Preds fans gave James Neal a standing ovation during his first game back in Nashville



It was a sad day for Nashville Predators fans when they found out the team wasn’t going to protect James Neal heading into the Expansion Draft and it was an even sadder day when the Vegas Golden Knights officially selected the 30-year-old winger.



🌸😁 #vegasstrong A post shared by James Neal (@j18neal) on Oct 8, 2017 at 3:33pm PDT

On Friday night, the Predators hosted the Vegas Golden Knights for the first time in franchise history and you can bet they were very happy to see Neal back in Smashville, even if he wasn’t rocking a yellow Preds jersey.



The Whitby, Ontario native played 219 games with the Predators from 2014-2017 and scored 77 goals and added 59 assists for 157 points during his time in Nashville.



crowd here also took a moment to salute former predator james neal pic.twitter.com/aL2GWtAC9I — Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) December 9, 2017 There's always going to be a little Smashville with @jneal_18. pic.twitter.com/FiNyEXdFD7 — NHL (@NHL) December 9, 2017

Although the Preds fans gave Neal a standing ovation, he managed to silence the building by scoring a goal against his former team.



Neal scores. This is the first time we haven’t been excited about that in #Smashville. 2-0 Vegas. #VGKvsNSH — Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) December 9, 2017

(H/T Streamable)

