Game #90- Nashville Predators

February 20,2016 Nashville Predators vs. Los Angeles Kings Bridgestone Arena I have said this several times over the past year, but the good thing about traveling to Indianapolis for work is the close proximity to other states and especially for me other sports teams. I made the trek to Nashville to catch a Predators games and luckily the LA Kings were in town. Once I landed I made my way to my awesome hotel that was an old 19th century railroad station that was renovated a few years back called Union Station Hotel. The best part, I was only 5 blocks from bar central. Nashville is like a mini Austin. Amazing four story bars that go on for several blocks along Broadway all the way to the Cumberland River (that was overflowing this week). I met up with an old college buddy, Jake Drucker, for some beers at Acme Feed and Seed and Brewhouse for a Bushwacker (an alcoholic chocolate shake known in the Nashville area) before heading to Bridgestone Arena for the game. The Arena is beautiful with an awesome one of a kind 3 story all glass entrance. We walked around the outer perimeter of the concession stands to try to find any fan experience areas but because the team is so new and they haven’t won anything in their short existence, they only had a fake penalty box, a kid’s hockey shooting area and some air hockey. But that’s ok, we had great seats where the Kings were shooting twice and we were fairly buzzed by puck drop. The game was really exciting. Both teams were flying on the ice using their big bodies to crush each other for 60 minutes. Jake Muzzin got an early goal for the Kings about 4 minutes into the game putting the puck behind all star goalie Pekka Rinne with a quick snap shot from the right point. The Kings kept the lead throughout the entire first period until they took a “Too Many Men on the Ice” penalty late, allowing Ryan Ellis to tap in a rebound with only 26 seconds left before intermission. The remainder of the game ended without a goal but plenty of scoring chances. Famed defensemen Shea Webber (who won the hardest shot this year at the all star game…108mph) had several point blasts that were stopped by Jonathan Quick, while Kings Jeff Carter was stopped on two point blank scoring opportunities in the third period. Overtime has been really kind to the Kings this year. They were 8-2 while the Preds were 1-11 in extra play this year. It didn’t take long with the three on three play for Tanner Pearson to get open in the slot to put in the winning goal to give the visitors a 2-1 win to end their season long road trip. Besides hanging with Drucker, and the Kings win, the best part of the game was all the LA fans. People were in Kings jerseys all over the city and we met some really cool bar tenders (KC…I think) at the Brewhouse who were from San Diego and have been watching the Kings for decades. I told them about our dudes trip that was coming up in July and they promised to hook us up when we were in town. Good times.