Terry Frei Defends Nashville

You know what I like about Terry Frei? Nothing.

In this, his most recent article, he whines about how Nashville is such a great hockey market but they're in danger of losing their franchise. The Predators are a team that I love to hate, and last night made it even easier for me.

NASHVILLE -- The advertising signs are painted onto the sidewalks on Nashville's Broadway, including in the block as you're approaching Jack's Bar-B-Que, several honky-tonks, and the statue of the crooning Elvis outside of the famous Legends Gift Shop.

See? Terry Frei doesn't just stay in Denver. If he hadn't been to Nashville, he wouldn't have known about all of these things.

Nashville defensemen Shea Weber, Dan Hamhuis, and Ryan Suter are pictured, arms crossed and looking appropriately solemn.

And you are told of Predators hockey:

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(4) Because The Titans Game is Sold Out!

"It Stays With You."

What? It Stays With You? Like bad Chinese food and genital herpes? Or painful losses?

The same sign, in the form of a huge banner, is on the side of the nearby Sommet Center.

The issue, of course, is: "OK … but for how long?"

Right, the hockey team. Here's where we hear the soft SportsCenter piano playing over black and white photos of the players slowly being panned by a camera and spot light. Lay on the guilt trip of this horrible team.

The Predators, now in their 10th NHL season, have been an amazingly resilient operation, playing on -- and remaining surprisingly competitive -- through so much drama, a gifted and hockey-minded songwriter could come up with a CD full of songs about it all.

Nashville has singers! Gaw-haw! It's Music City! Stompin' Tom Connors is the only hockey-minded songwriter that should release a CD.

After managing to make the playoffs last season, despite what essentially was a clearance sale in the 2007 offseason, the Predators are off to a decent start again under coach Barry Trotz, and their 3-2 victory over Colorado on Thursday night got them to 13-10-2.

It's funny how every article Terry writes for ESPN relates to the Avalanche. Not that a lot of mine don't relate to my favorite hockey team, but I'm not paid to be unbiased. This article very easily could have been written without reference to the Avalanche.

Yet, after an official crowd of 12,717 against Colorado, the Predators are averaging 13,716 for their 10 home games, and that's 29th in the 30-team league -- ahead of only the New York Islanders.

Ah, but without the Avalanche, how are we supposed to gauge how poor the attendance figures are? If Nashville can't draw with a team like Colorado in town, how do they draw with somebody like the Red Wings or Sharks in town?

Said Suter, the 23-year-old Madison, Wis., native who is the son of 1980 U.S. Olympian Bob Suter: "Our fans are good fans. They're coming the best they can to support us. It's tough down there because the football team [Tennessee Titans] is doing so good. We're competing with them. We always have our base crowd. Some nights are more than others, but they're loud."

It's always fun to go see the bad team when the good team is very successful. All the really good seats are empty because the rich people that own them are watching the successful team play and win. The stands are filled with people wearing the successful team's jersey and listening to them on the radio or watching them play on the concourse. Cheers erupt at inappropriate times because of the successful team scoring.

I've always been scornful of the hockey media's tendency to make value judgments about consumers' prioritizing, and having double standards -- including the tendency to come up with excuses for falloffs at the box office in traditional markets, yet consider the same fluctuations in the "new" markets to be prima facie cases that they didn't deserve teams in the first place.

I've always been scornful of Terry Frei making no fucking sense. Fans have to prioritize because they can't be in two places at once. I can't think of reading an article where fans are ridiculed for choosing to attend one sporting event over another, regardless of which market they're in. This sounds like Terry wrote about it a few years ago, but recently went to Nashville and fell in love with it, so now he's calling for the heads of those that hate Nashville.

And what often is overlooked is how deflating it can be for ownership to have short pockets and inadvertently lean into the punch that the survival of the team is in question, which creates self-fulfilling prophecies. Why invest emotions and money in an enterprise that has one eye on the door?

How about why invest money in the first place when you're going to lose money? Life must suck so much for these MILLIONAIRES to be asked about their hockey team moving. Nashville's investors knew the situation was dire going in. I'm sure they had a team of advisers telling them not to do it. The question should have been "Why invest money in a failing investment?" I find it very hard to feel bad for any of these people.

But the facts can't be ignored: This is the franchise's 10th season. Hockey 101 should have been off the curriculum long ago, and the fact that many move into Nashville from other "traditional" hockey areas also added to the potential fan base, anyway.

Oh really, Terry? Transplant fans? Don't you hate transplant fans, you fucking hypocrite?

In this economy and these times, it's not shocking that other franchises -- including Colorado, where the 487-game sellout streak is in the nostalgia-drenched past -- are having problems at the gate, too.

There are other teams in the league than Colorado, I assure you. Yuppies would rather spend money on season lift tickets than watch a team not win their division. I wouldn't be surprised if that dog wearing a cape left for a better gig with the Rockies chasing Dinger around on the field.

So, no, the Predators are far from alone, but in so many ways, the savvy management of the franchise has been amazing. General manager David Poile and Trotz have been like golfers trying to putt with the gallery screaming, given all the potential distractions and disadvantages. But instead of throwing a golfer's fit, they just putt out and plow on.

Nashville has an attendance problem. So does Colorado. So Nashville, your team isn't moving anywhere, because with a sample size of two, all teams are having problems. Terry could have pointed to the Red Wings cutting ticket prices as a sign of bad things around the league. Canadian teams are halving ticket prices. Terry would rather stick to Colorado, because that's enough for his argument.

At some point, it's not a matter of a value judgment or placing blame, but an issue of wondering about whether it's going to work. No finger-pointing. No name-calling. No distasteful portraying of NHL patronage, or any sports patronage, as some sort of litmus test for the moral fiber of a market.

It either works or it doesn't.

The local ownership, albeit with Del Biaggio's 27 percent as an asterisk, has given the Predators a chance to prove their viability in Nashville. Or, more accurately, Nashville to prove its viability as a hockey market.

Terry already pointed out that Nashville has had 10 years. It should already have been proven if Nashville can prove they are a hockey market. What he hasn't done is shown us how to keep them in Nashville. That would be a very hard undertaking and would take millions of man hours and - - what's that? It's already been done on Puck Daddy? And every point has evidence? Well son of bitch, then how does Terry Frei still have a job?

Al Strachan Presents: Why Choose a Side?

The tease for this little article is "With the playoffs about to begin, Al Strachan makes a case for each and every team to win in the first round — even the Bruins." Why show that you know enough about the NHL by making picks when you can just make up some terrible ways for bad teams to win. I'll be perfectly honest - I've only read his Red Wings/Predators paragraph, and then I booted up the Blogger. Let's go through this together.

This is not the old National Hockey League.

In the old days, most of the playoff spots would be decided by Christmas. Then, on the eve of the playoffs, it was clear that some teams would be pulling out the golf clubs within a week.

It took the playoffs for Al here to figure out that the NHL has changed? Somebody might want to tell him that they allow the Russians and minorities play now, too.

Also of note - the trading deadline tells you who is in and out of the playoffs. Odds are if a team trades to get players, they are in the race. If they trade for draft picks (or an enforcer when your team already has one), they are looking at the forecast for this week.

But today, there are no certainties. Every team can win. Every team can lose. Here's how.

Detroit-Nashville: With 115 points, the Wings had the best team in hockey. They've got a balanced attack and Nick Lidstrom is the best defenseman in the world. Without any of those long flights out to the West Coast, the Wings, some of whom are getting on in years, will be well rested. BUT the Wings had a tough time with the Predators this season. In regulation time, the teams split six games. Nashville lost one in overtime and another one in a shootout. There's also some concern about the Detroit goaltending. Dominik Hasek has not looked particularly good lately and Chris Osgood also has had some shaky moments.

If you're looking for how the Red Wings will lose, go with how they've shit the bed in the recent years or how old they all are. Don't do it by picking on a goalie proven time and time again in the playoffs. How do the Predators beat the Red Wings? Arm all the fans on the mezzanine level. At least arm them more than they already are. I mean, it's Nashville after all, so it's amazing the whole building doesn't have a Wrangler brand denim out or something.

San Jose-Calgary: In the late stages of the season, the Sharks were the dominant team in the league, going 20 games in a row without a regulation-time loss. They also had the best goaltender in the West — perhaps in the league — and the most productive trade-deadline acquisition in Brian Campbell. BUT after Joe Thornton, there is a huge drop to the second-leading scorer on the team. And it is in fact Campbell, who's a defenseman. If Thornton can be shut down — and this has been known to happen in the playoffs — it's hard to imagine the San Jose offense conjuring up enough goals to win a series.

Calgary - when not going up against the "best goalie in the league" averages 2.76 goals/game. San Jose scores 2.63 goals/game The shutdown of Joe Thornton should really focus on keeping him from his league leading assists.

Minnesota-Colorado: The Wild may be the best team in the West. They're fast and they're defensively committed. They've got strong goaltending and in Marion Gaborik, they've got one of the best pure scorers in the game. And with Jacques Lemaire behind the bench, you have to know that the Wild will never be outsmarted tactically. They've also beefed up so that they won't get pushed around. BUT it's always the same question with the Wild. Will they score enough? Peter Forsberg finished strongly for the Avs and if Adam Foote is fully healthy, Gaborik can count on being bounced around on almost every shift.

There you go - the Wild have won the Stanley Cup. Unless somebody in the 3 best-of-7 series before the Stanley Cup can hit them about enough to where they don't score, then that other team will win. So the Avalanche will win this round if Minnesota doesn't score on Jose Theodore? Bad news, Avalanche fans.

Anaheim-Dallas: The Ducks are the defending champions and as such, are widely assumed to be a favorite to win again. Once Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne condescended to come back, the team was pretty much the same as the one that won the Cup. Again, the goaltending is very strong and in the playoffs, that's always the most important factor. BUT the Ducks had real problems scoring in the late stages of the season. In their last eight games, even though three of those games were against non-playoff teams, they scored only 18 goals. Also, if the standings are to be believed, these two teams are fairly evenly matched. Dallas goaltender Marty Turco had a great playoff last year and there's always the possibility that Brad Richards, with his Cup experience, is ready to break out.

Marty Turco hasn't been out of the second round of the playoffs. Ever. He did have a great year last year, sure. The Stars also left in the first round because they couldn't score. Brad Richards should be shut down pretty easily by the Anaheim defense and the series will be done quickly.

Montreal-Boston: On paper, this is the biggest mismatch of the postseason. The Canadiens finished first and won all eight regular-season games against Boston. There is a long NHL tradition of the Canadiens putting an end to the Bruins' playoff hopes and Alexei Kovalev is having the best season of his life. BUT the Canadiens are pinning their hopes on a rookie goalie, Carey Price, and no matter how sharp Price looked in the regular season, the playoffs are a totally different animal. Also, Montreal captain Saku Koivu, who is a key to his team's power-play success, is probably out with a broken foot.

...and the Bruins are pinning all their hopes on Tim Thomas, who hasn't played a minute in the playoffs either. For what it's worth, he allowed 10 goals in 84 minutes for the Bruins' AHL team. That tease LIED to me!

Pittsburgh-Ottawa: The Penguins almost won the top spot in the East and have a power-packed lineup with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marian Hossa, Sergei Gonchar and a few others. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was strong down the stretch after being out for an extended stretch. Against an injury-riddled Ottawa team which is missing Danny Alfredsson and Mike Fisher, the Penguins are prohibitive favorites. BUT it was only a year ago that the Senators themselves were prohibitive first-round favorites and it is not unknown for quality teams to rise like a phoenix from the ashes when they feel that they are not being shown sufficient respect. Also, Alfredsson may be back in mid-series and if the Sens are still close, his return could give them the impetus to pull the upset.

To recap, Pittsburgh will win because they have a talented lineup, and Ottawa will win because they are a mythical bird with key injuries that was good last year.

Washington-Philadelphia: The Caps are the darlings of the NHL at the moment, having produced an improbable late-season drive to sneak into the playoffs. They've got the best player of the 2007-08 season in Alex Ovechkin, and some backup firepower from the likes of Viktor Kozlov, Alexander Semin and Sergei Fedorov. BUT the core players on this team are all Russian and there is a long list of Russian players who have let down their fans in the postseason. It's not likely to happen in Ovechkin's case, but the jury is still out on the others. Certainly the Flyers will apply some physical pressure, and in Martin Biron, they've got a goalie who has an excellent record if he doesn't play on successive nights.

Oh good! Somebody told him about the whole Russian thing. And if there's one way to judge how well a player is in the playoffs, it's what country they come from. Those Russians - man, they suck! Give me a Swede. And in Martin Biron, the Flyers have a goalie who has no record of ever playing an NHL playoff game.

New Jersey-NY Rangers: The Devils have the home-ice advantage and, they've got Martin Brodeur, the probable winner of the Vezina Trophy. They're well coached and they're always ready for playoff hockey because they play a strong defensive game all season long. They've also got guys like Jamie Langenbrunner and John Madden who have well-deserved reputations for producing strong postseason performances. BUT the Rangers can match the Devils on the goaltending front and are better offensively, especially now that Jaromir Jagr is showing signs of coming back to life. Also, the Devils were unable to muster even one regulation-time win against the Rangers all season long. In fact, the shootout victory that clinched fourth place on Sunday was their only win over the Rangers in eight tries.

In case you forgot, go ahead and scroll back up to Montreal-Boston, wherein Mr. Strachan says the playoffs are a totally different animal. So all of those regular season wins mean nothing for the Rangers apparently. And I'm not seeing the connection between what Martin Brodeur has done and what dirty Swede Henrik Lundqvist unless they both have chubby wives.

So there you have it. 8 series with absolutely no definitive winner in any one of them. There are all going to go to seven games because of how evenly matched all of these series are.

Coming next week: Al Strachan examines the candy bar battle - Almond Joy has nuts BUT Mounds don't.