When the Nashville Predators were established nearly two decades ago who would have thought they would have gone to the Stanley cup and been one of the greatest Cinderella’s in NHL history. Not to mention a die hard hockey town. Somehow though were here and its on the back of a goalie who was considered middle of the pack for so long and a defense that lost the star studded Weber and traded out for a wild card in PK Subban. It worked out though after all Smashville is the biggest wild card in these playoffs.
It really became a reality for this team in game five of the western conference finals. The rest of this playoff run has been a day dream for Nashville and their fans. The lowest seed in the playoffs was going up against the second best team in the league in the Black Hawks. No one gave these guys a chance against Patrick Kane Johnathan Toews and a team stacked with playoff talent whose middle name is practically conference finals. So when the Preds beat the Blackhawks in Chicago to take a 3-0 lead people took notice. Then the sweep was complete and people started squinting really hard at this roster and were like “how the heck is this team a wild card?”
The answer to that is the fact they play in the most competitive division in the NHL. With teams like Minnesota, Chicago, Saint Louis, Dallas, and Winnipeg. This team was in a two seed with 20 games to go and struggled down the stretch. This team was good and had an unfortunate rough stretch and regained mid-season form in the playoffs. They were carried by the best defensive core in the NHL in PK Subban and Joe Ellis. Then it was Roman Josi, Phillip Foresberg, and Victor Ardviksen scoring the goals. There is one man that this team cannot survive without and he was widely discarded a few years ago.
Pekka Rinne is a superhero. He has come to the city of Nashville and brought the team to the promise land. He has carried this team through the playoffs and to think that several years ago this team was looking for a new man in the back. So what comes next? The Preds don’t know right now it’s still just a day dream that will kick off in Pittsburgh or Ottowa.