Wiedmer: Can Preds Fever force a Game 7 against Penguins?

This winner of this past Thursday night's Stanley Cup game between the Nashville Predators and the Pittsburgh Penguins long ago decided, the final meaningless minutes of the Pens' 6-0 victory ticking away, the cameras switched from inside Pittsburgh's PPG Paints Arena to outside, where those unable to purchase tickets were standing and cheering.

One of the few, stubbornly optimistic Preds fans still seated in our town's Terminal Brewhouse at that late hour, Nashville native and Chattanooga resident Andrea Tetreault pointed to those Steel City hockey fans and said with both delight and defiance: "Look at that. Their block party isn't near as big as ours has been on Broadway (in Nashville). That gives me such pride."

That pride may well goeth before the fall tonight inside the Preds' Bridgestone Arena. The Penguins' four previous NHL championships have all come on the road. Given the ease with which Pittsburgh won Thursday, its fifth Cup could as well.

But that doesn't mean the Preds Fever that's swept over the Volunteer State these past six or seven weeks will forever fade away once this Stanley Cup chase ends.

After all, there were more than 50,000 people gathered outside Bridgestone for Game 3 of the final series. Though the Music City tried to curtail that crowd a bit for last Monday's game, there were still three giant television screens set up at various points on Broadway near the arena, and plenty of beer and souvenir kiosks on hand to satisfy the faithful. Reportedly at least 30,000 people were hovering outside sold-out Bridgestone.

Clearly, Smashville has become a smash hit far beyond all expectations.

So Tetrealt - who often works weekends at the Public House and the Social but is expected to have today off - is torn between returning to reprise her role this past Monday as outdoor cheerleader or remain here in the Scenic City to cheer with the rest of "Predanooga."

"Seeing all those people on Broadway cheering our team is such a beautiful sight," she said Thursday. "But it's great hanging out with my friends, too. Either way will be a lot of fun."

The promise of fun was what drove Terminal employee Lorna McKaig to ride to Nashville with Tetreault and her boyfriend Justin Egbert for last Monday's game.

"I'm not really all that big into sports," McKaig said. "But I like how it brings people together."

Indeed, for a region that - to repeat a quote I heard at last month's Better Business Bureau awards luncheon - "doesn't know a clothes line from a blue line," we've come to embrace this hockey stuff pretty strongly.

Not that this is new for Nashville, which has been cheering for the Preds for two decades and rather famously celebrated the minor league Dixie Flyers for decades prior to that.

"When I first moved here a few years ago and went up for my first Predators game, I thought there would be a bunch of hicks who didn't know anything about hockey," said Egbert, who attended his first Washington Capitals game in 1974 when he was 7 months old. "But their fans are pretty much just like any other hockey fans. They know the game and they love their team."

But even those fans such as Egbert whose primary interests fall elsewhere (the Caps), the Preds are a far more than satisfactory flavor of the month, especially against the Penguins and their brash star Sidney Crosby.

"I can't stand Sidney Crosby," said Andrew Russell, a Florida resident and Florida Panthers fan who was in town for a wedding this weekend and watched Thursday's game at the Terminal. "And I hate the Penguins because they're in the Panthers' division."

Said Tetreault: "Crosby's dirty and annoying."

Added Egbert: "Yeah, some of rooting for the Predators is that I want the Penguins to lose."

And those comments were before they watched Crosby repeatedly slam Predators defenseman P.K. Subban's head into the ice during a fight behind the Penguins' net during Game 5.

So can the Preds win tonight? They have yet to lose inside Bridgestone against the Penguins in this Stanley Cup Final. Should that continue tonight, a seventh and Cup-deciding game would be played at Pittsburgh on Wednesday at 8 p.m.

No less than Florida native Russell believes that not only will that happen but that Nashville will win Game 7 by "3-2 in overtime."

To help that along, Tetreault intends to continue dying her hair blue, just as she'd done throughout the playoffs. She also hopes the Predators banners she's seen hanging from both the Tennessee Aquarium and Aretha Frankenstein's restaurant will have reason to fly at least through Wednesday, if not beyond in celebration.

But what she's equally proud of is something that whole Volunteer State should be proud of today, regardless of what happens inside Bridgestone tonight, or at the close of a possible Game 7 on Wednesday.

"I just think it's so great," she said, "to see so many people around here support a sport that's not a Southern sport."

At least not yet.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com

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