Nashville Predators: What a Party!

The Nashville Predators and the city of Nashville held the All-Star game this weekend and a party broke out!

Everyone knows that Nash-Vegas knows how to hold an event and they went above and beyond when they hosted the NHL All-Star game this weekend. We have never been prouder of our city or our Preds than we were this weekend. Everywhere you looked, the accolades were pouring in. They came from fans, players, media and social media was blowing up!

How the Nashville Sports Council set up the near 70 degree temperatures we will never know but there were Canadian fans thinking that this was summer. They really DID think of everything. The Bridgestone, NHL Fan Fair, Intellicentrics Winter Park, and stages were all fantastic. Downtown was in full party mode from Thursday on.

The concerts and NHL All-Star Friday Night was like a huge hug and tourism commercial for Nashville. They showed the vibrancy and fun of our city and the players couldn’t stop talking about how great the town and fans are. They liked the food, the venue, and the Honky-Tonks.

Saturday brought the Red Carpet that was surrounded by multitudes of screaming fans from all over. The players strutted their duds and graciously signed autographs and did interviews for a long stretch. It will be hard to forget Brent Burns in his new bright red cowboy boots to go along with his red jacket and bow tie and black cowboy hat as he was interviewed by Lindsey Rowley. And PK Subban had a custom made plaid jacket that really stood out too.

Those two were also a big part of the fun of the Skills Competition later that evening. Burns brought his son to help him score a goal and later donned a Chewbacca mask to make fun of his own hair and beard. Subban dressed like Jaromir Jagr with a flowing gray mullet and a Jagr jersey and salute. The Preds James Neal also was a fan favorite by pulling Dirks Bentley out on the ice to help him score a goal. Bently helped Pekka Rinne out by replacing his goalie stick with a larger guitar.

Roman Josi showed well by losing his fastest skater matchup against Dylan Larkin but beat everyone else in the competition. Larkin went on to break the 20-year-old Fastest Skater record that had been held by Mike Gartner.

Nothing was quite as anticipated as Shea Webers Hardest Shot attempts, though. He certainly didn’t disappoint by rocketing a shot of 108.1 MPH to beat the other competitors by nearly five MPH. Then the crowd chanted “One More Shot” until he gave them an encore, hitting just below the 108 MPH mark.

The game itself proved to be better than was even hoped for with the new 3-on-3 format. It was entertaining and showed the skill of both the skaters and the goaltenders too. Central coach Lindy Ruff set the crowd on fire by starting all four Predators together as one unit at the start of the Central Division game.

It was fantastic and will never be forgotten how the crowd embraced embattled All-Star John Scott all weekend but especially during the game itself. When he scored his two goals, staged a fight with Patrick Kane who was the crowds least favorite, and later was named game MVP after a furious Twitter campaign of #MVPVoteScott it made some amazing memories.

What it all came down to was an amazingly well-run event that was the epitome of fun. What more can you ask for at a party than everyone having a good time? We will leave you with a couple of Tweets that may sum it all up:

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As we mentioned to a couple of our FanSided buddies, BlackhawkUp and Blackout Dallas, it was great to be teammates and cheer together for the day but tomorrow we become rivals once again. It is the same thing for the players and we are sure looking forward to seeing what the Predators can do in the second half of the season.