Just got back to Athens from Nashville. Fun game, really liked Bridgestone arena. Nashville has some solid fans. Everyone had a yellow jersey. They said it was a sellout but definitely quite a few open seats, me and my buddy had single seats in different sections but we were able to sit in seats that weren't ours with no complaints. half off beer, college night, hell yeah. I saw about 10 other people in Coyotes jerseys. Went downtown to the bars after the game wearing my Doan jersey, typical comments included "We wish we got him this offseason" "Good try tonight man but go preds" and sometimes longer conversations about the playoffs. Was nice having bragging rights though. Some observations...
-Rundblad looked pretty decent especially handling the puck and made one really slick move on the point but just couldn't pull the trigger. He needs to just shoot that immediately
-Yandle, so many turnovers, he just didn't impress me at all
-Vermette looked bad, obviously this has been said time and time again but he couldn't handle any passes and didn't create many opportunities. Great on faceoffs though
-The Vrby-Boeds-Hanzal line was really good, a lot of chances but no finishing. Vrby is the most pure scorer on this line so he really needs to step up on the shooting
-Rinne's glove hand, incredible. Terrible at handling the puck, though. The one time Smith tried to clear it right up the middle was quite an experience, nashville should of just shot it on net because he was struggling to get back. Drew a soft penalty in the same context though earlier in the game, goalie interference on the preds
-Sullivan with that selfish play on the odd man break, probably our best scoring chance, but Rinnes glove hand was in the way.... we didn't have many scoring chances. I wish i saw a goal!
-End of the 2nd period was absolutely wild. Smith makes an incredible sprawling save then the preds come right back and should have scored to end but someone (erat?) couldnt shoot with a wide open net
-Predators offense is probably worse than ours but they still managed to get much better shots on, first goal was garbage, second goal was a snipe. We'd given up by the third goal
I'm sure a lot of these sentiments have been echoed in this thread I'm just too lazy to read through it haha
Still a good experience, if I wasn't a Coyotes fan I could be convinced to like the Predators, the acquisition of Mike Fisher also did wonders for their fanbase who seem to be pretty hockey knowledgeable albeit a different breed of hockey fan. It makes me sad that hockey didn't catch on in my home city of Atlanta because it sure as hell is there to stay in Nashville.