Monday night was quite literally a dream come true. Both for myself and an increasingly large fan base, the Nashville Predators' Western Conference championship represented the culmination of a wish that seemed nearly impossible for so many years. Even as we were watching the events unfolding inside the arena and the championship was becoming more and more of a reality, longtime fans were looking at each other to say "we're actually going to the Stanley Cup Final," as if saying it out loud would make it seem like less of a dream.As a day-one fan, I've watched the Nashville Predators grow from a fledgling expansion team in a city that barely knew what hockey was into a team four wins away from hockey's ultimate prize in a city that is now the talk of the hockey world.