Trip to Bern Very Beneficial to Nashville Predators Before Regular Season Grind

Seeing the Nashville Predators arrive in Switzerland ahead of their preseason matchup with SC Bern, and the Global Series against the San Jose Sharks, has been very cool to watch.

This should be an awesome team building and chemistry building experience for the Nashville Predators. We’re talking about a team that already looks tight knit after what they experienced last season, and they just keep building it under the coaching leadership of John Hynes.

The fans overseas may not be fans of the Nashville Predators, but they’re definitely fans of hockey and seeing some of their Swiss natives of the NHL game come over to their respective countries.

The Predators arrived in Zürich, Switzerland yesterday and have already hit the ice for practices as they’ll face SC Bern of the National League, which is a league based out of the Swiss hockey league:

Nashville Predators Building Team Chemistry in Switzerland

What is really so cool about all of this is seeing the welcoming of the Nashville Predators when they landed, and of course the outpouring of love for Roman Josi.

Josi is of Swiss nationality and actually played for SC Bern during the NHL lockout season. Not only that, what is even cooler is this is Josi’s hometown team growing up and even practiced with the SC Bern hockey club when he was 16.

Seeing the Captain, and one of the best NHL defenseman of this generation, return to his hometown to play in an exhibition game is such an amazing story for the NHL and really cool for the locals of Bern to witness this game live.

Nino Niederreiter, one of the newest members of the Nashville Predators, is also of Swiss descent and was once the highest drafted Swiss players ever to the NHL. I’m sure he’ll have plenty of fan support for this game as well.

Before the grind of an 82-game regular season, playing in this exhibition match is great for the players to let loose a bit, but also to grow the Nashville Predators brand on an international level.

Stuff like this really sparks interest to hockey fans all across the world who might not have a particular team they cheer for, and also might introduce fans to a Nashville Predators franchise that they don’t know much about.

The Predators have already been making on impact on the local community as well by practicing with some of the youth hockey in the area. Community outreach stuff like this reaches far beyond the importance of what happens in the game. It can be life changing for some of these young kids getting to play with NHL role models.

Hockey continues to grow in popularity around the world, and the younger demographics in particular are starting to follow the NHL more closely here in the U.S. Seeing the Nashville Predators on the global stage will absolutely build some new fans from all over.

It kind of works both ways, too. Fans of the Nashville Predators will now get a chance to learn more about SC Bern in the storied history this hockey club has over in Switzerland. It’s a win-win for both clubs. I’ll totally adopt SC Bern as my new team to cheer for over in Switzerland.

I’m sure the competitiveness won’t be lost between these two teams when the puck is dropped on Monday, but it will probably have a different feel from the other preseason games. Both teams will look to put on a show for the fans, while also still trying to win.

This is the last chance for the Nashville Predators to fine tune some things before the games start counting for real. They’ve had an excellent preseason and have blanked their opponents in two of the last three on the scoreboard for a combined score of 13-1.

The 27-player final roster out of training camp is already set, so we will get an accurate look at what this team will look like when they go up against the San Jose Sharks on Friday.

Finishing off the preseason slate with this game in Bern, Switzerland should put the Nashville Predators in a very beneficial mindset to get ready for the long haul of the NHL regular season.