Random Images

A foot to the left and this could be any Saturday night in Wisconsin.

 

That guy has a washed up Dane Cook at the age of 55 vibe to him.

 

Doh! A deer! A female deer!

 

This run reminds me of the Canes' run in 2002. I went to Game 4 of the Cup in NC (we had hoped for a sweep before the series started) and my buddies and I had a blast seeing how little people in the arena knew about hockey. I mean it's cool that it brought on a bunch of bandwagoners and introduced the sport to 1,000s, but as a lifelong hockey fan, it was hilarious to see the newspaper running an infograph of what offsides and icing was.
My guess is the same sort of situation is going on now in Nashville.
As a true fan, the gimmick stuff is eye-rolling bad for me, but if it gets people excited...whatevs.

 

The Canes were in just their third season in Raleigh that year (and won it in their seventh). Hardly the same situation as the Preds, who have been around for almost two decades and never made it past the second round until this season. Many of the people watching at home may be new (or more accurately upgrading from casual observers to regular watchers) but the fan base to regularly fill the arena was already in place before this run. They sold out every game this season, had 13k season ticket holders and have already announced they're at 15k (and close to capping it off) for next year.