The Nashville Predators Are Everything Good About the NHL Playoffs
After a historic upset, the Preds are showing what sets the NHL apart
How’s your Western Conference bracket looking?
After a wild first round, two favorites from the West have already been ousted. The top two teams in regular season points in the West, both the Chicago Blackhawks and the Minnesota Wild were unable to make it past the first round. Many assumed it would one of these two teams representing the West in the Stanley Cup Finals. Not the case.
At the center of the wild first round was the unexpected upset of the Western Conference leader and the unlikely way in which they exited the playoffs. The Nashville Predators, the West’s second Wild Card team, didn’t just beat Chicago. They swept them right out of the playoffs.
Upsets Are Routine
The Preds never seemed fazed at all by their first round matchup. They had dominant play from their first line of Viktor Arvidsson, Ryan Johansen, and Filip Forsberg. Chicago’s offense completely dried up and Pekka Rinne completed the series with a .976 save percentage in the first round. He allowed only three goals in the four games played.
Of course, there’s some history attached to this series. It is the first time that an 8 seed ever swept a 1 seed in NHL history, and is the tenth time an 8 seed upset a 1 seed since the 1994 two conference era began. It marks the first time since the current playoff system has been in place after the 2013 realignment, and the first time since 2012 that an 8 seed has moved on. Eight seeds aren’t supposed to move on, but they seem to find a way in the NHL.
Let’s compare that to the NBA. Since 1994, an 8 seed has advanced to the second round only 5 times to date. Just comparing the 8 vs. 1 matchups we see a much higher frequency of upsets in the NHL, making for an incredibly more entertaining — and less predictable — playoff result. While NBA fans await the inevitable Cleveland vs. Golden State rematch, NHL fans still have no idea who will square off for the Stanley Cup. Nashville is hoping to become the second 8 seed in history to capture the prize.
Every sport has its upsets and its big surprises. But no sport sees it as often as in the NHL. Since 1994, 7 seeded teams have won exactly half of their opening round matchups (23–23). Major League Baseball has had one 3–0 game deficit erased in playoff history, and that feat has never been accomplished in NBA history. The NHL has seen such a comeback 4 times. Twenty eight times an NHL team came back from a 3–1 game deficit, more than in the MLB and NBA combined. If excitement is what you’re after, then the NHL playoffs give you more than you could ask for.
Every Year, a New City
While the Nashville Predators are the poster child for NHL style upsets that seem to take place every single year, they also show another encouraging side of the hockey world that often goes unnoticed. With the unpredictable nature of the league’s results year after year comes an opportunity for a number of cities and teams to have a chance at their first championship. Four of the remaining eight playoff teams are vying for their first Stanley Cup, including Nashville. Two of the four teams that have won — Anaheim and Pittsburgh — have won a cup since the turn of the century. Of the teams that qualified for the playoffs this year, only half made the playoffs last season.
Nashville represents a part of the NHL that is encouraging, as the league continues to add new teams in new areas as well. Tennessee is not typically seen as a “hockey area,” but now hosts a team with a distinctive piece of NHL playoff history. “Smashville” is tapping into the same sort of excitement that made hockey so popular in California with the successful runs of the LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks. If a team in the South — keeping in mind the previous success of the Tampa Bay Lightning — can jump on the same train, it would establish multiple strong US-based markets where hockey isn’t typically the number one sport.
The Road Ahead
The Predators have another difficult task ahead in playing the St. Louis Blues, who are certainly playing with house money after eliminating Minnesota in round one. The winner of this series will head to the Western Conference Finals with a chance to win their first ever Stanley Cup (neither team has won one yet).
Wednesday night’s Game 1 set the tone for an exciting series. While the Blues scored themselves as many goals in one night as Chicago did in all of round one, the Preds tapped into their depth and tenacity to break through and grab the first game of the series. Depth truly showed itself as a strength when Vern Fiddler turned back the clock for his first playoff goal in Nashville in 10 years. Yeah. That Vern Fiddler.
With the first game already in the books — and for as great as this series will shape up to be — what the Nashville Predators symbolize for the excitement and unpredictability of the NHL Playoffs is truly something to be celebrated.
