Hockey is the unsung sport of the American South

I became a hockey fan in 2011 when my family went to Nashville and watched the Predators obliterate the Detroit Red Wings. Since then, hockey has become my favorite sport. There’s something about watching grown men slide around ice on knives and duking it out over a tiny puck that holds my attention in ways basketball and baseball never will.

It’s frustrating to be a hockey fan in the South because everyone seems to think Southerners don’t care about hockey. I usually get stuck listening to games online, because sports channels would rather broadcast anything other than a hockey game. I get it, I live in the South. I shouldn’t care about some sport from Canada when I could be watching analysts pick apart every moment of the Alabama vs. Florida game.

The thing is, the South has five hockey teams. Four went to the playoffs this year – none of Canada’s teams did. The Southern NHL teams have established themselves as a credible threat to Northern teams. They’ve also built some of the most loyal fanbases in the league.

I live three hours from Nashville, TN. That’s not the case for Em, who grew up in the Music City. She’s been going to Preds games since 2006. Since she has season tickets, Em goes to most home games. Her friend Ava has only been a hockey fan for a year – she got her first taste when Em took her to a game. Since then, hockey has become Ava’s favorite sport. While she’s not a season ticket holder, she has bought tickets to nearly every home game this season.

Since they go to games so often, they’ve had the opportunity to form a friendship with goalie Pekka Rinne. They first got Pekka’s attention when they made signs written in Finnish, Pekka’s first language. He made a point to meet them and thank them for the signs. Pekka even recognizes them outside the arena.

“We were walking to our car in the airport and Pekka saw us and literally yelled across the parking lot to ask us how were were doing,” Ava said.

This is one of her favorite hockey memories. Em’s favorite story also includes Pekka. She’d brought a sign reading “Nashville runs on Pekka.” He saw the sign and gave her the warmup puck, the highest honor a player can bestow on a fan.

“We won that game 7-0 and Pekka got a shut out! It was such a fun night.”

While wins are fun, some hockey stories can come from a loss. Lindsay’s favorite hockey story comes from a playoffs loss.

“The entire arena was filled with gold and the crowd was electric. Losing was terrible, but when we were up 3-0, it was so much fun.”

While the Preds lost that series to the Chicago Blackhawks, her story is similar to my experiences at losing games. The fans at Bridgestone Arena are simply the best. We go from absolute silence to eardrum-rupturing shrieks in a matter of seconds. We chant the loudest, boo the hardest and party like rockstars when the buzzer goes off.

Lindsay usually goes to six games a season. Otherwise, she can be found at watch parties. Since she’s a student in Tennessee, she gets more Preds games broadcast on TV than I do. However, hockey watch parties aren’t unfamiliar to me.

During the regular season, it wasn’t uncommon for me to stumble upon watch parties for Lightning or Panthers games. When both teams made it to the playoffs, campus was buzzing with parties. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen in my residence hall. If the Bolts were playing, I could hear the entire hall chanting and hollering. Hockey jerseys were seen all over for an array of teams – Tampa Bay, Florida, Pittsburgh and many more.

I can always find hockey fans. We tend to band together, talking about Shea Weber’s slapshot or Phil Kessel’s World Cup snub. It’s time for the rest of the world to realize Southern hockey fans are here and our teams are no more a joke than the Blackhawks getting eliminated in the first round.