The secret to the Nashville Predators‘ torrid start may not lie in those yellow gold helmets, but they help.
General manager David Poile was a guest on Hockey Central at Noon Friday to discuss his club’s remarkable 7-1-1 roll to begin the season — fewest regulation losses in the league, folks — and began by shedding light on the bright new buckets his players wear for Saturday home games.
“The gold has given us our own brand, our own identity,” Poile explained. “I don’t know how it [looks] to the outside world, but the fans love it, so it’s good for us.”
By embracing gold, Predators ownership is piggybacking on a tradition started by University of Tennessee sports fans, who wear another bold, atypical hue — orange — every Saturday in support of their Volunteers.
“It’s not a normal colour you’d wear every day, but when you come to the games, you put on your gold,” Poile said. “It’s working for us. That’s the most important thing. And our building looks fantastic when we have a sellout crowd in their gold.”
Sellouts should be commonplace if the club keeps winning at this rate. Triggerman James Neal has six goals through nine games, sophomore Filip Forsberg shows no signs of a jinx, and the defence core has been stellar, allowing a league-low 17 goals against.
Poile cites none of these reasons, however, for his team’s early success, which is due largely to “continuity.” Other Western powers such as Chicago and Anaheim endured plenty of roster turnover in the off-season. Save for some tinkering at the bottom end of the lineup (enter Cody Hodgson), the same Predators that led the Presidents’ Trophy race at the three-quarter mark last season returned intact.
“We wanted to give this group another chance at it,” said Poile.
The GM sees goaltender Pekka Rinne starting upwards of 65 games this year — everything but back-to-backs — and believes the Preds must fight to just reach the playoffs, especially considering the strength of the Central Division.
“I’d like to get in the East for sure,” he joked. “We haven’t played within our division at all [yet], and that’s what’s going to decide it.”
Six of the seven clubs in the Central have winning records already, and Poile recognizes that the Predators’ schedule will toughen once they start drawing Chicago, St. Louis, Minnesota, Winnipeg and Dallas.
“You have to be successful in your division,” he reinforced. “There are no ifs, ands, or buts.”
Call it the Central’s golden rule.
