2011 was a year of firsts for the Nashville Predators.  Blake Geoffrion became the first player raised in Nashville to play for an NHL team.  After being called up from the minors late in the season, he quickly scored his first goal and his first hat trick. (That’s three goals in one game).  The Preds won game 5 of their first round playoff series, on the road, in overtime marking the first time they had accomplished such a feat.  Then on Easter Sunday, they won a playoff series, advancing to round two for the first time in their franchise’s history.
Just a few weeks ago, Nashville’s TV stations didn’t even bother to send a reporter to most games.  When the Predators played the home opener of their first round playoff series, the release of next year’s NFL schedule was the number one local sports story of the day.
A few days ago, googling Jordin Tootoo got you articles on his breakup with country singer Kellie Pickler nearly five years ago, a few mentions of his stint in rehab, and plenty of videos of hockey fights.  If anybody talked about Mike Fisher, he was “that hockey player” Carrie Underwood married. 
Despite having two of the NHL’s top defense men in NHL and Olympic All Star Shea Weber and Olympic Silver medalist Ryan Suter and having Pekka Rinne, a goalie who seems capable of stopping everything in his path, the conventional wisdom was that The Predators defense just wasn’t good enough to stop Corey Perry and the Anaheim Ducks’ offensive juggernaut, and the Predators’ offense was described as virtually non-existent.  The Predators couldn’t win.  They didn’t have a hero, a modern day Wayne Gretzky, a star like Washington’s Alex Ovechkin or Vancouver’s Sedin Brothers.  They had made the playoffs and choked too many times before.
But for three nights in April, 17,113 fans rocked a sold out Bridgestone Arena and believed that their Nashville Predators could and would break through.  They kept believing even after a heartbreaking 6-3 rout in game four.  Were all of them season ticket holders—fans since the team’s inception in 1998 who have suffered through years of struggling to make the playoffs only to go home early?  Of course not.  A lot of them are like me; we discovered hockey a little later. We’ve had to overcome the stereotypical image of the violent, toothless goon to fall in love with hockey’s beauty and complexity.  We’ve learned the meaning of terms like icing and boarding.  And our children may have learned a few words we would have preferred they didn’t.  But who can resist joining 17,000 people in shouting “You suck!” at the opposing team? 
We’ve marveled at the athleticism, skill and determination of the players.  You try ice skating backwards while a guy with a large stick shoots a small, hard, rubber object at your head at 100 mph. Then fight the urge to slam him into the nearest wall. And we know that Martin Erat had all his teeth until his recent unfortunate encounter with the wrong end of Sheldon Brookbank’s stick.
We have been exposed to the softer side of hockey as well, where players purchase suites so sick kids can attend games, where a playoff beard is grown to raise money to fight pediatric cancer, where you stop your celebration to line up on the ice and shake hands with the team you just defeated.
 Now television trucks camp outside the arena.  The game 6 win was the lead story on every local newscast.  Tootoo’s web presence centers on how he’s stepped up, calmed down and been instrumental in game -deciding goals.  Around Nashville, Carrie Underwood is being called Mrs. Mike Fisher. 
Pekka Rinne is now a nominee for the Vezina Award as the NHL’s top goalie, and Weber has been nominated for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman.  Heroes were found in unlikely third liners Jerred Smithson and Nick Spaling.  Mike Fisher scored as many points as Ovechkin in their teams’ playoff victories, and the Sedins and their top-seeded Canucks struggled against the 8 seed Chicago Blackhawks.
Today the Preds are huge news.  Most people would call that jumping on the bandwagon, and they wouldn’t like it.  What about those fans who suffered through ownership changes and prayed the team wouldn’t be moved to Ontario? Don’t we deserve this without a bunch of hangers on?   After all, it’s easy to love the team that’s on top.  I disagree.  The Nashville Predators offer a great show, and they deserve to be recognized for it.
The national media still dismisses them. Conventional wisdom still picks the Canucks, but the Predators are anything but conventional.
So go ahead.  Jump on the bandwagon.  Welcome to Smashville. If you need me, I’ll be watching the game.