One person we definitely wanted to meet in Nashville was Mark, a blogger and big-time Predators fan who invited me and James to join him at his seats for the game against Phoenix on the first night. He has come to know many of the franchise personalities, and he kindly brought us up to meet the hometown broadcast team, including Terry Crisp, a charming guy with some serious hockey pedigree who now does colour commentary on the Predators TV and radio broadcasts.




The view from the press "box" (really just an open section in the stands - the box that was meant for press was taken over for management use) of Sommet Center, which I was rather surprised to find was pronounced locally as "Soh-may" rather than "summit" ... at least it's not called the Gaylord (snicker) Center any more.




Mark led us down to his seats as the teams were doing their pregame warmups. I was standing up to take this photo - when seated the netting wasn't an issue at all.




The usual fanfare ensued as the teams retook the ice for the start of the game. This is a good time to point out how envious I was of the scoreboard at the arena - every inch of it covered with full colour video -- it kind of puts the scoreboards at my more frequent hockey venues, the HSBC Arena and Scotiabank Place, to shame. They actually call it the Megatron. There's a fun video about it for the nerds right here.




Here's a wide shot of the arena right before the game started.

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