Nashville No Longer Needs to Defend Itself as a Hockey Town

The Nashville Predators have seemingly always had an “us-against-the-world” mentality since their debut season in 1998.

And on the surface, it’s easy to understand why. Hockey isn’t supposed to work in the South. The sport isn’t meant to thrive in a nontraditional market. An organization like that of the Predators — which has lacked a traditional superstar face-of-the-franchise type player such as Alex Ovechkin or Connor McDavid — is not supposed compete for Stanley Cups.

An announced crowd of 68,619 packed Nissan Stadium on Saturday to watch the Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2022 Stadium Series. And the turnout showed us that Nashville no longer needs to keep defending itself as a hockey town — regardless of a 3-2 loss.

“[The Stadium Series] says how much [the game has] grown when you look at the passion of the fan base,” says Predators coach John Hynes. “Hockey is such a big part of the culture ... of Nashville [and] Tennessee. The organization has done a great job of building strong, competitive teams, and the players have done a great job of ... community service and the relationships that they have with the fanbase, [which] is special. 

“When you look at this type of event, the buzz around the city and the things that were put on by the city and by the organization, it was fantastic. And when you look at the turnout, it's really special."

Saturday’s game was the third-largest crowd ever for an NHL Stadium Series game and the seventh-largest crowd for an NHL outdoor game. The Predators have now played in the second- and seventh-highest attended games in league history.

The record turnout is the latest metaphorical trophy on the city’s mantle, right next to the 100,000-plus fans who packed Broadway during the team’s Stanley Cup Final in 2017, the franchise’s pre-COVID sellout streak of 192 consecutive games, the 17,869 fans who set a Bridgestone Arena attendance record on Thursday for Pekka Rinne’s jersey retirement, and of course, the league-wide rave reviews from the 2016 NHL All-Star Game.

“It was pretty unbelievable,” says Predators captain Roman Josi. “It was surreal coming out of the locker room, seeing a full stadium and our fans. I mean it’s unbelievable every time there’s something going on here. They show up, and the support is unbelievable. We wanted to win this game so bad for the fans, so that stings obviously that we couldn’t get a win for them. But we’re just very grateful for our fans.”

If the Predators were going to pick a game to lose, Saturday was a good one.

Yes, the loss surely stings, and missing out two points that would have pushed them into third place in the Central Division likely hurts as well. But even in defeat, seemingly everyone left Saturday applauding the Predators and the city.

Nashville may be 0-2 in outdoor games, but the city itself is undefeated when it comes to hosting a party.

“There was a lot of anticipation going into this game, everyone was really excited," Preds forward Tanner Jeannot says. “To [score] that first goal … and for the crowd to erupt, it was amazing. I’m going to remember it for the rest of my life, for sure. It was a great experience.”

Adds Hynes: “The organization did a great job with the event and it was fantastic for Nashville, for Nashville Predators fans to again celebrate hockey in the state. Our guys should be proud of the way they played.”

This article originally appeared at our sister publication, the Nashville Post.