Jeremy did a great job breaking the series down on the ice, but I think he left out a few key factors that tell the real story of the difference between these teams. See, what hockey analysts often fail to realize is that there's more to hockey than just the offense, defense, goaltending, and other things that happen on the ice. There's all the stuff going on outside of that, which often matters more at this time of the season than anything. People would have called the Chicago Blackhawks the underdogs through most of their recent Stanley Cup runs due to things like offense, defense & goaltending, but other factors play a key role and lead to teams like Chicago & the LA Kings winning over and over again instead of whoever wins the President's Cup in a given season.
That's right...with all apologies to Nick Bakay, it's time to look at the Tale of the Tape!
Playoff History
The Ducks won the Stanley Cup back in 2007. That's pretty nice, but 2007 was so long ago that the Chicago Blackhawks were still in their forty-nine year Stanley Cup drought & the Los Angeles Kings had yet to win even one.
The Preds have no Cups to speak of. They've only won two series during their eight playoff appearances. However, one of those wins was over the Ducks in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Since that happened more recently, I think it's fair to call this a Push.
I mean, it's not like the Ducks beat the Preds to win the Cup.
Coaching
Barry Trotz is going to win all kinds of awards for the job he did with the Washington Capitols this season. Good for him, he's a good guy and deserves all the success in the world. I don't want to bury him, but let's face it: Nashville was going nowhere as a hockey team the last two seasons he was there. Peter Laviollette has revitalized the Predators and made them relevant. The excitement he's brought to town is palpable. We like it, we Laviollette, we want some more of it. And if old Stanley Cups are your thing, he won one in 2006 with something called the Carolina Hurricanes. Was that the team that moved to Winnipeg?
Bruce Boudreau is the Ducks head coach. Nice guy. His players love him. He played for a bunch of teams that never won anything, then coached a bunch of teams that never won anything. Give me a winner that gets things done. Advantage Preds.
Location
Nashville is one of the South's finest cities and the center of the country universe. It has a dazzling nightlife & the people are good, genuine salt of the earth folk. Plus, girls with southern accents. Hubba. It's in the Central Time Zone, which means I can eat dinner before watching the game at 8.
Anaheim has Disneyland. Sure, Disneyland is fun, but it's full of bratty, obnoxious kids. Anaheim is also in California, which is a land of fakeness featuring charlatans, imposters & tricksters. It's also in the Pacific Time Zone, the least convenient time zone to watch hockey games from. Advantage Preds.
Team Name
"Predators" sounds cool and the shortened "Preds" is great, but the problem with the team name in general is that everybody on the outside associates the term with "child predators". Or now, a term Hillary Clinton has made famous recently, "super predators". That isn't good. Anaheim would take this category easily if they were still the Mighty Ducks like the team from the best series of hockey movies ever, but now they're just Ducks. Whenever I hear the name "Ducks", I think of college football teams that can't win championships. That isn't good. Let's call it a Push.
Uniforms
Nashville
Anaheim
It took some time for me to get used to the Preds' color scheme in general, but it's grown on me. The gold stands out from other hockey teams & from the rest of the teams I root for. This is another one of those things that I think Anaheim had better in the Mighty Ducks days, then downgraded for some reason. I guess the orange is supposed to symbolize the duck beak, but it doesn't really work for me here like it does for the Cincinnati Bengals. Gonna go with the Preds here.
Rinkside Reporter
The rinkside reporter serves as the connection between TV viewers and the players & coaches. It's an important job that people like me that don't know as much about hockey as we know about other sports seek expertise & wisdom from, and for my money nobody does it better than Lyndsay Rowley. She asks the questions that we want to know, and helps us get to know the Predators better through her questions, her in-game reports, and her coverage of the team on the award-winning Predators Snapshot.
The rest of the people on the Preds' announce team are pretty good too. I wish Pete Weber & Terry Crisp were still in the booth, but Stu Grimson & Willy Daunic are doing a good job this season. That being said, Rowley's addition to the broadcasts last season made for a better product and she's improved her game even more this season. I'm dreading the day the national networks snatch her up.
The Ducks have Kent French. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but there's no way he can compete with Rowley. Advantage Preds.
Mascot
Nashville: Gnash
Anaheim: Wild Wing
You gotta love Gnash. He has a creative name based on his city, teeth that strike fear in the hearts of his prey, and the ability to rouse a crowd like no other. Gnash also has an awesome origin story that I'm taking from the Preds' site:
In 1971, construction crews discovered the bones of a saber-tooth tiger in a cave below the city, proving that they once inhabited this region. Archaeologists know that the powerful cat survived the Ice Age longer than any other mammal, making it the dominant predator on the planet for thousands of years. The ice has returned, and apparently so has the saber-tooth tiger.
In 1971, it was believed that no archaeological find would ever match their recent discovery. Then in 1994, while digging the foundations for the new Nashville Arena (now called Bridgestone Arena), an even greater discovery was made. Deep beneath the surface, down where the earth is cold and dark, the drills and jackhammers unearthed a beast, a baby saber tooth tiger, completely frozen in a huge block of ice. The site had obviously laid undisturbed for millions of years.
Rather than subject the creature to an existence of endless scientific research and study living in a cage, they looked for a place where he could feel at home. The cat would need a place that felt like a cave, where he would hear the familiar roar of his own kind. And, above all else, he needed ice!
The crew placed the frozen cub in the center of the Center to thaw. When they returned the next morning, the ice had melted and the creature was gone. They searched for days, but never found him. They feared that he was gone forever, but they were wrong. The little beast had gone in search of other tigers in this strange new world.
After several years, he had given up hope of ever finding any of his kind again. Then on October 10th, 1998, he heard the familiar roar of other saber tooth tigers. What he found were Predators fans cheering their team on Opening Night. He had found a home.
Now all grown up, the huge beast lives in the dark corners of Bridgestone Arena, and only comes out of hiding when he hears the familiar Predators roar that reminds him of home.
How incredible is that? Wild Wing has no such story, he was named following a fan write-in contest blah blah blah. He gets credit for being the first NHL mascot to descend onto the ice from the rafters, but he's not really ridiculous enough to compete with Gnash. Plus, there's no question that a saber-tooth tiger beats a duck in a fight. Advantage Preds.
Goal Horn
Nashville
Anaheim
I mean, I'm a Nashville guy...but I gotta go Pennywise over Tim McGraw/Black Keys any day of the week, even if the combo is fitting for the town & the color scheme. Advantage Ducks anyway.
WAGs
Everybody knows about Nashville's Mike Fisher & Carrie Underwood, but I had no idea that James Neal was dating Yahoo Sports' Melanie Collins until I researched this. Nicely done, Nealer!
Anaheim has Allie Bertram & the woman formerly known to WWE fans as Kelly Kelly on their side.
It's a close one, but I'm going Preds because Collins & Underwood are better at her jobs than Kelly was at hers.
Luck
Luck seems to mean more than anything else when the playoffs roll around, so this is a big one. While Anaheim's reached the promised land before, one can argue they've been unlucky & should have been there more often. They're won the Pacific Division the last three seasons before this one and only made it to the Western Conference Finals once. The Preds usually haven't been favored in their playoff series so one might argue that luck favors them...but then again it's not like they're winning those series. They have the second-worst series record of franchises with at least ten playoff series under their belts. We'll go Push.
Final Score: Preds 6, Ducks 1, Push 3
When you look at the numbers the Preds are actually the overwhelming favorites in spite of what the experts in the mainstream media tell you. I am going to give the Ducks some credit though, and predict that they will last 6 games. And if it goes to 7 games, I'll be worried, because winning Game 7 on the road is a tall order indeed. So, guys, if you wanna sweep the Ducks or win in 5, I'm cool with that too.
Thanks for reading, I'm Steve Cook reminding you that the numbers never lie!
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