Geoff Calkins

The Commercial Appeal

The Nashville Predators will be playing the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. Should we pull for them or nah? Should we root on the plucky hockey team from our very own state? Or should we hope they get crushed?

I am of two minds on this one. Let us explore both.

Go Preds: Of course we should pull for the Predators. What’s not to like? They’ve made the finals as a 16 seed. They’re quintessential underdogs. They win with grit and teamwork and all that good stuff. They’re about as appealing a hockey team as there is in the league.

No Preds: But they’re from Nashville. We hate Nashville.

Go Preds: Oh, that’s ridiculous. Just because there was a headline in the Memphis paper the other day that said “Nashville outgrows Memphis?”

No Preds: No, because there was a headline in the Nashville paper not so long ago that said, “Nashville vs. Memphis? We win!”

Go Preds: Give me one good reason to hate Nashville.

No Preds: They have a statue of Elvis.

Go Preds: OK, that’s one.

No Preds: Bro-country music.

Go Preds: OK, two.

No Preds: Justin Timberlake lives there.

Go Preds: Ahhhhh, but that’s not a real reason. That’s jealousy. You’re jealous that Nashville got the NFL team. You’re jealous that Nashville has more people, more wealth and more construction cranes. Admit it, that’s a part of it, isn’t it?

No Preds: Yes. It is. But it’s not all of it.

Go Preds: What, then?

No Preds: It’s the superior attitude. It’s the smugness of the place. Nashville is a lovely city but since when did it become Paris, France?

Go Preds: I’ll grant you that one. Nashville certainly earned its place on Travel & Leisure’s recent list of snobbiest cities.

No Preds: It’s not just general snobbiness, either. It’s a specific sort of snobbiness relative to Memphis. Take this recent Email I received from a man named Jim: “I travel to Nashville for business quite often and have experienced, first hand, the attitudes of Nashville residents. I went into a Regions bank to cash a check and the young lady saw that I was from Memphis and asked, with raised eyebrows, `Do you really like living in Memphis?’ After regaining my composure, I told her it was my hometown and I loved Memphis. She, of course, had never been to Memphis.”

Go Preds: But that’s not everybody in Nashville.

No Preds: No, but it’s more common than it should be. A lot of Nashvillians think Memphis is a hellhole. They talk about it the way President Trump talked about America during the campaign. Some of it is ignorance. Some of it is fear. And don’t get me started on the way folks in Middle and East Tennessee interfere in Memphis politics, in the way they try and control how we regulate guns or what statues we have in our parks.

Go Preds: Geez, this really touched a nerve, didn’t it? Anything else you want to get off your chest?

No Preds: Now that you mention it, yes. That story I mentioned earlier, the one headlined “Nashville vs. Memphis? We Win?” It said that Nashville is cooler than Memphis. Cooler! Can you imagine that? In the words of the great philosopher Lavar Ball, “Stay in your lane.” Nashville may have more money and more people and more traffic and more chain restaurants and more townhouses, but the one thing it does not have is more cool.

Go Preds: I agree with that. But that actually supports my larger point. Both cities have their strengths. Nashville has prosperity. Memphis has authenticity. None of that should keep you from pulling for a wildly entertaining hockey team.

No Preds: How entertaining?

Go Preds: The Predators are a lot like the Grizzlies, on skates. P.K. Subban is Zach Randolph, a guy who wore out his welcome with a larger market team but has found a home in the South. Mike Fisher is Mike Conley, a player who took a shot to the head in the previous round of the playoffs but is going to try and play anyway.

No Preds: Who is Tony Allen?

Go Preds: Nobody, silly. There’s only one Tony Allen.

No Preds: Good point.

Go Preds: Just like the Grizzlies, the Predators struggled when they first arrived in the city. Just like the the Grizzlies, people used to wonder if the team would move. And now, just like the Grizzlies, the Predators are on a glorious playoff run except — because this is the NHL instead of the NBA — the underdog might actually be able to win it all.

No Preds: Win it all? As a 16 seed? That is sort of great.

Go Preds. Exactly! So are we agreed on this? We’re pulling for the Predators?

No Preds: Fine. I’ll say it. Go Preds. Beat the Pens.

Go Preds: And if they win, we’ll celebrate with some Nashville hot chicken!

No Preds: Now you’re pushing it a little too far.



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