I don't know if many of you have been watching this, but it's been a rather remarkable post-season for hockey. I'm hoping the title series matches the incredible play of the previous rounds. Some of you on Facebook have probably noticed my posts going back to the first round warning everyone not to sleep on Nashville. I haven't really gone into any more depth other than to warn the fans of the other teams, and then to tell them "I told you so." afterwards. The reason is this: This is a Stanley Cup champion caliber team that is built on young talent which really should be another year or two, and an offensive player or two, away. However, as a life long Kings fan I suffered through a run of say....6 years in which we had a really good goalie, great 2-way defensive play, and hands down the best offensive hockey team this side of the Hall-of-Fame. Every year come playoff time, we'd lose. Sometimes, it was further into the playoffs and one year even in the Finals. Yet, at the end of that run of greatness I learned one thing about hockey. It just doesn't matter how many great goal scorers you have, if you can't score. When I looked at this Nashville team, they reminded me of those New Jersey Devil teams that were essentially Martin Brodeur at GK and a whole team of guys playing defense first waiting for you to make a mistake and over commit. They reminded me of the faceless Cup champions of Montreal who were led by HOF goalie, Patrick Roy. They remind me of the post-Gretzky Oilers led by Messier and also the Messier led Rangers. They aren't the sexiest model on the stage, but they are wearing a titanium chastity belt. They have an all-world goaltender in Pekka Rinne. They have 4 defensive lines that are stout, as physical as they need to be and can score. On offense, they've now suffered so many injuries to their young super stars that they are essentially left with young star Forsberg and a bunch of grinders. The venue is loud, rowdy and obnoxious. This is SEC football country with a pedigree for winning that is starved for a winner. The people of Tennessee have adopted this group willingly and lovingly. Hockey is a man's man sport and this group of youngsters play the game like grown ass men. On the surface, the journey has been fun but should come to an end as they meet the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins who are Captained by a guy named Sidney Crosby whose career numbers are only bested by 2 or 3 men who are already in the Hall of Fame. They are also led by snipers like Evgeny Malkin and a list of two way scoring threats that can beat you multiple ways. This is a team that literally has everything including not one, but two, world class goaltenders. They've won back to back classic 7 game series against the top seeded Washington Capitals (who remind me a lot of the Gretzky Kings) and Ottawa Senators. Still, Nashville is the lowest ranked team in the playoffs. However, they blew out and swept the Western Conference top dog, Chicago Blackhawks. That was a series in which they Predators didn't just use the broom to sweep the Hawks, they beat them into the ice with it. Then they beat a very explosive St Louis Blues team 4 games to 2. To top it all off, they beat the other top seeded team in the West, the Anaheim Ducks, who are another team with everything and all of their players are in their prime. So, the Preds have shown they can beat hockey's best already. I guess we'll find out if the stage is too big for them, or can they continue to grind on winning.
My son Chris (Boondock Muskies) who lives in Nashville...seen here at a Predators vs. Blues playoff game...in St. Louis...sitting near the goal wearing their Predator gear. He got tix from a business associate so he and Katie drove to St. Louis for the game. (they lost that one.) They were visible on TV all night because of the location of their seats down near the ice. This picture is lousy because it comes from the TV feed. Asked him if he was going to any finals games...NOT...tix being auctioned for $2000.
Stu, Sadly, the rising costs of tickets comes with getting better players. I remember that I used to take Kings' tickets off ticket broker's hands just to keep them from suffering a total loss. That meant things like glass front seats for $20. Then Gretzky happened and those tickets were sold to me for $100 and that was doing me a favor because I'd always bailed them out. I remember very recently that you could get a family of 4 in to see the Predators for $50 and a proof of purchase of certain products (like a 12 pack of Coke). Once they traded for PK Subban, those days were gone. With the growing affluent suburbs of Nashville, they'll have no problem finding people to fill the seats.
It's the resale market that is driving these costs IMHO. Check it out, pretty much any big event that you want to go to you can get tickets at a broker as long as you are willing to pay the scalping price. Naturally the bigger the event the more the premium. You get season ticket holders who see that they can sometimes cover the costs of their season tickets by scalping their tickets online either on their own on ebay or through one of the ticket brokers. The Houston Fat Stock and Rodeo is a big event here in Houston, and the face value of the tickets is very reasonable, but over the years the brokers have managed to get a hold of a lot of tickets and drive up the scalping price. They tried to counter it with various strategies, none of which were successful, so they don't try. ND tried for a long time to counter it, punishing those who scalped tickets by revoking their right to buy tickets but no more and they even have engaged a ticket agency to sell their tickets and where ticket holders can scalp them with out consequences. Want to go to the NBA finals, only thing seperating you from going is whether you are willing to pay the premium.
Folks in Tennessee are a bit different, and I like that. http://www.tennessean.com/story/spo...fans-ahead-stanley-cup-final-games/356959001/
And then there's the Titans who seem to be enjoying it all http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ans-offensive-linemen-share-beer-with-catfish