I went into the 2014-15 hockey season kind of on the fence about whether I wanted to continue watching the sport. I'd started following the NHL a bit closer back in 2012-13 when listeners of a sports podcast I was doing at the time over at offtheteam.com wanted my co-host & myself to talk more about hockey. I do what my people want, so I decided to watch hockey once that season's lockout ended. Jeremy Lambert suggested I follow the Nashville Predators, and it seemed like a good idea because I could catch most of the games on Fox Sports South.
My Predator fandom didn't get off to the best of starts. The team wasn't very good in 2012-13, and any chance they had of doing anything in 2013-14 ended with superstar goalie Pekka Rinne's hip injury that took him out most of the season. There were some good players like Shea Weber, and you'd hear about guys like Filip Forsberg & Seth Jones that could be stars some day, and Mike Fisher was married to Carrie Underwood so that was pretty cool, but the product on the ice was tough to watch most of the time. Even actual hockey fans would admit that the Preds weren't very entertaining. Longtime coach Barry Trotz was fired, and nobody really knew what to expect from a retooled Predator team with new coaches & some new faces on the ice in 2014-15. Add in the fact I no longer had a regular podcast to talk about things like hockey, and a less than stellar season from the Preds would have probably resulted in me finding time for watching actual TV shows in 2015-16.
Three things happened in 2014-15 to solidify my Predator fandom.
1. The team was actually good.
New coach Peter LaViolette & his offensive system brought a level of fun to Predators hockey that I hadn't seen in the previous two years. Not to diss Barry Trotz, he did a lot of great things in Nashville and I certainly hope he does well in Washington, but it seemed like the team benefitted from a new perspective & a new way of doing things. Faster & more aggressive play makes for more entertaining hockey, and it certainly made for more successful hockey last season. James Neal added a spark to the team, and Filip Forsberg had a tremendous rookie season that has people predicting great things for him in the future. Pekka stayed healthy for more of the season, and backup Carter Hutton was better from the previous season. He wasn't anywhere near Pekka but he could do some cool stuff.
The Preds dominated the first half of the season, having the best record in the Western Conference through the first 41 games. They dropped back a little in the second half, but they still finished 2nd in the Central & got homeice advantage in the 1st round against the Blackhawks. We don't talk about what happened there, but at least Nashville put up more of a fight than any of Chicago's other competition that postseason. Besides, every fan has to go through some postseason heartbreak at least once in their lives.
2. All-Star Game!
All-Star Games are all hype & little substance. They're fun though, especially when you get paid to be there! I got to work at the NHL All-Star Game in Columbus, which was my first live NHL experience. Not quite a game, but there was tons of scoring and the fans were great. One of the tough things about living in a non-NHL market is that there just aren't many other fans to talk about hockey with. Columbus tries, they air their games on Fox Sports Ohio, but you just don't see tons of Blue Jackets fans in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area. Good luck trying to get a hockey game on at a sports bar on a night when one of the eight local college basketball teams are playing. It was fun to be surrounded by diehard hockey fans for a night.
3. Lyndsay Rowley joins the Preds announce team!
If you're familiar with my writing or with my tweets you know that I spend an inordinate amount of time yapping about whatever female happens to be on my television. It's one of my lesser qualities, but since I'm a single guy in my late-20s/early-30s it's somewhat inevitable. I've never understood the beef that some people have with sideline reporters or the fact that many of them happen to be women. Let's face it, men have had the main announcing jobs on lockdown since the beginning of sports television & sideline gigs are what women have been allowed to do. If you're going to complain about sideline reporters mostly being attractive women, you should also complain about announcers mostly being old dudes & ex-athletes.
Anyway, the Preds television presentation got a lot more interesting last season with the addition of Lyndsay Rowley. I was already familiar with Rowley due to her work on the ACC website & some random college events on Fox Sports Net since I'm a Louisville sports aficionado & watch whatever I can of their televised product, so I was very happy to have her covering my favorite hockey team. Putting aside my schoolboy crush & the times she's responded to my tweets, Lyndsay does a great job interviewing the players & coaches and asking questions that actually require some thought from the participants. She's also made Predators Snapshot must-see television. She had a partial schedule last season, missing most of the road games, but will be on all the games this season. I'd like to think my tweets at FS Tennessee had something to do with it, but it was probably her job performance that made it happen.
2015-16 Preview
I originally planned on previewing the upcoming season in this column, but the truth is that I'm not a hockey expert & the USB already has one of those. What I know about the NHL comes from watching Preds games & having a fantasy hockey team. Here are the keys to Nashville having a successful year:
1. Pekka Rinne stays healthy. He's had injury issues before and was probably overused a little bit last season. The coaching staff needs to do a better job of keeping him fresh.
2. Shea Weber. If the Captain isn't injured in the Chicago series, that series ends with a different winner. You can't tell me otherwise. The other defenders are good...Josi's a stud, Seth Jones is coming along & Ryan Ellis is a good hand. But Weber is what makes it work.
3. Filip Forsberg has to avoid a sophomore slump. You see it happen all the time in sports...people have great rookie seasons & aren't as good the next year. If Nashville is going to contend, Filip has to be a major part of it.
4. Mike Fisher & Mike Ribeiro have to play as young 35 year olds instead of as old 35 year olds. I think that makes sense.
5. Somebody steps up from the minors & makes an immediate contribution. I'm not knowledgable enough to know who.
6. They win a trade.
Here's what I expect to happen around the league this season:
-The Blackhawks will be good. We'll think they aren't as good during the season, but somehow the parts will magically gel together in time for the playoff run. Funny how that seems to happen every single year.
-Jaromir Jagr agreeing to grow his mullet back will re-launch the hairstyle's popularity.
-The NHL Central will be the best division in the sport. Possibly the best division in sports.
-Sidney Crosby will miss most of the season due to injury since I picked him with the 2nd pick in my fantasy hockey league. Sorry, Pittsburgh.
-Connor McDavid will have a disappointing rookie campaign since I picked him in my fantasy hockey league. Sorry, Edmonton. To be fair, he could have a decent season & it'd still be disappointing since he's already been crowned the future of hockey. High expectations indeed.
-A team from Canada will have a great regular season & get Canadians' hopes up that the Cup will return to their country for the first time since 1993. That team will not make their conference finals.
-ESPN will act like hockey exists occasionally. About the same rate they did last year.
-Who will win the Stanley Cup? For lack of a more informed answer I'll go with the Nashville Predators. We got great goalkeeping, great defense & great offense. What else do you need? And for the record, that doesn't count as a jinx since it's not an official prediction. I don't know enough to make predictions.
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