Jamie Samuelsen

Special to the Detroit Free Press

Jamie Samuelsen, co-host of the "Jamie and Stoney Show" weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on WXYT-FM (97.1), blogs for freep.com. He also appears regularly on Fox 2. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. You can reach him at jamsam22@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter @jamiesamuelsen.

Is it good for hockey that a smaller market team such as Nashville is in the Stanley Cup?

There’s no good or bad for hockey at this point. There just is ... what is.

That’s not meant to be profound, because clearly it’s not. That’s meant to be realistic. I think one of the more tired cliches during the hockey playoffs centers around what Gary Bettman would want out of the Stanley Cup finals.

Invariably, it boils down to a New York team against an L.A. team. We had this in 2014 when the Los Angeles Kings beat the New York Rangers. And we technically had this in 2003 when the New Jersey Devils defeated the Anaheim Ducks in seven games. Both were good series featuring very good teams. Both had the proper element of star power (at least in NHL terms). And both finished with the best team hoisting the Cup at the end.

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How did that work out for the NHL?

There was no sudden spike in the TV ratings. There was no rushed expansion of the season ticket base. Hockey fans watched. Non-hockey fans didn’t. And the world continued to spin.

For far too long, there has been this movement afoot to appeal to the non-hockey fan and it’s way past time to declare that this is simply not going to happen. The past greats (Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy) have given way to the current greats (Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Connor McDavid) and not much has changed. Hockey remains a vital sport to the die-hards and a casual passing interest to the common sports fan.

Look at Detroit - self-titled Hockeytown - where the Red Wings haven’t played since the middle of April. Are you still watching the playoffs? (Perhaps you are if you’re reading this). But based on national ratings released each spring, you’re not. At least not for the most part.

For a variety of reasons, hockey has never captured the common fan, unless of course, your local team makes a deep run. That’s exactly what’s happening in Nashville right now. The atmosphere at Bridgestone Arena is equal to or better than the rowdiest college basketball gym that you can imagine. The team is outfitted from head to waist in gold (I really like the gold helmets). Every single fan in attendance is dressed in gold right along with them. All the big country stars and members of the Tennessee Titans have joined the season ticket holders at every game. Bottom line, in a town known for music and tourism - hockey has taken over.

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When the NHL expanded to Nashville back in 1998, this was supposed to be a negative. Stay in your lanes hockey. Forget about expanding to the south. Focus on growing the game in your strongest markets. As a result of the expansion, you’ve had cities like Dallas, Tampa Bay, Miami and Raleigh playing for the Stanley Cup over the past few decades.

This year, you have the Nashville Predators. Is that good for hockey? Well, it’s sure good for hockey in Tennessee. Average fans may not watch the Finals, but were that many more going to watch the Chicago Blackhawks or the St. Louis Blues if they had advanced instead of the Preds? I doubt it.

Of course Chicago is a bigger market with more fans, so that number would be larger. But in terms of hockey fans per capita as a team goes for a Stanley Cup, you can’t tell me that Nashville is any worse than any other city in the Western Conference.

If someone thinks hockey is boring, you’re not going to convince them they’re wrong, even though they are. Just the same, if someone is a die hard hockey fan, they’re watching the playoffs whether the Red Wings are playing the Toronto Maple Leafs or whether the Winnipeg Jets are playing the Florida Panthers. We get caught up in market size and sex appeal when it comes to the final matchup. But really, it only matters to the cities that make it in and the thousands of hockey fans who simply want to watch two teams battle for the Cup.

So don’t get caught up whether or not the city is good for the game. Think about the players and the fans. P.K. Subban is simply one of the best defensemen in the game, and finally gets the chance to play for the Cup. Pekka Rinne is familiar to Red Wings fans because of their numerous match-ups with the Preds in the regular season and the playoffs, but he’s not a household name. He’s playing as well as anyone in the playoffs and is the single biggest reason that Nashville is where they are. Peter Laviolette is coaching his third different team into the Finals and is trying to become just the fourth coach to win Cups with two different teams.

Those are the stories to watch for. Those are the stories that are there every single year when the Cup finals roll around. Will people watch? The NHL hopes so.

But the NHL also knows cities don’t make the Finals, the coaches and the players do.

And if you choose to watch, you’ll probably be getting a pretty good show.

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