The Nashville hockey experience
It’s weird, extremely loud and just about perfect
NASHVILLE, TENN. — It’s tough to say, really, which element of Saturday’s Bridgestone Arena Experience was the strangest.
Maybe it was after the first period, when it dawned on me that I was running through the concourse, trying to intercept Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw as he left the stage built in to the lower bowl. He’d just played a few intermission songs with the house band. Yes, “Renegade” was one of them. No, I did not catch him.
Maybe it was during the second period, when Gnash, the Predators’ mascot, climbed an extremely tall, deeply unsafe-looking ladder set up in one of the aisles. I was distracted enough to miss a solid 30 seconds of Nashville’s 5-1 Game 3 win. Be safe out there, Gnash. OSHA rules apply to mascots.
Maybe it was whatever was happening in the Keith Urban/ Nicole Kidman suite. Just two normal, average, totally-not-android hockey fans enjoying themselves.
Could’ve been the catfish. Could’ve been the beer. It could’ve been a lot of things. For the Penguins and their fans, it was a bad night. For everyone else among the uninitiated, it was weird in the most positive way. It was great-weird for us, and wholly positive for the rest of the league.
The National Hockey League needs a Nashville or two — and not a replica, either. What makes all this great is that hockey fans here don’t feel the need to copy fans in Pittsburgh, just like fans in Pittsburgh shouldn’t feel the need to copy fans in Canada. The hockey fandom tent can always get larger, and Saturday was a circus.
It’s rare that nights like that live up to the hype. We’ve heard all week how crazy the scene on Broadway would be, how drastically the process would deviate from your typical NHL playoff game. It was easy to tune it out. It was easy to scoff.
If you’ve visited Nashville in the summer, the logic went, how much crazier could it really get? And if you’ve been to a Predators game over the last few years, how much louder could the building get? Much. The answer is much crazier, and much louder.
Start outside; Broadway had been shut down since Friday in preparation for a pregame Alan Jackson concert that attracted 50,000 people outside the building. Like Sam Werner said earlier in the day, “I never thought ‘I think the Alan Jackson concert has already started’ was something I’d say during a playoff hockey game.” In Nashville, it was.
The Predators have had to answer an ever-increasing stream of questions about their relationship with their fans and their city as the playoffs progressed. A new round meant extra attention and a different group of media completely taken aback by what, exactly, is going on here.
The city, as a hockey market, is already a success. It didn’t need this run to prove that, or pats on the head from a bunch of Pittsburgh randoms; they’re working on a pretty serious sellout streak. Their marketing/arena experience is pitch-perfect and the onice product has been competitive for a long time. The last few weeks, though, have felt a little different. Validation and recognition count for something, and Nashville (the hockey town) has gotten a whole bunch of it.
This is mainly because the team advanced farther than ever; it’s easier to get excited about a Cup final game against the Penguins than a second-round game against the Wild. Success breeds excitement, and a huge, loud experience has gotten huger and louder.
An Uber driver said on Sunday that he’d seen more Predators gear on Broadway in the last week than all the preceding weeks combined. He’s been driving for years. Call it bandwagon-jumping if you want, but can you blame anyone for wanting to get in on this?
It’s a relief to know that the players agree. Predators defenceman P.K. Subban, asked if things were dialed up a notch for Game 3, didn’t hesitate. “Yep. Best atmosphere I’ve ever played in,” Subban said. “It’s pretty spectacular, so anybody that paid the price of admission today, I’m sure it was money well spent for them.”
Here’s a good rule of thumb: If the closest thing to criticism of a game experience you can muster is “there was too much stuff happening,” you probably had a pretty good time. “The fans were too loud” and “they cheered too much” do not count.
They’ll cheer whenever, by the way. For players, it seemed like the extended pregame ovation was the most unexpected part of the night.
“The big wake-up for us was the 15,000 people in warm-ups cheering and going crazy. You don’t see that anywhere, probably in any sport,” said defenceman Ryan Ellis. “This is a special place to play.”
That’s probably where we differ; the Predators make the Predators a dangerous bunch. They’re not winning games because of their crowd — if the Penguins’ power play could’ve managed to bumble its way to a goal during the first period, all these stories have a decidedly different tone.
But, really, who cares? Nashville is on to something here, like they have been for a while. If you connect with the community, win some games and drop your arena in the middle of one of Earth’s great bar districts, it could work for your NHL franchise, too.
“At the end of the day, they don’t get enough credit for knowing the game and knowing hockey. They do know the game, and they understand the importance of these games,” Subban said. “They’ve been great all playoffs and all year …”