The Forsberg Era

Without putting a blade on the ice, Peter Forsberg may have saved Nashville as a hockey town. I'm fairly new to hockey, I've only been a fan of the Preds for two years and before that I had attended a handful of Memphis Riverkings games. I moved to Nashville, in part, because I've just decided that hockey is so damn much fun to watch. The players are much more accessible than any other sport (almost everybody has a story about how they ran into such and such player and they were very nice) and I'm starting to think they are much more athletic than football and basketball (in my mind, baseball is almost a hand-eye coordination sport). So imagine my disappointment when I move to Smashville and even though the Predators are neck and neck for the league lead and have a great chance of winning their division, there is almost zero hockey talk in this town and in fact, what talk there is mostly covers the fact that the Predators don't draw fans and the franchise may move. The local newspaper puts their hockey coverage on the third page of the sports section, television coverage is spotty at best, and the radio routinely bumps Predators games to broadcast Vanderbilt basketball.

All of that has changed. Two days ago, Nashville traded a role player, a minor league player and two draft picks for hockey great Peter Forsberg. To illustrate the difference it has made in this town, The Girlfriend and I went out to a local Mexican restaurant last night. We were sitting at the bar eating enchiladas and watching the Blues beat the Preds on the television. The two latino bartenders waiting on us began having a very excited discussion in Spanish. My understanding of the language is spotty ("dos cervezas por favor" is the best I can do) but I repeatedly heard "Peter Forsberg."

Many analysts are now picking Nashville as the favorite to win The Cup. I don't know if that is true or not. It remains to be seen if Forsberg can stay injury free long enough to make a difference, but the excitement that this trade has generated in Smashville makes the trade a winner for this town. The next couple of games have sold out, Nashville is all over the hockey news and now maybe some of the teams up North will take us more seriously. My only question is "When can I get my Nashville Predators jersey with Forsberg on the back?"