The series against Vancouver is a benchmark not only for the Predators but for hockey in Tennessee.
NASHVILLE -- Blake Geoffrion was a 10-year-old kid in the stands on Opening Night here back in '98, a descendent of hockey royalty, and thus, one of the few Predator fans who did not require the explanation posted on the scoreboard after every whistle for icing, or offside.
Then, 13 years later, the great grandson of Howie Morenz and grandson of Bernie (Boom Boom) Geoffrion found himself on the ice as a player for Nashville in Round 1 of the 2011 playoffs, in front of one of the league's truly unique playoff crowds.
"I was on a line with (Steve Sullivan) and (J.P.) Dumont in Round 1," Geoffrion was recounting Tuesday morning. "I turned to Sully and said, 'Look at this. Whoever would have thought this place would be packed like this? Fans as passionate as they are, and how much the game's grown here?'
"I was a season holder here in '98. We had the rink half-full and they were happy about it. Now, we had 16 sellouts this year. We had four the year before.
"To think, a year or two back they almost moved the franchise."
To think.
When you have the chance to spend a few days here, inside one of hockey's unique playoff atmospheres -- different than anything we have in Canada, yet every bit as voracious -- it seems impossible that this team nearly left town during the great Jim Balsillie escapades of yore.
It was those ownership follies here that cemented this market in the minds of Canadians as simply another of Gary Bettman's Sunbelt screw-ups. With Boots Del Biaggio buying the Preds with nonexistent money came an overall impression that the entire thing was a bogus façade.
Then Bettman refused to give the keys to Balsillie, and the Canadian hockey media -- who see and know all when it comes to what is good for the game -- promptly placed Nashville into the same money pit with Phoenix, Atlanta and Florida.
OK, they're still a revenue-sharing team. But in terms of being a healthy, growing hockey market?
"We're moving along very well, thank you," said David Poile, the only general manager this franchise has ever known.
"We just get very, very little recognition," said Poile, one of the most distinguished and genuine voices in the game. "Then, we get associated with situations from the past: ownerships changes, Jim Balsillie, and it becomes all negative. 'Is Nashville going to survive?'
"We do not get much exposure or recognition for lots of reasons. We are not a big-market team, and consequently, we've been on national TV once this season. That's pretty typical."
At the grassroots level, Geoffrion is the petri dish. He grew up here -- his father Dan was in insurance -- and now he's an NHL player.
"We don't have a pro basketball team, a Major League Baseball team. It's just us and the (Tennessee) Titans," he said. "When I was growing up we had nine high-school teams. Now we have 69 in the Nashville area.
"We had one sheet of ice. I got on the ice for 45 minutes, twice a week, and one was split with another team. Now we have five sheets, and there are so many kids, they can't get enough ice time."
And so this series against a large Canadian market team like Vancouver is a benchmark for Poile's club, and for hockey in Tennessee. The Predators have never played in a second-round series, had a dressing room this full of media spreading the gospel, or had this chance to show what kind of hockey town Smashville truly can be to an audience as vast as the one following this series.
"It's the first time we've had this type of exposure, and it's fabulous. All the media is here, and it's all Canadian media. That's the difference. For whatever reason, we've never been on anyone's radar. You ask, 'How much does it mean?' Well, it means a ton.
"If we can keep going it would be fabulous to take this franchise to another level. Getting so many more people involved locally, businesses for the first time being interested. It's what you need to have happen for your franchise to take the next step.
"The next step is here. It's all good."
Mark Spector is the lead columnist for sportsnet.ca
Follow me on Twitter.com @SportsnetSpec
