Three teams for Nashville Predators fans to hitch their wagon to rest of season

We are in unfamiliar territory currently as fans of the Nashville Predators with the team not even within the same hemisphere of competing for a playoff spot.

Usually around this time of year as we head towards the trade deadline, the Predators are fighting for their playoff lives and living on the bubble. They're usually buyers and clinging onto hope that they can get hot at the right time and make a deep playoff run like what they did in 2017.

This obviously isn't that year. This team is historically bad, and will need to go somewhere in neighborhood of 8-17 over their last 25 games to match the franchise's worst finish in the standings, which is 63 points in their inaugural 1998-99 season.

I know there's the diehard fans out there who are ride or die Predators fans and they won't cheer for anyone else. But there's also plenty of diehard hockey fans who double dip with their teams, or at least find a rooting interest in a team.

Here's five teams for Predators fans to consider shifting their support to for the rest of 2024-25 and into the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

1. Washington Capitals (Currently 2nd place in entire NHL)

Fans just love watching pure greatness, and that's what we're seeing with Alex Ovechkin chasing Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record.

Ovechkin is just 11 goals behind Gretzky with 24 games left in the regular season. Seems very attainable as long as Ovechkin avoid getting sidelined with an injury.

We're witnessing NHL history unfold, and fans should have no issue cheering on this pursuit of The Great One, unless you're just a fan of the rival teams of the Capitals. Then I can understand having a hard time cheering on the Capitals.

Aside from Ovechkin finding the fountain of youth, the Capitals are just a fun team all around. They're outperforming their preseason expectations by a long shot.

The Capitals aren't just Ovechkin and nothing else. Ovechkin is fourth on the team in points and is doing all of his damage by being the pure goal scorer he has always been, but the Capitals got some other entertaining players to watch like team leader in points Dylan Strome and their classic goon Tom Wilson.

If you like out-of-nowhere overperforming teams with one of the greatest goal scorers of all time, then the Capitals might be for you.

2. Winnipeg Jets- (Currently 1st in NHL)

If you like seeing someone new get their first Stanley Cup, and maybe you're still buzzing from the Four Nations Face-Off and appreciate what Connor Hellebuyck did for Team USA, then the Winnipeg Jets might be for you.

I understand it's hard to cheer for a divisional rival, but I don't really view the Jets as a bitter rival of the Predators. And as I stated at the beginning, this is just purely for temporary matters to get you through the rest of 2024-25 and have some rooting interest in the playoffs.

My respect for Hellebuyck has only grown exponentially over the years. He is undoubtedly the best USA-born goalie we've seen since Jonathan Quick's peak years. He'll likely pass Quick for most wins by a USA-born goalie being just 90 wins behind and seven years younger.

And Predators fans can relate to a team riding their goalie to take them to the promise land with all of those years behind Juuse Saros and Pekka Rinne. While the Jets do have some decent offensive firepower to complement Hellebuyck, they'll likely need Hellebuyck to get them over the playoff hump.

As some of you may have forgotten or not realize, the Jets are formerly the Atlanta Thrashers franchise. They don't have a Stanley Cup yet, so if you like seeing a new team get one and always cheer against the big market teams, then Winnipeg might be fun to cheer for.

Winnipeg would also be the first team from Canada to win a Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. So that adds an extra layer of intriguing to break the Stanley Cup curse for teams based in Canada.

This is going to be a reach to get most Predators fans to support any Central Division team. In the comments we also got some support for Matt Duchene and the Dallas Stars.

I have the utmost respect for Duchene and thought he got way too much unfair criticism in Nashville, but I cannot under any circumstances cheer for Dallas. For whatever reason, Winnipeg is easier for me to put the division rival aside.

3. Columbus Blue Jackets- Do it for Johnny Hockey!

Out of the turmoil and agony of losing Johnny Gaudreau in the offseason, the Blue Jackets are rising to be the most exciting and uplifting team to watch in all of sports. They weren't expected to be a playoff team this year, but they're rallying in the Eastern Conference and currently hold one of the wildcard spots.

The Blue Jackets have a lot of young talent and play a fun brand of hockey. They're fifth in the NHL in goals per game and have one of the best rising defensemen in the NHL with Zach Werenski who has 62 points in 57 games.

If you're a fan of watching young teams outperform the old timers, then the Blue Jackets are the perfect team to cheer for. Out of their top-8 point scorers, only one is 30 or older and that's 30-year-old Sean Monahan. Five of their top-8 scorers are below the age of 25, and this team has money to spend at the upcoming trade deadline.

There's also former Nashville Predator Dante Fabbro, who saw his ice time dramatically increase from 13:06 to 21:37 since joining the Blue Jackets. And I know there was a strong contingent of Predators fans who still love Fabbro.

The Blue Jackets will be the most interesting playoff bubble team to watch the rest of the way. MoneyPuck's playoff odds only give the Blue Jackets an 18.8 percent chance to get in.

In that race of the two Eastern Conference wildcard spots you have seven teams within seven points of each other, with the Blue Jackets also being six points back of the New Jersey Devils for third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Teams we can't support for no matter what

It was really hard to even come up with three teams to cheer for now that the Predators are out of it for the rest of this season. My personal backup team is the Tampa Bay Lightning because I live in the Tampa Bay area, and I suspect there's a lot of examples of fans having a backup team for geographical reasons or because they grew up liking a certain team before the Predators came along in 1998.

I can't bring myself to cheer for Dallas, Minnesota or Colorado in the Central. The Hellebuyck factor and the small market feel of the Jets gives me an easier time cheering for them.

The blue bloods like the Maple Leafs and Oilers I just can't bring myself to actively root for, although if Connor McDavid gets his first Stanley Cup I won't be mad about it. He is the current GOAT by a longshot and he deserves a Stanley Cup, and probably multiple to be honest.

The ongoing joke of how long it's been since the Maple Leafs have won a Stanley Cup needs to stay alive. The endless memes and jokes are so entertaining that I just don't want to see that end, similar to how funny it is when the Dallas Cowboys fail in the NFL and when the New York Yankees fail in baseball.

I thought about adding the Florida Panthers on this list because of Matthew Tkachuk and it being another non-traditional hockey market, but they got theirs last year. They will be a force in the playoffs again and have a decent chance to repeat.

Without question, if the Blue Jackets get in, they'll have the overwhelming support of the hockey world and the sports world in general. Let's hope they find a way into the dance.