Nashville Predators – Page 7 – Faxes from Uncle Dale

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Game #50 – If it bleeds, we can kill it – Hawks 2, Preds 1

By Adam Hess January 30, 2018 2835 0

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

Hockey Stats

With the exception of the early part of the second period, the Blackhawks not only skated with the Predators quite evenly tonight, but there were stretches of this game where they looked to have a lot more control than Nashville. This is the exact performance you needed against this Predators team coming out of the break. To the bullets:

– The early goings of this one were great for the Hawks, as they were able to control the puck and therefore the play a most of the first period. A good forechecking play from the Kampf line forced a turnover in deep that resulted in the titular character burying a quick and slick wrist shot past Jussi Saros, who had just turned the puck over. Taking a look at the Natural Stat Trick game flow the Hawks were +8 on shot attempts at 5v5 until Nashville started to take over a bit late in the frame. It was the exact start the Hawks needed in that building and getting that early goal was huge.

– The second period followed a similar flow but in the opposite direction. Nashville took control early, even notching a goal with a nice forechecking effort after a turnover by Anton Forsberg. The good news for Forsberg was that was pretty much the only bad play he made all night, and we’ll get to that. The Hawks were able to even things out and took the lead back later in the frame after Kane took a big hit to make a nice play, resulting in a rush with Schmaltz and My Cousin Vinnie. Schmaltz fed Hino with a nice pass, that Hino did not waste, one timing it through the Preds’ defenseman’s leg and then past Saros. That was the winner. The shot shares were even through the first two period, and Nashville dominated the third, but that was mostly score effects.

– More on Forsberg, because of course after I spend a whole bullet last Thursday talking about how he just isn’t reliable enough to keep this team afloat down the stretch and maybe they should look for a trade and yada yada yada, he turns in this gem of a game. 42 saves on 43 shots from a Nashville team that is no joke, only making the one aforementioned bad play, and doing everything else right. He was reading his angles well, tracking the puck well, and made a few big saves as Nashville turned up the attack in the third. He got some help from the post on one play, but nobody ever said you couldn’t be lucky AND good at the same time. I don’t know if I believe he can keep it up, but maybe writing for Sam’s site has resulted in me inheriting the powers of the Fels Motherfuck.

– Feather pointed this out on Twitter in the first intermisison, but Joel made some smart coaching adjustments in the first period to force Laviolette’s hand and minimize the last change advantage by double shifting his third and fourth lines. Lavi was keeping the Johanson line out against Toews, but Joel just left the Kampf line out there – and they were playing well, so it made sense – and forced Lavi to choose to either sit his top line or force himself into a mismatch.

– The biggest thing for the Hawks in this one was that they were so much more aggressive with their feet, which sounds kinda stupid but is just the reality. They skated hard the whole 60 minutes, which hasn’t been a theme this year for them. I’ve said for a while that the Q Hawks have a tendency to play to the level of their opponent, so they may have just elevated themselves against this Nashville squad, but it worked. They just need to figure out how to do this against every team every night if they’re going to go on the necessary run to make the playoffs.

– Popular opinion will tell you that the Predators are far and away a better team than the Hawks, and on paper it probably does look that way. And the sweep in last year’s playoffs certainly helps Nashville’s case. But these teams have split the season series now, with every game being decided by one goal. If Crawford is able to return before the playoffs, and if the Hawks make it – and both of those are rather large “if’s” – while this isn’t a matchup I’d necessarily ask for, it’s not one I’m afraid of either.

Line of the night: “Seabrook looks to clear, it’s taken away… this time – fails to clear again.” Foley’s starting to get it folks.

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Game #50 – Hawks vs. Predators Preview/Garden Party: As We Live A Life Of Ease

By Sam Fels January 30, 2018 2047 0

vs.

RECORDS: Hawks 23-19-7 Predators 29-11-7

PUCK DROP: 7pm

TV: NBCSN Nationally, NBSCN Chicago locally

MANY MORE OF THEM LIVE NEXT DOOR: On The Forecheck

When you biff what should be the easier part of your schedule, that means you have to get it done against the harder part of the schedule. But hey, why not go for degree of difficulty when you’ve got nothing else to lose? The Hawks begin a pretty tricky stretch of the campaign tonight, with their post-All Star break slate taking them to the West’s best team (yes they are, fuck off Vegas) before heading back out West which didn’t go so well last time. And if the Hawks have any designs on making something of this season, they don’t get any mulligans anymore.

And this is probably not the time to be catching the Predators, even if this comes one game early for Filip Forsberg’s return (not that he regularly torches the Hawks or anything). They’ve won seven of the last eight, and the only loss in that time was losing a game of pitch and toss to the Lightning. So yeah, they haven’t been beaten in regulation since January 2nd. They just got done thwacking the Devils in New Jersey before the break when they barely cared. If you’re looking for a silver lining, and you’ll have to dig, these wins haven’t exactly come against world beaters. The Yotes twice, the Kings, the Oilers, and the Panthers are the trophies on the wall for the month of January. Fuck, even the Hawks beat the Oilers twice.

While the Preds only sit one point back of the Jets and have three games in hand on them and are thus poised to show them a clean pair of heels right quick, there are cracks in the foundation underneath this team. While usually a staple of Peter Laviolette team, this team metrically is not very impressive. They’re exactly a dead-even possession team at 50 CF%, and they actually give up way better chances than they create with a pretty paltry 47.7 xGF% as a team. If you go by scoring chance and high-danger scoring chance percentages, they’re in the bottom third of the league in those as well.

Some of this can be attributed to Ryan Ellis only having played the last couple weeks, but that can’t explain it all. As good as Ellis is in both ends of the ice, one player is not making this up or at fault. The Preds don’t create as many chances per game as you’d assume they do given their speed and depth. Pekka Rinne has had to pull their ass out of a sling pretty often, and when he hasn’t Juuse Saros mostly has. That’s who the Hawks will get tonight as Rinne is preserved for a couple more days after the break.

The Preds lack of punch could be a matter of just pacing until the spring. It could be that Ryan Johansen has looked like the over-fed pile of earlobes that he did at times in Ohio and not the dynamo who’d eat your heart last spring. Totally not a coincidence that he signed a new contract that pays him $8 mildo until the sun swallows us all this summer, then.

The Preds have been picked up by their depth though, with Fiala, Smith, and Jarnkrok all scoring more than 10 goals off the top line. And as they do, they pour goals and points in from the back end, with PK Subban leading them in scoring and Josi and Ekholm both having more than 20 points as well. The return of Ellis only exacerbates this, and though Josi and Ellis are playing together at the moment Lavvy always has the option of splitting them up and having scoring threats on all three pairings. They’re about the only team in the league that can threaten that.

For the Hawks, there don’t appear to be any changes from last Thursday’s demolition of the Red Wings, and nor should there be. We want to see Top Cat get more chances to play with actual talent, and if anyone is going to wake up Brandon Saad it’s Patrick Kane. The third line is still something of a jumble but the 4th line is definitely more interesting as a speedy Pollock painting than whatever it was Wingels and Bouma did (though Wingels is still ahead of Sharp on the third line, which is fine). Anton Forsberg gets the start after being solid enough against Detroit.

This month is filled with games against teams either right around the Hawks or ahead of them, aside from Vancouver on Thursday and they didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory last time they were there. They see the Flames twice, Ducks, Stars, Wild, Kings and Sharks. This ain’t do disco, this ain’t no time for foolin’ around.

Game #50 Preview

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Game #50 – Hawks vs. Predators Spotlight: If This Were Baseball, We’d Joke About PEDs

By Sam Fels January 30, 2018 2702 0

We got a lot of things wrong last spring. To be fair to us, which we ourselves never are, just about no one saw the Predators sweeping the Hawks, even if they thought they would be a real threat. And the biggest thing we didn’t see coming is Pekka Rinne throwing a .960 at the Hawks in four games.

He’s apparently still pissy about that.

Somehow, Rinne is playing the best hockey of his career at age 35. His .937 save-percentage at even strength is the highest of his career, and by four points over his 2011 and 2015 mark (at least that season he did lose control of his limbs against the Hawks in the playoffs. We had precedent, dammit!). His overall .927 mark would be the second highest of his career, only trailing the .930 of that same ’10-’11 season.

Look a little deeper, and Rinne’s numbers get even more impressive. The difference between his actual save-percentage at evens versus his expected save percentage, i.e. a rating of the chances he’s seeing, not just the amount, is far and away the best of his career. It’s 1.09 (.937 at evens vs a xSV% of .925). The next highest mark in that category in his career is .72, and that’s a massive difference.

You may want to suggest that he’s benefitting from the Preds superb blue line and the fact that the Preds have the puck all the time limiting the shots he sees. But A) this is actually the lowest expected save-percentage that Rinne has had since 2010, so the Preds’ firewagon style is exposing him more than he has been before. Second, the Preds are a middling possession team, the very definition of it at 50% in Corsi-percentage. They’re expected-goals percentage as a team is even worse at 47.7%. They give up a lot.

Which is why Rinne’s season is so impressive, though might be a little more perilous than Preds fans would like. His SV% on high-danger chances is .845, the highest of his career by 48 points. That could be a problem. It’s the third-highest mark in the league among starters, trailing Ben Bishop and Sergei Bobrovsky and just ahead of Lundqvist and Vasilevskiy. Maybe this isn’t a problem if you think Rinne is among that level of starters. He hasn’t been for years until this one, is he really rejoining that club at 35?

So what gives? JR Lind in our Q&A suggests it’s rest, and that could be part of it. Rinne is slated to only start about 60 games this year, the third-straight season he’ll be around that total. But he hasn’t missed any time due to injury, it’s just been a straight rotation as Juuse Saros has been able to shake off early-season blahs to be one of the league’s better backups. But can that explain it all?

There just isn’t much of a precedent for a goalie having a resurgence at 35. The first name you obviously think of is Tim Thomas, who won Vezinas at 34 and 36 along with a Conn Smythe at the latter. But Thomas wasn’t anywhere until his 30s. Rinne was a frontline starter in the league at 26. Lundqvist is having another excellent season at 35, but his form never really dropped. He’s just always been this. Like Rinne though, Lundqvist is having a miraculous season when it comes to high-danger chances, with a .844 SV% on them which betters anything he’s done in the past five years by a long way. Corey Crawford, though obviously a few years younger than both, was also having his best season on high-danger chances before he went to the land of wind and ghosts. Bobrovsky is putting up his second consecutive season of robbing people with the best chances.Ben Bishop is having his best season in that spot as well. What exactly is going on here?

Perhaps this is just a league-wide trend, as goalies get better and better. Perhaps due to expansion and flattening cap, teams just don’t have the amount of finishers that they once did to bury these chances, whereas teams can find one guy to stop them much more easily than five or six guys to score them. Whatever it is, Rinne is certainly riding the wave and the Preds hope it goes until June.

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Game #50 – Hawks vs. Predators Q&A: J.R. Lind, Post His Own Rumble Party

By Sam Fels January 30, 2018 1792 0

You’ll have to excuse JR a bit. Apparently down in Nash-Vegas, he hosts an enormous Royal Rumble party every year. When we sent this to him, he wasn’t sure who he was and definitely didn’t know how his arms worked. We thank him for playing hurt.

Even after the Turris trade, the Preds kind of loafed around a bit by their standards and expectations. But now they’ve won six of seven, are only a point behind the Jets with games in hand.Is this them finally clicking?

I think so. January was obviously an incredible month and most of that was without Forsberg and partially without Arvidsson and with Ellis getting his feet back under him. So they went on a tear while understaffed and now that they are healthy again? Watch out.

Both Johansen and Arvidsson are off last year’s scoring pace. Forsberg has missed some time which doesn’t help. Any real concern here?

I don’t think so. The Turris/Fiala/Smith line really kicked it in when they needed to and Subban and Ellis are pumping it in from the back end. Obviously come April (and beyond), they’ll need that line to get it together but that’s three guys I don’t worry much about.

Ryan Ellis is back now. How has he looked?

Better than ever? His first game was little (*scrunches up face and does that seesaw thing with his hand*) but since then, he’s been fantastic.

Pekka Rinne threw a .940 at the league in January. He’s playing perhaps the best hockey of his career. What’s been the change?

Rest, I think, and finally having an offense that he doesn’t have to go out and win 2-1 every night. After a shaky start, Juuse Saros has really been great- he had three shutouts in five games or something – which allows Laviolette some flexibility in giving Rinne time off and setting the goalies up for success.

Anything the Preds might do before the deadline or was Turris the move?

I think Poile might add a wing just to give Laviolette another option in the playoffs, but he got his guy with Turris. Of course, it’s David Poile so he probably has some one-for-one that’ll shock the world up his sleeve

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Game #50 – Hawks vs. Predators Douchebag Du Jour: He’s A Doughboy Again

By Sam Fels January 30, 2018 1770 0

It’s a relief to make fun of some other team’s gooey bag of nougat instead of our own, so we present Ryan Johansen.

Here’s something strange for you. All of Johansen’s stats are down from last year. He’s scoring less, he has less points per game, his relative Corsi is down, his defensive stats are worse, and he’s not getting nearly as many attempts as he did last year for himself. Now, you may be asking yourself, “What could have happened that caused this? It’s merely luck, right?”

Oh right, the Predators handed him a new contract worth north of $8 million a year for the next forever. Isn’t that curious.

Of course, Johansen has pulled this act before. The Jackets signed him out of his entry-level deal with a lot of rancor, and then he pissed John Tortorella off so much he got him launched out of town for Seth Jones. We all made fun of Torts then, and it’s hardly a challenge to get his anger up. And yet, here we are again. Most nights Johansen has looked like a bag of pancake batter than the ass-kicker he flashed last spring.

Sure, RyJo Sen might be waiting for the playoffs where he can pull his red-ass act off again as he did last year before he got hurt (and might have cost the Preds the Cup). Maybe he’s a little unlucky, as his shooting percentage has sank. And yet there’s enough stink around Johansen from Columbus that he’s going to have to prove it again in the spring. Then again, we’d love nothing more than for the Preds to have their own boat anchor of a contract to live with. It fun to make fun of others for a change.

Game #50 Preview

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Game #26 – Hawks vs. Stars: Spotlight – Russian Circle

By Sam Fels December 2, 2017 1984 0

We know that the coverage and view of Russian players in the NHL can get a tad skewed due to some very outdated and quite simply jingoistic feelings. Due to some bad actors, much more than should have have had to deal with suspicion and being labeled lazy, greedy, uncaring, and weak, or all of the above. And really, there are no more players from Russia who exhibit these characteristics than those who come from Canadian backwaters. But none of them are named “Gordie,” nor do they know what “Timbo’s” is, so they get treated differently

Alex Radulov has had a strange odyssey of a career, and he has been labeled with all of the above during it. Some of it may be warranted, maybe some of it not. Let’s go back through it.

You don’t remember, because it was so long ago and it took place before the Hawks got good which as we know was before hockey existed, but ten years ago Radulov put up 58 points at the age of 21 with the Predators. He was one of the most exciting prospects in the game. With Radulov, Suter, Weber, Rinne, Hamhuis, and Legwand it was thought that the Preds would be challenging for the Central for years to come.

It never worked out that way, partly because Radulov immediately fucked off back to Russia after that season. He still had one year on his entry-level deal, but clearly didn’t feel that as an RFA he was going to make what he could back in the KHL And that wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t stop the Preds and the NHL from putting up a fight to keep him here. It didn’t work, Radulov was suspended by Nashville and he spent the next four seasons in Russia.

Radulov didn’t help his cause much after that fourth seasons in Russia, when he came back to the help the Preds in the ’12 playoffs, but also didn’t make it much of a secret that he was just running out the last year of his entry-level deal. That was the spring he and a couple teammates were caught in a Glendale bar at 5am the night before Game 2 against the Coyotes, which didn’t make it seem like he was all that invested. Of course, the hockey media was all to ready to pounce on what appeared to be a carpetbagger, and one from the Motherland. Give them an inch…

Radulov again returned to Russia after that spring, as no one was terribly too interested in signing him after that whole ruckus. Radulov spent another four years with CSKA.

But after those four years Radulov could return to the NHL as a free agent, which again, didn’t look all that good. Still, no one in Montreal was complaining about his 54-point-season last year, nor are the Stars complaining about his point-per-game pace so far this one after he cashed in for a five-year deal at a cool $6 million per.

Certainly Habs fans didn’t think Radulov wasn’t committed, showing great passion on and off the ice. There were some who would claim it was all a show, and there was no way to know after what came before.

Perhaps the way young players are viewed is simply impossible for them, especially those from Europe. Every player is expected to have come over and dreamt of winning the Stanley Cup and put that over all, but is that realistic? Some do, some probably don’t. After all, to a lot of players the World Championships every year are a really big deal, and here they’re barely a ripple on the hockey calendar.

Secondly, even though it was negotiated and collectively bargained, young players are still put to the screws financially in the NHL. Only a select few make a ton of money after their entry-level deals, and thanks to what is in no way “collusion” we’re sure that prevents offer sheets, they have no leverage. Those that can at least threaten to take the serious money on offer across the pond have different leverage than others who don’t even think about it.

It a system that made sense, players would make what they’re worth basically as soon as possible. Given the money attached to the game, it isn’t a wonder or wrong that it becomes a major motivation for a player.

So is, or was, Radulov just a mercenary who took the highest paycheck he could find? Or did he just play the system that was on offer to him and do the best he could? We know what the view was from those who pen the articles. Given Radulov’s renaissance, that might not be the truth. Maybe it’s just a player who didn’t love the game here at a young age, went back to where he was comfortable and more rightly rewarded, and with age and maturity came back to accomplish more over here.

Or he just came back because it was time to make serious money here. We’ll never know.

Game #26 Preview

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Game #24 – Snakebitten – Hawks 2, Predators 3

By Adam Hess November 28, 2017 3315 0

Box Score

Hockey Stats

Natural Stat Trick

In general, I’m not a fan of back-to-backs that involve travel. I am especially not a fan of them when it involves having to go play the Predators, who are arguably the fastest team in the West. You’re gonna see a naturally slower Blackhawks team going up against a pack of shitheads and fuckwads that are pretty much going to skate circles around them, and that’s pretty much what happened tonight as Nashville swarmed the Hawks to the tune of a 3-2 win. Let’s get to it:

The thing is, though, I am not that frustrated or disheartened by this loss. Again, the Hawks are on the second night of a back-to-back, and had to travel in the middle of the night. Nashville had the day off yesterday, so they were clearly more fresh, and since you’d already give them the legs advantage in this matchup, I’d say all the Preds did was hold serve. The Hawks looked fine and created some chances that they unfortunately couldn’t capitalize on. Move on.
I am slightly confused, though, by the decision to start Crawford at home against Anaheim and Forsberg on the road against Nashville. Not that Forsberg played poorly tonight, because he was actually solid, but the decision was just puzzling. I guess it makes a bit more sense to give your starter the extra night off on the back end of it, and the more welcoming environment of home (the Nashville crowd is insufferable anyhow), but I would’ve been inclined to save Crow for the better, divisional opponent.
But Forsberg ended up playing very well in the spot. He made a lot of key saves, looked confident, and was pretty much in the right spot for just about every shot Nashville took. I can’t pin any of the Preds goals on him. I’ll take more of this from him.
Patrick Kane was snakebitten tonight, and it became pretty clear that it got to him. NBC did a lot of focusing on him because of his missed chances in the first, and he just looked frustrated. Then he took a silly penalty in the third that led to the third Nashville goal, sealing the deal.
Garbage Dick wasn’t the only one that couldn’t catch a break, though. Just about the whole top nine was unable to convert on some good chances. Tommy Wingels and Lance Bouma had the Hawks’ only goals. So.
Top Cat did another Top Cat thing tonight, winning a puck battle in behind the Nashville goal (turns out being big isn’t necessary for those, who knew) and then sending a fucking dime of a pass through all five Predators that was so perfectly placed that even Tommy Wingels couldn’t fuck it up. Seriously, go watch the play. My pants got a bit tighter.
Speaking of, Wingels was a consistent scoring threat tonight. Yes you read that right. No, I don’t want to type it ever again. But here’s how surreal it was: Q put him out with the net empty and 52 seconds left after a Nashville icing, and I did not scream at my television. Life is weird.
Guess which defenseman got spun around and caught out of position on Nashville’s first goal. You only get one, but that’s all you need.
All three games between these teams have been one goal games this year. These teams are closer than most would like to give the Hawks credit for.

Next is Dallas on Thursday night. Onward.

Beer du jour: Dos Perros by Yazoo Brewing. I thought a Nashville beer might bring some luck in that city. I am truly sorry.

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Game #24 – Hawks vs. Predators: Q&A With Hayley Alexandra

By Sam Fels November 28, 2017 1853 0

Hayley is a contributor to OnTheForecheck.com. You can follow her on Twitter @ItsHalesYeah.

6-1 since the Kyle Turris acquisition. Clearly it’s all systems go for the Predators. What’s been the biggest difference he has provided?

The Preds offense has lacked center depth for so long, finally acquiring a 2C out of a guy Ottawa was running as a 1C is huge for this team. He was a renewed confidence boost they needed badly before the trade. Any time a new guy comes in and shakes things up I think it helps the guys who have struggled, work out whatever issues they’ve been having, and get back to playing their game. Turris has definitely taken some pressure off of Ryan Johansen, who was slow to start this year. Knowing that he has some depth behind him now should keep this team rolling deep into the post season again.

If there’s any concern, Juuse Saros has struggled in limited appearances. Is there a fear that Pekka Rinne might have to play too many games if Saros can’t turn it around?

Saros is young and talented, but spending too much time on the bench isn’t good for anyone. He could benefit from spending a few short trips to the AHL to get some playing time in. As for Rinne, he’s been a workhorse for this team for the past few seasons. It’s a role he’s comfortable with and thrives on. My faith in Rinne has not faltered, despite all the backlash he’s gotten the past few seasons. His play during last year’s playoff run and this season has shown he has one goal and that’s to win the cup before he retires. For the first time in a few seasons, Rinne is the least of Nashville’s concerns.

Truly scary that Ryan Ellis has yet to suit up this season. When he returns do you see Peter Laviolette keeping the top two pairs as is and having Ellis on the third?

Being without Ellis has hindered the defense significantly this season. While Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, and Mattias Ekholm can hold their own, it’s left an odd rotation to the top pairs. Matt Irwin is a solid anchor for the third line but isn’t really a top pairing kind of defensemen. Guys like Yannick Weber and Alexei Emelin have not been great this season either, keeping either one of them on the top lines probably wouldn’t work out for long. As long as Ellis is healthy he easily slides back into the top two pairings as he should. I can’t see any reason why Laviolette would do anything differently.

A strange aspect to the Preds so far is that while they’ve been consistently one of the better analytic/sabermetric teams over the years, this year they’re not creating as many “good” chances as years past. Obviously this hasn’t been a problem in actually scoring goals, especially of late, but is this something you see?

The start of this season was not the best showing for the Preds. While they’re not creating as many good chances, they’ve also missed a lot of chances as well. I think the addition of Turris and guys like Scott Hartnell and Ryan Ellis getting healthy will help the Preds create better chances and finish them.

Now that we’re more than a quarter into this season, does it feel even more like Cup Or Bust for the Predators than it did before the season?

This is such a young team, I think they’ll be Cup contenders for a while. That being said the city of Nashville is ready for a Stanley Cup winning team, and if any Preds team can get it done, it’s this one.

Game #24 Preview

Lineups And How Teams Were Built

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Game #24 – Hawks vs. Predators: Douchebag Du Jour: Yes, We Know, We Suck

By Sam Fels November 28, 2017 2590 0

With the Hawks’ first trip into Music City tonight, and the fact that it’s a nationally televised game on NBCSN, you can be sure it won’t take more than three or four minutes before you hear A. just how loud the building is for a regular season game, B. how loud it was during the playoffs last year when the Hawks got swept. Gee, doesn’t it seem like every year the broadcasters are telling us this is the loudest building they can remember in all their years? We wouldn’t put it past hockey media to have lost their memories through various braincell-damaging activities, but it does seem a coincidence.

And you will hear the noise through your screen. You can’t escape it. And by the second intermission, you might start feeling bad about yourself, whatever the score. And you won’t know why. You’ll ponder, because maybe you had a good day today and were feeling particularly good when you got home from work. You thought you looked particularly good today. Maybe you finished some project that had been taking forever, or your least favorite coworker got fired or you confirmed a pretty hot date for later in the week. So why all of the sudden are you feeling so unsure of yourself?

And then you’ll realize it’s because you’ve spent the previous hour, hour and a half listening to 18,000 people repeatedly and constantly telling you that you suck. And maybe they weren’t directly talking to you, but hearing it over and over again and you can’t help but take it on yourself. After a while the question will be unavoidable: “Do I, in fact, suck?”

That’s what happens when watching games at Bridgestone Arena. A constant hum telling you that you suck. No matter the score, no matter the chant, no matter the time. YOU SUCK. It never stops. So much suckage. You thought you had it figured out, but no. The yellow-clad throng has convinced you that yes, Virginia, you suck.

And what’s more exasperating is that the only time the Predators fans don’t yell, “You suck!” is when the organist is playing WWE’s Kurt Angle’s theme. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHEN YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!

While we love the unique and boisterous atmosphere at Predators’ games, perhaps we can expand our taunts to something more than two words, one involving “suck?” Are we asking too much? Yes, we know this is the limitation of North American fan culture. And hockey media is blown away by anything other than “Go Leafs Go!” We get it.

You have the power, Cellblock 303. You’re Music City for fuck’s sake. Can’t you introduce a song or two to your crowd? We just can’t suck anymore.

Game #24 Preview