Floods and ice storms notwithstanding, there is never a bad time to go to Nashville.
The fact that the city’s hospitality has extended itself so spectacularly to hockey is just another reason.
Bridgestone Arena sits downtown, within a slap shot of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Ryman Auditorium and Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge
It is hopping with concert and convention action all year long, but it is really the home of the Predators, one of the city’s two major league teams and the one that exudes stability, daring and consistency.
They seemed to their future in 2007 when they traded for Peter Forsberg, and then they traded homegrown defensemen Shea Weber and Seth Jones for P.K. Subban and Ryan Johansen, respectively.
The fans went along. They dress in yellow T-shirts and jerseys, they sing and they chant (sometimes with the same language that cost Ryan Getzlaf $10,000) and now they’re within a win of a trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
If that happens the rest of the world will cluck-cluck about TV ratings, but Nashville will devote the appropriate amount of concern to that issue, which is zero.
Instead, the NHL should celebrate the Predators. They justify the hard salary cap and the overall leveling that allows a smart, small-market franchise to thrive.
The Predators aren’t there yet. They lead the Ducks, 3-2, with Game 6 at Bridgestone tonight.
Last year, Tampa Bay led Pittsburgh, 3-2, with Game 6 at home and did not win again. The Rangers did the same thing to Washington in 2015 and Tampa Bay did the same thing to Detroit. Over the years, the home team has lost 61 closeout Game 6s (per Hockey-Reference.com).
For the Ducks it is a fine time to visit Music City, primarily because it isn’t Anaheim. Saturday’s 3-1 loss in Game 5 reinforced how useless Honda Center is to the Ducks.
Since 2007, the Ducks are 25-20 in home playoff games and they have been eliminated four times at Honda Center.
The fans aren’t the problem. It is not their job to fire up the team. Quite the opposite. Even Bridgestone gets grumpy when the Predators aren’t skating well, as was the case in Game 4 on Wednesday.
The home “advantage” makes no sense anyway. Road teams fly in comfort, stay in opulence, draw together behind enemy lines. They tend to play more simply, rely more on each other. Home games are a petri dish of distraction. This season, home teams are 38-39 in the NHL playoffs.
Three possible reasons: Buildings are standardized and comfortable, officials are evaluated more closely and the league is as competitive as crabs in a pot.
If the Ducks don’t win tonight, the issue will be who, not where.
Rickard Rakell is the only top six forward with a plus-rating. He didn’t play in Game 5 and will not play tonight.
The questions that Getzlaf seemed to escape in the first two rounds are gathering again. He has three assists and no goals in five games
But for all of Ryan Kesler’s purple hearts, he has one point in the series and hasn’t scored a goal since Game 3 of the Edmonton series.
Kesler usually compensates with defense, but Nashville’s top line has frolicked without much argument, and did so again Saturday with Johansen injured. In Game 4, Coach Randy Carlyle abandoned his custom of hunting line matchups, at the players’ request.
If all the Ducks had been as effective as 23-year-old Nick Ritchie and 21-year-old Brandon Montour, they’d be prepping for the Final by now.
The Ducks aren’t trailing because of goaltending. John Gibson’s save percentage is higher than Pekka Rinne’s, although Rinne has been his usual self in terms of puck-handling, whether it’s inside or outside the legal boundaries.
It’s Nashville’s bottomless jug of defensemen that is weighing heavily. Its top two pairs, Subban-Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis-Roman Josi, are averaging more than 20 minutes in this series in even-strength play alone. Those four play nearly five-sixths of the minutes and have totaled 11 points.
Considering the Predators used to have Weber, Jones and Ryan Suter, you see why this is hockey’s capital of blueline-dancing.
But the Ducks have won three playoff games in Bridgestone the past two years. They are 5-2 on the road in these playoffs. They are 5-4 at home and needed lightning to strike three times in the same place, in Game 5 against the Oilers, to do that.
Now they can’t wait to get on the road again. If they win Game 6, maybe they’ll ask for asylum.
