Hey you. You’re swept up in all this Seattle Kraken hype. You want to know more about hockey but don’t know where to start. Well, we want to help make these games easy and fun for you to watch.

Throughout the season, we’ll release Landlubber’s Guides designed with the new fan in mind. This includes basic need-to-know info for you to absorb before you watch Kraken games and highlights.

Today, we’re talking about the Nashville Predators.

Are they any good?

Well… they used to be. They made it to the Stanley Cup Final in the 2016-2017 season for the first time in franchise history. It was really exciting and the whole city rallied behind them! But they haven’t really been able to recreate that success since.

This season the Preds are kind of at a crossroads. The GM announced that they’re in a “competitive rebuild” so who knows what that means for this year. They could be good! They could shift into full rebuild mode! Only time will tell.

Who should I look out for?

• Filip Forsberg (#9, Left Wing) - This is the final season of Forsberg’s six-year, $36-million contract. He’s an unrestricted free agent next year. He’ll be putting his best foot forward in order to court some offers at the end of the season.
• Phil Tomasino (#26, Center) - This is his first NHL game! It’s always great to see a player make his debut.

Any Seattle ties?

• Cody Glass (#8, Center) - Glass played for the Portland Winterhawks from 2014-2018, eventually becoming captain during his tenure. He was the very first player drafted by the Vegas Golden Knights before he was traded to Nashville.

Odds and Ends

• Smashville is a nickname. Not sure if they got the nickname before or after they started smashing cars before playoff games.

• We took Calle Järnkrok (#19, Center) from the Predators in the Expansion Draft. He’ll unfortunately miss out on a revenge game as he remains in the league Covid protocol.
• When Nashville fans get excited, they throw catfish on to the ice. Seattle fans, please don’t throw seafood on the ice with Climate Pledge arena opens up. It’s fun the first couple of times but gets old quick (in this blogger’s opinion). You’re just going to get kicked out of the arena right afterwards anyways.

• When I first started watching hockey, I had no idea why Nashville players had a three star Dragon Ball patch on their uniforms. Found out later that the Tennessee flag in Preds colors looks pretty dang similar to the three star Dragon Ball.