Joe Rexrode

USA TODAY NETWORK -- Tennessee

CHICAGO — For lack of a better word that would be appropriate in this forum, let’s go with “doofuses” to describe these Chicago Blackhawks fans.

Not all of them. Just the ones who think the NHL was founded in the 21st century. I know them well because I have family, friends and many life memories in the great city of Chicago.

I’ve mixed with them in their favorite spots in the neighborhoods north of downtown, where we drank cans of a popular 1970s beer called Pabst Blue Ribbon because — like the Blackhawks — it became chic again in the 21st century. In Doofus-ese, we called it PBR.

These people will be all over downtown Nashville on Monday for Game 3 of the NHL playoff series between the Blackhawks and Nashville Predators. But only a few will actually get into Bridgestone Arena. And this is appropriate because Predators fans are better hockey fans than Blackhawks fans.

But it’s much more than that. I got a chance to visit my favorite Chicagoans last week and posed a very subtle question to them: Is there any doubt that the Chicago Blackhawks fan base is largely made up of the biggest bunch of front-running, bandwagon-jumping posers in sports?

Here are some of the responses. And keep in mind that some of these people are, in fact, Blackhawks fans:

“All day.”

“There’s not a close second.”

“The (minor league) Chicago Wolves were more popular 10 years ago.”

“Every dude from Schaumburg suddenly has a Blackhawks frame around his license plate.”

“Bro, you are like, totally right.”

OK, I made up the last one for effect. But I think we can all agree that my polling is scientific and indisputable. Not that I needed it, because as a native Michigander I saw this happen.

Blackhawks fans have been mad for a couple years now about measures taken by the Predators to keep them from gobbling up too many tickets at Bridgestone. First it was requiring the purchase of other games for people looking to buy single-game tickets to the Predators vs. the Blackhawks (and a few other teams with much larger followings).

Now it’s rejecting the purchase of tickets (to any playoff game and to those marquee games in the regular season) from areas outside the Predators’ TV viewing area — the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi — and not allowing the purchaser to transfer those tickets to someone else.

This wipes out the secondary ticket market, where enough folks from a large fan base would be willing to pay high prices to attend. It won’t completely keep out Chicago fans because plenty live in the area, but it means people from this area will be able to attend at face value.

And the Predators wouldn’t do this if they weren’t going to sell out, as they just did for every regular-season game — even though the team has never advanced past the second round of the playoffs.

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“We want to make sure the casual fans, the people that maybe only come out once a year or maybe every other year, have every crack to buy those playoff tickets,” Predators President and CEO Sean Henry said. “Because by doing that, we’re going to be the Blackhawks in a few years. You look at where they were 10 years ago and where they are today, we want to do the same thing.”

None of these measures is unique or original. They’ve been done before by other pro and college teams. But they’ve been greeted with much disdain in Chicago, the Predators mocked for trying to “keep the red out.”

It’s funny, I seem to remember some Detroit Red Wings fans doing the same thing a few years before the Blackhawks won their first of three recent Stanley Cups in 2010. Back when the Blackhawks were in a stretch of one playoff appearance in 10 years, with no games on local TV and large swaths of empty seats at United Center.

I recall complaints that a ticket to a Red Wings game at United Center could only be purchased with tickets to another game on the Chicago schedule. So I guess that’s … keeping the Red Wings red out?

Let me be clear here. Chicago sports fans have actually been very loyal to their teams despite long stretches between payoffs. And all the folks who sat through Blackhawks games back then — they’re called the Squawks — deserve this success and complete respect for their devotion.

But the rest of you? Please stop pretending you’ve been there all along.

Please know your team’s history when you scream about it — Chicago has six Stanley Cups all-time, not three. Please wipe the mustard off that brand-new Patrick Kane jersey.

And as you find a TV on Broadway to watch a game in what ESPN ranks the No. 1 stadium experience in the NHL, please tip your servers and bartenders. They can probably find you a PBR.

Contact Joe Rexrode atjrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.

PREDATORS vs. BLACKHAWKS

Predators lead series 2-0

Game 1: Nashville 1, Chicago 0

Game 2: Nashville 5, Chicago 0

Monday: at Nashville, 8:30 p.m.

Thursday: at Nashville, 7 p.m.

x - Saturday: at Chicago, TBA

x - Monday, April 24: at Nashville, TBA

x - Wednesday, April 26: at Chicago, TBA

x - If necessary

Games on Fox TN/102.5-FM unless noted