Since my friend Jeffery Simmons started the shameless campaigning for the category of Best of the Best local columnist in his Sunday column, I'll just point out he begrudgingly writes one column per month for the Opinions page and periodically does one in Sports when he feels like it. Meanwhile, I write two columns per week, if you count Business Pulse as an informative column, and I do. Now that my bit of crass self-promotion is over, I'll get into this week's column.
Coming up with a new topic for a column every week can be taxing, and you'll notice many columnists sometimes fall back on a comfortable subject from time to time. For my esteemed colleague and reigning Best of the Best local columnist Bethany Porter, that means listing her grievances with rude customers at the movie theater. For me, it is talking about the Nashville Predators.
I try to limit my columns about the Predators, because I am well aware the majority of our readers do not share my passion for ice hockey. But the Predators are a topic I could comfortably write about every week without stressing over what I can come up with every Friday. So, as the Predators have just wrapped up an unexpectedly successful season, please indulge me in using this column space to reflect on just how far they have come.
The Predators entered this season on the heels of a year which saw them miss the NHL playoffs for the first time since 2014. That's a remarkable run of success for a professional hockey team, one which defies the typical ebbs and flows of success in the league. The missed playoffs hastened the arrival of a new general manager and a new head coach this season. Along with those changes at the top, many of the Predators' top stars were moved out to make room for young, unproven players.
All of these moves led most everybody with a modicum of hockey knowledge to expect a rebuild in Nashville, one which would mean a playoff drought, probably for several years, as the team reloaded. The team, however, had different ideas, compiling a head-turning record of 47 wins, 30 losses and five overtime losses, good for 99 standings points and earning the first wild card spot in the Western Conference playoffs. Along the way to posting that impressive record, the Predators strung together an 18-game unbeaten-in-regulation streak, the longest such streak in the NHL this year.
Loyal readers with excellent memories may remember me, about this time last year, writing about my improbable record when attending games with my friend and season ticket partner Cody Campbell last season. We went an incredible 0-11. That's right; we didn't see a single Predators win in person together. I'm happy to report we finished this season 12-1-2 when attending together.
With the NHL playoffs set to start this weekend and the Predators facing the Vancouver Canucks, Cody and I are excited about the extra games we have waiting in front of us which we had no expectation of at the beginning of this year. If our success holds up as the playoffs begin, I can't promise this will be my last Predators column of the season. Throw the catfish! Let's go Predators!
Standard Managing Editor Seth Wright can be reached at editor@southernstandard.com
