All I knew about Nashville was “Nashville.”

I’ll admit I watched the early seasons of the nighttime soap opera. (Who doesn’t love Connie Britton?) Besides that, Nashville was a foreign place where people actually were happy about the Filip Forsberg trade.

I had never been to Nashville, let alone Tennessee, when I moved here from Washington, D.C., more than three years ago to report on the Predators for The Tennessean.

Aside from the many Capitals connections, I knew little about the Predators when I arrived in March 2015. I quickly learned my first lesson, which remains the most important: Predators fans are a special kind of nuts.

That’s a compliment, by the way. The wider hockey-watching public has discovered the same thing as the Predators have vaulted to Stanley Cup contender status over the past few years.

I’ve been fortunate to cover the Predators during the most successful period in their history, and The Athletic has provided me with the opportunity to keep doing that from a different perspective. I will put a greater emphasis on analytical stories, in-depth profiles and offbeat features that go beyond the daily grind of injury reports and line combinations.

For those familiar with the tremendous work produced on this website (or “Why I’m joining The Athletic” memes on Twitter), this isn’t anything you haven’t read before.

But the Predators’ fervent fan base deserves such coverage, and it’s my job to give it to you.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, join now with this 30% off link: theathletic.com/nashvillelaunch

(Photo by John Russell/NHLI via Getty Images)