've taken it and run with it. Bridgestone Arena is quickly becoming one of those hostile places to play in around the league, and if the Predators can keep this kind of play up going further past this year, look out.

Nashville is growing, quickly, into a hockey town. It’s always been fun and non-traditional. Now it is packed every night. The team on the ice is a championship contender. And Nashville is seen less and less as a Southern city trying to figure out hockey, and more and more like a hockey hotbed.