The Nashville Predators haven’t been in the National Hockey League as long as many teams.
The Nashville Predators have had a few teams that you would call rivals over their time in the league. For many years it was the Detroit Redwings that drew the dark side of Preds Fans.
Since their move to the Eastern Division, for many reasons the team that draws most fans ire is the Chicago Blackhawks. There is no doubt in our minds, the team we hate the most is that Red team from up North.
We’ve actually mentioned in a couple of articles lately about how the Blackhawks are our biggest rival. First there was this look at teams that aren’t particularly liked by Preds fans and which is the worst:
must read: Who is the Predators Biggest Rival?
Most agreed with our findings. Then there was an article explaining to relatively new fans about the ins and outs of being a Citizen of Smashville and how that shows our disdain for the ‘Hawks:
Related Story: Welcome to Smashville!
One way or another, you don’t have to go too far in Smashville to find someone that hates the Blackhawks. They are at the top of our “boo” list and “seeing red” is something you aren’t fond of in Nashville.
With that in mind, we were particularly interested when we saw an article from our FanSided brethren, the Chicago Blackhawks site, Blackhawk Up. It listed the Blackhawks Top Five current rivalries. Where would the Nashville Predators fall on that list?
Here is the list:
5. Anaheim Ducks
4. Minnesota Wild
3. Los Angeles Kings
2. Detroit Redwings
1. St. Louis Blues
Nary a mention of the Nashville Predators. Gee, do you think we made the Top 10?
That brings about a question…is it really a rivalry if it only seems to be on one side of the equation? It’s easy to find lots of folks that hate the Blackhawks, but if they don’t feel as if we “worth” hating, does it still feel like a rivalry?
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I know that there are a lot of Blackhawks fans that dislike the Predators, especially for some of their ticketing policies but do we need to smack them in the face in a couple of playoff series to really make it a rivalry? I can see it turning into one fairly easily except that Chicago already has a lot of folks on their “hate” dance card.
The next question is, who else would qualify? I know we aren’t fond of the Wild because of the Suter deal but that is kind of quieting down and we are probably better off without him in the long run. What else would fuel a rivalry with them?
Dallas is another team that we could learn to hate, and we’ve had a couple of brushes but it really comes down to a nasty playoff series or two to really get things worked up. St. Louis is probably closest geographically but we don’t have much history with them either.
In the end, you can’t make a rivalry, it is something that builds. It will take a couple of years of playoffs or an issue or two that happens in games to get something started where we can actually both hate each other.
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In the meantime, we will be happy to continue to hate on the Blackhawks whether they like it or not!