You probably know me by now... At least if you’ve been around a bit you know I am a HUGE fan of Nashville as a city and the Predators as a team. I have always believed in David Poile, the organization, and what they have built there. It is remarkable and borders on spectacular honestly.
I go WAY back with hockey in Nashville, so I can say this next part without reservation...some background..
In 1996 I was recording an album in Nashville and the place was the FURTHEST thing from a hockey city. The reality that the NHL would grant a franchise to Music City...I would have laughed...yet they did get a granted a team two years later in 1998.
Recording sessions have a lot of downtime, but being hockey fans the band brought street hockey sticks and we’d play out in the parking lot of Sixteenth Avenue Sound Studio, the legendary Music Row studio... Countless country musicians, also recording on Music Row would look at us like we were from Mars and stop their cars and trucks to watch. It was hilarious.
Then one of the engineers, who was from Vancouver, said to us we should go and check out the Nashville Knights ECHL Team...part of the Tampa Lightning system. They played in the Nashville Municipal Auditorium...and we ended up going to half a dozen or so games over the three months we lived there...including what would turn out to be the FINAL game in the franchise history. It was fan appreciation night and they were giving away their jerseys. I actually won a jersey. Side note...They were playing the Charlotte Checkers with their leading scorer, a young Ryan Sittler...who oddly enough grew up in my hometown of Cherry Hill, NJ and knew (and may have dated) my sister for a brief time...
All of that exposition was to make it clear that I go way back with Nashville Hockey. I have said this countless times...If I could pick ONE city to see an NHL game it would be a total toss up between Montreal and Nashville. And I am dead serious. That’s how amazing the experience is.. After Covid...You must go.
Preds Nation are REAL and TRUE hockey fans. I have spent countless hours defending this point to rather arrogant Canadian hockey reporters and fans who have never even been there to witness what it’s like. The misconception that Nashville, in 2021, isn’t a real hockey town stems from years of ignorance and we all know the NHL loves to maintain its stereotypes
However, Preds fans...I am going to call you out here...You know I love you, but I am going to call you out NOT because you aren’t real hockey fans, but rather because I fully believe you ARE. What is happening right now with Johansen, Duchene and Coach Heinz is unacceptable and you need to let them hear it. Your local media appears too close to the situation or too afraid to be real or something, but I am starting to hear the murmurs from players and some key fans in Preds Nation..
The NHL pundits, who aren’t paying attention to a southern team, are going to blame the struggles on the goalies. The reality is Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen NEED to step up and be held accountable. They are two players of high skill who are playing like neither cares what happens this season. They have ZERO goals between them to speak of for their $16 Million in cap space...And John Heinz needs to sit them. Sit them for a LOOONG time.
Press Nation...you have young players more than ready to play “Preds” hockey and work hard. The three T’s. Eeli Tolvanen, Yakov Trenin, and Phillip Tomasino are NHL Players. NOW.. They deserve to be in the lineup...They are young and hungry and have shown flashes of the kind of effort/skill/energy that is lacking completely from the entitled acting Johansen and Duchene. Heinz knows better and needs to be called on it. The Predators MUST outwork teams to be successful..Having a bottom nine sitting around and waiting for the stars on the top line to produce has NEVER worked in this town.
David Poile made some sneaky good addition this summer, and this team has the talent to be a playoff team in this division...That is where the expectation should be...But not enough people appear pissed off about the fact, that on many nights, they look like a team ready to tank. It’s absurd. And while 1,000 or so fans are seeing them play live, those fans and the other Preds fans need to screen from the rooftops on Broadway to get these supposed “superstars” out of the lineup and sitting in the Press box until they are ready to put it all on the line night in and night out...
If this was happening in Toronto or Montreal or Philly or Edmonton or Chicago we’d be reading countless articles like this one and Heinz job would be on the line. It should be. Besides his inability to manage his stars, his general line management has also been atrocious. His CONSTANT shifting of players off of lines that ARE starting to work to try and get other lines who aren’t doing anything is maddening and the players are left frustrated and lacking creativity..
It needs to change.
Get angry and be heard PredsNation. This is your Nashville Predators.. Remind them of that simple fact...
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