Nashville Predators: Ranking the Best Moments in Franchise History

All we can do is reflect and look forward to the future with the NHL season in pause. With that, the Nashville Predators have had some outstanding moments.

If you’ve been with the Nashville Predators from the very start in 1998, then you know how crazy time flies to see where the franchise is at now.

Over two decades later, the Predators have become a regular in the playoffs, came two wins shy of a Stanley Cup, won a couple division titles, won a Presidents’ Trophy and cropped a lot of elite players.

With all of the accomplishments comes a countless number of incredible goals that achieved franchise milestones and brought on moments that will never be forgotten in franchise history.

It was extremely difficult to trim this list down to just five, but here are the top goals in Predators franchise history.

Game-winner in triple OT!

We all know how intense playoff hockey is. That’s amplified so much more when it goes to sudden death overtime, and that’s what happened back in 2016 in Game 4 of a playoff series with the San Jose Sharks.

The Sharks have always been a thorn in the side of the Predators in the playoffs, and this series was no different.

But this was the first time that the Predators had the talent on the roster to contend for not only a series win over the Sharks, but also to make a run at the Stanley Cup.

This game went to three overtimes before Mike Fisher finally ended it by getting a puck past San Jose netminder Martin Jones. It was over halfway through the third overtime period as well, so both teams were completely gassed at this point.

Mattias Ekholm and Colin Wilson assisted on the massive goal to send the Nashville fans in hysteria as the series was tied back up at two games apiece.

Another overtime win would happen in Game 6 for the Predators, but they’d ultimately fall to the Sharks in Game 7. They were just completely depleted of energy after essentially playing an extra game in Game 4.

Even so, a home playoff win in triple overtime by Fisher of all players is good enough to crack the list. And it happened in front of the home fans.

The glorious first goal

I just can’t leave off the franchise’s first goal in 1998. It would be different if the Predators were a relocation team, but this team was built from the ground up. No favorable expansion rules like the current day.

That original Predators roster was full of blue collar players. Not a ton of offensive prowess, but fans in Nashville were just happy to have a professional sports franchise.

The Predators had to wait until their second regular season game to actually score the first goal. It came against the Carolina Hurricanes on October 13th, 1998 and Andrew Brunette did the honors.

Here’s a look at the highlights of that game and other highlights throughout the decade. This video is owned by the Nashville Predators.

This was the first goal in franchise history in the game that would also be the franchise’s first win. Greg Johnson and Joel Bouchard would get the assists.

Goals were a lot more rare during that time in the NHL as well. Be sure to remember the name “Andrew Brunette” if you ever get a sports trivia question on this. You will probably impress a lot of people!

The elusive goaltender goal

Goaltender goals just don’t happen very often. When they do happen, usually it’s more of a fluke and maybe didn’t require a ton of skill.

Not the case with Pekka Rinne’s goal, which happened earlier this year. It’s been a season to largely forget for Rinne overall, but I’ll personally never forget this astounding goal he buried against the Blackhawks in Chicago:

This goal may have come in a non-playoff game, but you just can’t discount how amazing this goal was. Rinne lined it up and flung it over center ice to sink the goal. It wasn’t a routine goal by any means.

Add to it that it came against the Blackhawks makes it so much better. If this goal came against an ordinary team, like the Blue Jackets ( no offense), then maybe it’s not as big of a deal. Even then, it’s something that rarely happens and it happens for arguably the best player in franchise history.

Then you have the aftermath of the goal with the team embracing Rinne. Everyone knew how big of a deal it was to accomplish that, and now the team has to finish the job by getting a Stanley Cup for this guy.

Hat trick and a Stanley Cup berth

This is one of those moments where so many Predators fans will always remember exactly where they were, what they were drinking and who they were with when this moment happened.

The moment, or moments, that

Colton Sissons

decided to take matters into his own hands in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals against the Anaheim Ducks Here’s a look at it courtesy of

Sportsnet

:

Yeah, I get chills down my spine, too. It’s not weird. It’s just being a true fan of a team you love.

Sissons morphed into an assassin in this game, and the victim was the Anaheim Ducks. I really don’t like to think about what may have happened if this series went to a Game 7 back on the West Coast.

But we’ll never know because Sissons took over. He scored in the 1st period to pad the Predators lead to 2-0, and then scored two more times to break the tie.

Whenever the Ducks tried to respond and steal the momentum, Sissons had an answer along with a great Predators team from top to bottom. A team that got hot at the right time and rode that fire as long as they could.

Sissons was opportunistic on a team full of outstanding players. I remain cautiously optimistic that Sissons can return to this form as he still has a long-term contract going with the Predators.

No matter what happens with Sissons from here on out, he’ll always be credited with scoring a goal in one of the biggest moments in Predators history.

Even if the team goes onto win multiple Stanley Cups in the following years and decades, this moment will always be one of the top ones.