Why You Care About Tonight's Game Against the Red Wings

The Titans have the Colts... The Preds have the Red Wings.
The Titans hate facing Peyton Manning... The Preds hate facing Nicklas Lidstrom. (See below for my first installment of "If you like ___, you'll love ___").


A Hated Division Foe

As a predators fan, when someone says to you "I'm a red wings fan" the nicest thing you can say in response is "well, no one's perfect." You wont hear that many niceties tonight at the Sommet Center. The Predators hate the Red Wings. For many years, the Red Wings thought of the Preds as a nuisance, at best.

For the newcomer, think of the New England Patriots of the NHL. Not because their coach dresses like a homeless person. They have an organization that wins year-after-year-after-f'ing-year. Much like a marathon of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians", it gets old very quickly.

vs.

Remember the days when the Baltimore Ravens kept knocking the Titans out of the Playoffs. (And how much the city loathed them in return. Ray Lewis, man I hate that guy). The same is true for the Red Wings. Twice those bastards have knocked us out of the playoffs in the first round.

Fortunately those days are over. The predators can actually beat a healthy Red Wings Team to a pulp from time to time, including last year's 8-0 beatdown. A few weeks ago the Preds took down the Wings in front of a home crowd. Final score: 3-1 good guys.

The Detroit team that rolls into town tonight is hurt... badly. It's like the Red Wings got into some gambling debt with the Hockey Gods (a term you will hear a lot in hockey, a.k.a "luck"), and couldn't pay up, so they got their figurative knee-caps bashed. Its like the injured 0-6 to start the season Titans. Not the 5-0 healthy VY titans (nor the 0-1 didn't show up against the Colts Titans).

Attendance and an Energetic Fan Base

Attendance is always important for the predators. I'm sure there will be a whole blog post about that in the near future. The Red Wings games are almost a guaranteed sell out. Sometimes Predators fans are known (seriously) as the loudest fans in the NHL. We're credited with a TV timeout ovation that may well have saved the franchise.

Some of the games this season have been raukous, loud, and entertaining. Some, less so. If you are looking for a high energy, fun night, tonight should be the night. It will likely be a sell-out crowd. As of now, there are very limited tickets remaining.

(If you have never been to a game before, you are in for a treat. Its not like the Titans tame/weak/uncreative cheers: Ti-Tans! De-Fense... Ti-Tans! De-Fense! Bo-Ring! Be prepared to tell the Red Wings goalie that he sucks. Alot. Loudly. As do the Red Wings. And the players. And the Coach. It is, if nothing else, cathartic).

Playoffs?

I won't go into a lot of detail just yet, because it is early in the season. However, division games are critical for playoff positioning. A win tonight potentially puts the preds 1/2 a game out of being the division leader (which guarantees home ice advantage through at least the first two round of the playoffs). A loss tonight could potentially drop us out of playoff contention. I say again, its early. However, you know how this year the Titans may go 9-7 and if they do they have a long shot of making the playoffs. The same thing happened to the Preds last year. One more division win (like tonight's game) and the Preds could have been in.

If you like PEYTON MANNING, you'll love NICKLAS LIDSTROM

Similarities

1. Captains of their Team
2. Guaranteed Hall of Famers
3. Squeaky-clean, family-friendly personalities
4. Lead team to championship
5. Still playing for the team that drafted them (Manning = 1998), (Lidstrom = 1989)
6. Multiple Pro-Bowls (Manning = 9) and All Star Games (Lidstrom = 11)
7. Offensive POTY (Manning = 1) and Defensive POTY (Lidstrom = 6)
8. Crazy Smart

Differences:

1. Peyton makes ALOT more money in advertisements.
2. Peyton QBs the offense.  Lidstrom is a defensive powerhouse.  However, he does QB the powerplay for the Red Wings.
3. Lidstrom delivers punishing hits.  Manning never seems to hit or get hit by anything.
4. Manning = 1st pick in the draft.  Lidstrom = 53rd.

That is all for my inagural post. I am sure these will get better as time goes on. For now, thanks for reading and lets go Predators!